Abroad in Baltimore #26
Last One Standing
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You know the end of the semester is near when people start using battle metaphors. I, for one, enjoy a nice race to the finish line as, like I said last week, I’m a sprinter not a distance runner. The last six weeks of the school year measures not only our stamina, but also our patience. As summer creeps up on our calendars, it’s standard practice to count the days until freedom, but be warned: finals are coming. Getting ahead now will save yourself a lot of grief later.
This past weekend was spent in relative peace. A luxurious two days of sleeping in, rummaging through the pantry, and reorganizing my bookshelf. I babysat my little sister, the duty of any college kid who lives within a 20 mile radius of home. We got take out and watched Pixar’s new film, Turning Red, which was entirely delightful and an amazing watch for your inner 13 year old nostalgia. By the time I started to wonder about homework, it was already Saturday night.
It’s amazing how fast the weekend goes. I’ll have just gotten out of class on Thursday and then somehow wake up on Sunday. The weekend slips through your fingers almost unconsciously, and it takes a strong and steady hand to get a grasp on it before it’s gone. I’m a firm believer in giving yourself at least a day each week of nothing school related guilt free, but it’s hard to stop that day from becoming the entire weekend.
The dread usually sets in Saturday night, where I realize that if I don’t make some substantial progress, I’m going to pay for it come Monday. This time around, I let myself off the hook for illustration (until Monday that is), and chose instead to focus on resuscitating my web page design for Digital Editorial. Since this is my third year with graphic design, I’m at the point where I can pretty clearly picture what I want and know the steps to get to it. It’s akin to fitting a puzzle together and just takes time more than anything else.
It can be a lengthy process as I go through an array of solutions, but if I put the work in, I know I can get a good outcome. With illustration, the road to completion is much longer and much more fraught. It takes a lot more brain power, and often I have to work twice as hard to get half the outcome I want. At times this is a frustrating process, but entirely rewarding as I can watch my work inch closer and closer to the image I have in my head.
This week my goal is to begin the annual task of getting my life together well before finals season. Much like preparing for siege, my pre-war tasks include doing extra loads of laundry, stocking up on canned goods, and creating a crunch time playlist for those 2am homework sessions. Everyone’s preparations look different, I subscribe to the philosophy that finals is a state of mind. If you let it get out of hand, you’ll have a hard time getting it back.