Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Opinions

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"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging of an uncompleted task."
-William James

The role procrastination plays in the average post-secondary student's life is not only ridiculous, but nauseating.

For the past few weeks I have witnessed (as well as participated in) many "I hate my life" pity sessions that ultimately lead to hell, or something equally as atrocious.

For those who may not know what an "I hate my life" pity session entails, I shall educate and inform you. First, you must procrastinate several hours a day over a span of at least a week.

Second, you must slowly and surely begin to lose control over your educational prowess (aka the school conscience).

Thirdly, you must feel useless, worthless and incapable of anything productive.

And lastly, after losing all self-respect and hope you must utter the words "I hate my life" and WHAM! you are officially ready to go to the nearest friend and confess your newly discovered belief (a.k.a "a pity session").

However, the ramifications for such acts are not pleasant, and may include: hating oneself even more, wanting to (or actually going through with) dropping out of university or college, nausea, heartburn, and an overall belief that life is merely a repugnant state of affairs.

The strange thing is, with all of these nasty consequences, procrastination is still as popular among students as the Spice Girls. That is why I am here to tell everyone, including myself - actually, especially myself - that leading a life of procrastination is not okay.

The student life is hard, there is no doubt of that, but that can also be one of its most exciting aspects.

We are supposed to be challenged; whether that difficultly lies in the actual material being studied, or in the application and expression of our knowledge - i.e., studying for tests, writing essays etc.

All too often, students are discouraged from learning because they are lazy. Indeed, there exists the destructive mentality among many students that because one does not feel like doing a particular assignment or study for a test, the interest in the subject ceases to exist.

For example, for the past week I've struggled with starting a paper on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", and as the week progressed and I hadn't made any progress, I began to question my enjoyment of the actual play.

This is ridiculous, and merely a sad attempt to justify my laziness. Such a mentality is worthless and shameful.

If learning is not a priority in a student's life, that person needs to soul-search until that passion for knowledge is found, along with the self-control to complete assignments and readings or find somewhere else to be happy.

We are here to find ourselves, to experience change, happiness and disappointment, which can all be initiated through learning.

I implore you, as the Spice Girls will inevitably sing come January, to "spice up your life" and stop procrastinating.

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