Those Moments Slide Back My Way

I got some very good news yesterday. Very good news, indeed. In fact, yesterday was really a great day.

Somehow Ambassador Perkins managed to grade all of our finals and our final papers and had the grades ready for us yesterday. I can’t imagine how, considering the sheer volume of words that he had to deal with, but he did. Our TA, Ketty, e-mailed us to say the grades were ready yesterday. With great trepidation, I went to see how I did (remember, 25% of our grade was based on that paper I barely managed to squeeze out on Monday, so I was a bit scared). It turns out the trepidation was wholly unnecessary. “Excellent” was written at the top of my paper. “Excellent.” Do you have any idea how bad this is? The lesson I learned from all this is that, yes, procrastination and a devotion to the pressure of being a clutch player is an effective strategy for grad school. Yep, it turns out that planning, forethought, and all that stuff they try to teach you... is for suckers! So, yeah, I made an A on the paper, a B+ on the final, and an A overall. Now, I’m not saying that my way of doing things is not without its consequences. I was incredibly worried all weekend about that paper, and I was a caffeine-addled wreck on Sunday and Monday. And my apartment is really dirty again, because I haven’t had the time or emotional wherewithal in the last week or so to actually clean it.

Anyway, yesterday also brought that philosophy presentation, which went so well that I can’t believe I was actually worried about it. The professor and the rest of the students were very excited by my ideas and had helpful suggestions and questions for me. It was awesome. And Dr. Ellis told us that we had until Sunday evening, perhaps even Monday morning, to turn our papers in and still receive a grade, rather than an incomplete. In case you were wondering, an incomplete just sits on your transcript, in a completely nonjudgmental way, until you finish the class work or it becomes obvious to the teacher that you will never finish. So, even if I don’t get the paper in by Monday morning (like, if I wait until Tuesday or Wednesday), it won’t be counted late, which is great, because it will take a while to incorporate the ideas from last night.

Finally, yesterday ended with cereal and conversation with a really really great girl. She said it felt like college again, eating cereal at 11:00 at night with the guy she liked. I damn near melted into my bowl of silk and crispy rice. Honestly, it was the best part of my day.

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