I wonder what you thought this post would be about when you saw the title? What am I giving up on? Writing? Of course not. Reading? Definitely not! Studying? No...though it is related to that.
My next Classical World assignment is due this Friday, however because I wasn't able to keep up with the study schedule over Christmas, I've only just finished studying the relevant chapters. This essay is longer and more complex than any previous ones, so it's going to take some serious planning and research - it's not one I can just pick out some relevant quotes from the material and blag my way through it (which I'll admit, I have done before). So I had to ask for a week's extension in order to be able to give it the time I need to do the question justice.
You might not agree that asking for an extension equates to anything remotely as dramatic-sounding as 'admitting defeat', but I can honestly say that I have never failed to meet a deadline when it comes to studying. Right through school and university (the physical one I went to after finishing school, not a distance learning one like this), I always prided myself on my time management and how I never had to give excuses for failing to hand something in on time, like other students often did. I would have been so ashamed to admit that I wasn't up to speed with where I should be. I still take pride on delivering things on time, so to have to admit that I can't do that on this occasion is really difficult for me, even though my tutor was very understanding about it.
Of course, the essential difference is that I'm now studying alongside a full-time job. I think that I often forget that it won't be as easy as when I was a teenager/20-something and all I had to do was turn up to a few lectures a week, with the rest of my time free to do all the background reading, research and essay writing at my leisure. So perhaps it's not so much a case of admitting defeat, as accepting reality. And learning not to beat myself up about it so much. I've started on the research for this essay today, and by this time next week I hope that it will be almost finished, with just the final touches to complete. Wish me luck!
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Good luck with your essay and don't worry too much about the extension as most people have needed one at some point or other :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ruth :o)
ReplyDeleteA familiar struggle, this pull of goals, time managements and age (gravitational too!). I hear you, I feel your pain, I wish you luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shopgirl - I've almost finished the planning stage so hope to make good progress towards a finished first draft today. :o)
ReplyDelete