I was going to post this sooner, but I have simply been too busy. You see, procrastination is my prevailing vice.
Procrastination has always been a big part of my life. As a little girl I would be tossing on my coat and grabbing a handful of Frosted Flakes thirty seconds before the bus was scheduled to arrive. In high school, I was memorizing lines for the play an hour before dress rehearsal. When I was in college, I was the student who wrote her paper at two in the morning. As a first year teacher, I was reading an excerpt of To Kill A Mockingbird the prep hour before I would teach it. When pursuing my Masters Degree in Education, I finished my final portfolio the morning I met with my supervising professor. Currently, I write letters of recommendations hours before students need them, I don’t clean off the kitchen table until I know there will be guests for dinner, I finish reading my book group novel the night before (sometimes minutes before) we are scheduled to get together, and I leave the house seconds before I need to in order to reach my destination on time.
I am well intentioned. I try extremely hard to not procrastinate. Nonetheless, I eventually procrastinate on my intentions…and then, well, I end up procrastinating. A prime example is my fiancés and my wedding, which is scheduled for June. Things started out great: the dress was picked out over a year before the wedding, invitations were ordered months before they needed to be mailed, and I just finished baking (and freezing) the cookies we will be giving out as favors. Still, I fear that the little tasks will catch me in the end. Will I have time to put together the gift bags for those who stay overnight at the hotel in Wisconsin? Will I have fit in a trip to get my toes and nails buffed and polished? Will I have found time to wrap a box for cards to be placed in? It’s inevitable: I will procrastinate on something at some point, I am sure.
People rarely realize that I am a procrastinator. Probably because I will push myself hard to complete a task, making sure it is done on time and to my intrinsic high level of expectations, even if I stress myself into a state of tears attempting to complete the task. I will sacrifice sleep, sanity, and emotional stability to carry out my responsibilities. If only I was not addicted to procrastination, but rather to blowing things off, then my life would be much more laid back.
