Day 23: Cake? I’d like some please.

2/7 I woke up early, not quite as refreshed as last week (or was that last week, I really can’t even remember anymore). Breakfast was the same, at least I can always count on that. I grabbed extra food for brainpower later, and hit the computer. I sat up in my chair—it helps to stay awake—with my computer and books splayed out on my bed (I have no desk). Then it began:

I started writing. Then I stopped. I thought. I thought some more. I wrote, but not very much. I thought. I stood and stretched. I groaned. I looked at the ceiling. I redecided that I STILL knew what I wanted to say. I still didn’t get the words out on paper. I admitted that I was screwed. I wrote some more. Time passed. It passed far too quickly for my desire. Noon came and I was on my second page. I wasn’t even halfway done, and I was starting to panic. Katie on the other hand was almost done with her third page (which never happens, seriously). I knew precisely what I wanted to say, what examples I wanted to use to support my points, and what direction I wanted to take my points. Yet I could not get words onto my paper, and when I did they flowed naturally for several sentences before coming to an unpleasant, firmly determined, halt. Words ceased to flow from my defined thoughts to my blank page. (So much for my excitement of yesterday).

I stopped for lunch at 12:30 with the serious fear of not finishing this paper. I was at the very bottom of my second page, which was vastly behind my first two weeks. Katie was still going strong when I went to make lunch, which made me feel even more distraught. I poked into Daniel’s room and was slightly encouraged to hear that he was struggling with the same issue. However, he was at least a page ahead of me regardless and wasn’t planning on breaking for lunch. I promised to bring him a sandwich, and then popped into David’s room to discover that he was on his 4th page. Sob! He grabbed his computer (because he had time to check email) and then we went to make lunch for our friends. As soon as I’d gotten the food I grabbed mine and Daniel’s (Katie arrived to get hers) and dashed upstairs to my suffocating room. (Piece of Cake, right..?)

I took several deep breaths and tried to rewrite the ending of my last paragraph, to take things in a new direction (merely to see if it would help). Somehow, miraculously (thanks God) I managed to find the lost connection between thoughts and words and I started furiously writing. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote..for real this time. In three hours I wrote two and a half pages (which is virtually unheard of), caught up with Katie, passed Katie, and approached the end of my paper. By 3:30/4 I was convinced that I could even finish by dinner if I tried. Completely different mindset than 5 hours prior.

I did not finish quite, before dinner, on account that we had our papers returned to us. That always stirs up everyone, who then come out of their holes of room and congregate in the hallways (outside my room) discussing their grades. It’s nice having access to everyone’s grades, but I really would prefer the silence to focus on my next paper.

Dinner was decently pleasant, but I finished quickly to return to my “baby” (as paper’s are “lovingly” called). I slaved away on it cranking out a conclusion in 10 minutes before Katie returned. Aside from my horrible conclusion, and somewhat shabby transitions in a few spots, I was decently pleased. Katie and I then decided to switch papers at 7:00pm!! Bet you would never have guessed that from my mindset at 12:30. We were so far ahead of the game by that point it was ridiculous. Granted as we proofread Katie burst into hysterics noting that I hadn’t even bothered to fit two sentences together, and I in return discovered the same situation in her paper not long after. At another point Katie told me that I had written nonsensical rubbish (in nicer terms), and when I went to look at my corrections I laughed for several minutes at my structural syntax, or rather lack thereof. I fixed my error by cutting the sentences and pasting them in a different order, upon which the paragraph flowed nicely.

I still turned my paper in at 3 to midnight, but took several breaks during the editing process and felt good about the process overall. After midnight several late minute paper writers congregated in the TA’s room and listened to Renee’s hysterical story about her shopping experience that morning. We then excused ourselves, I talked to Dad briefly online, and then Katie and I sadly got beaten at Eucker before exhaustedly crawling into bed.