I made the decision long ago to take AP Language and Composition as an effort to mend my Achilles’ heel, the laziness that always seems to stand in the way between me and my assignments. After months of intense medication, I still sit here working into the late hours, playing life-or-death with turnitin.com.

I feel that I was born as a lethargic sloth. I even came out of the womb still sleeping, joking of course. I grew up as a perfectly normal child within the Vietnamese parameters with the same interests as other children and performed academically well. However, it seemed that I never attained the habit of finishing tasks well before they are due. I don’t recall many instances in my childhood where I actually finished something with ample time left over to do whatever I please. Instead, the various times where I fought the clock overshadow the times of me practicing safe work. It seems like I always work until the bare minimum and turn it in as late as technically acceptable.

Life went on and this practice was still religiously followed. A couple of late projects here and there didn’t hurt my grade too much back in elementary school. When my parents asked me to take out the trash, the response “I’ll do it in 20 minutes” never hurt. Sure it meant a few scattered lectures, but why did it matter? The trash was still taken out. Even if it missed the garbage truck, it’ll eventually make it to the same landfill (a few days ripe, but it’ll still be trash). The same situation applied to those snowy, dreary days in Ohio, where the snow was a relentless sprinkle of coconut shavings that no one liked, and the school bus came to pick me up every morning to take me to the most wicked, evil concoction of an establishment in history, also known as Catholic school. Leaving my house to go to the bus meant making an endeavor to traverse through 30 feet of icy, cold hell to meet the end of my driveway and the beginning of my bus ride to an even worse hell. Being the clever kid I thought I was, I chose to stay inside and let my parents take me to school on those mornings that would even make Frosty the snowman freeze. Either way I was still going to school and I might as well take the most comfortable route there.

As I delved deeper into my academic career, I stayed up even later to finish assignments. However, this took a toll on one of my favorite times of the day, sleeping. I would see my classmates boasting how they had already finished their work while I followed the way of procrastination. Although my grades were about the same, if not better than those who finished their work early, I would arrive to school completely drained of energy, with my eyelids becoming heavier after every blink. I would see my counterparts glowing during class and ridicule me for making the poor decision to wait until the last minute. “Hey sleepyhead, the desk isn’t a pillow” they would say. A tiny wick became aflame inside of me, thoughts of changing my outlook of work coursed through me; it was almost like my own Great Awakening. However, one statement had put the cork on any hopes of early progress. “I’ll start tomorrow; it isn’t due for a while anyway”. My lazy gene reemerged and doused the small flame of inspiration. I was convinced that there was no point in putting yourself in misery over the course of several days when the misery can be conquered in one night. It always seems that my best works are produced early in the morning anyway. Then again they all are made early in the morning. Laziness wasn’t going to leave me that easily.
It’s a wonder how the repercussions aren’t harsh enough for me to make a change in my lazy life. Sleep is disposable; life needs to find another way to make me take on “good” study habits. Some say the early bird catches the worm; I’m one of those that say good things come to those who wait. Who knows, maybe Frost was onto something. Almost every night I encounter a fork in a road. Sure I always have the option to take the road I always took and meet my familiar friend 2 A.M. and Five Hour Energy along the way, and I’ll probably arrive at the same destination as the other road, but maybe I can take the road less traveled by and discover new things. Perhaps I can make new acquaintances like 8 Hours of Sleep or Going to Bed.