Confession of a Slacker

Hey guys,

I don’t really know what happened between the start of the semester and now but I am worn out.  I don’t think it is because I have been doing a lot, it might just be because of the stress.  I don’t deal with stress too well.  Either I use it as motivation to push through something, especially when I have procrastinated.  Or I completely ignore it and do something that will ease my nerves.  I often choose the latter which can be good or bad in certain situations.  One thing that I cannot stand is Pressure.

I guess you can put pressure and stress in the same category but Pressure is a little different for me.  It is one thing for me to be stressed out by some daunting task but it is worse for me to be pressured by a deadline that’s coming up, teachers, and peers who complete assignments with ease but seem to want to know your progress on them.

Some people call it friendly competition, or that little push to get the job done, I call it pressure and more times than not, I don’t deal too kindly with it.  I don’t know maybe it is just something about the college life.  Everybody feels the need to measure up, and everybody wants to know how they’re doing compared to somebody else.

The class seems like a silent war zone.  In every class there is an overachiever, a hard worker, a genius, a slacker, and a sleeper.   

 

The overachiever usually does everything for credit from the teacher.  They want their efforts to be acknowledged.  They sit front and center and have their hands raised for every question asked. They stay after class to talk to the teacher and offer to carry their books or erase the board.  They probably gave the teacher that apple that is on their desk.  When the pressure is on, the overachiever can usually coast on the credit they built up with class participation, and usually doesn’t crack.

The hard worker is the student that really doesn’t say much in class but has zero missing assignments.  They will speak up when called upon.  They won’t necessarily have a full grasp on everything being taught but they will make sure to go back and read up on it.  They have discipline and superb study habits. When the pressure is on the hard worker puts in the time. You probably won’t catch them on the yard during midterms or finals.

Now in my opinion the genius and the slacker are similar characters, because they both have unique thought processes.  There are students that know so much about the topic that they will either be completely engaged in the class or completely checked out.  They are also students that can get by with little to no effort and still come out okay in the end.  The genius can quickly become bored and focus his attentions elsewhere making him a slacker in the class.  The slacker can be called the lazy student because she likes to learn and can grasp the information quickly but usually doesn’t feel like doing the work.

The genius usually can do the work without paying attention and get by.  The slacker can get by paying attention and not doing the work.  The genius has good habits and a swift mind.  The slacker usually has bad habits and a swift mind.  Both may see the class as overrated and are easily bored. When the pressure is on the genius has no problems but the slacker usually does one of two things.  The slacker will either rise to the occasion and do what she has to do or will completely crack and get nothing done as a result of bad preparation.

Lastly, there is the sleeper.  Now the sleeper struggles to grasp the information due to different barriers so they check out.  Not necessarily by sleeping but they may be texting, clowning around, or just unengaged.  They are insecure in their abilities so they complain or find alternatives to coming to class.  Sometimes this is confused with the slacker but you can tell the difference because the slacker will understand but not perform well.  The sleeper will not understand or perform well, and eventually gives up. When the pressure is on for the sleeper the reaction is similar to the slacker’s.

In my opinion, each type of student is capable of succeeding in the class, but they all may have different means of doing so.  One determining factor of the students’ success is the teacher.  In grade school you can see this more clearly.  Some students require more attention (sleeper), some require a little motivation (slacker), and some need to be challenged (genius).  More times than not, a teacher will interact more with the overachiever, and the hard worker than the other three, leaving them to become disengaged or possible distractions.  Some teachers decide that they don’t want to put so much effort into it, and these are usually teachers that do not teach to see the success of their students, but have other personal motives.  Some teachers are so wrapped up in teaching alone that they become disengaged with their audience and are just consumed by their subject matter.  Other teachers choose the tough love route.  They make strict deadlines, they don’t take excuses, they give little to no help and assistance, and this usually comes off as an attitude of someone who does not care.

I’m sure you’re wondering where I am going with all of this…

 This is what I’m getting at.  I am a slacker and I know it.  Growing up I was considered gifted, and school came easy to me.  I was not a genius but it didn’t take much for me to grasp a concept and have it down.  So as I went through school I developed bad habits.  I could get A’s with little to no effort.  I wasn’t the teacher’s favorite, nor was I hard working.  Most teachers said “She’s no problem, and she’s so sweet.”  In class I was the quiet girl who sat in the back row. Teachers thought that I wasn’t paying attention but when I answered their questions correctly, it intrigued them.  When it came to concepts and understanding I was good.  Now work was another story.  Homework was not my friend.  Unless it was a project or an assignment that allowed me to use my creativity, I wasn’t interested.  Things that intrigued me, I spent hours on end doing but things that I found boring or unnecessary,  I would push aside.  I never faced the consequences of doing this until I reached college.  And as a college student, these became the things that I struggle with.

I can’t get myself to do an assignment unless I understand the concepts behind it.  Things that I don’t really care about I don’t do, and the things that I do care about take me so long to do that I miss deadlines.  I can never do things the same way twice.  I cannot follow a schedule, my time management in a constant struggle and I have no discipline whatsoever in studying.  I am constantly battling the system.  I enjoy learning but I am that slacker, faced with the tough love of my professors, who feel as if I don’t care.  I am trapped.  I’m trying to fight my way out of the slacker lifestyle.

The slacker is always fighting against herself and against her bad habits knowing that she is more than capable of succeeding. She just doesn’t know how to get out of her own way.

This is me.

 

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