Procrastination. Is it really worth it?

Many high schoolers today face the uphill battle that is procrastination. According to PR Newswire, 87% of high schools declare themselves self-proclaimed procrastinators. So, if you are reading this you have most likely procrastinated in your high school career. This disease can start as a freshman, but it is more likely for seniors to be left with the question of  ‘should I do my homework now or later?.’ Now before you continue reading this article, let’s distinguish senioritis and the art of procrastination.

Senioritis can be defined many different ways, but I would consider it to be not having the desire to get out of bed and go to school. In fact, Merriam-Webster defines senioritis as ‘an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.’ Now obviously anyone who goes to school can relate to wanting to stay in bed and sleep rather than waking up at six, but many of us choose to go. Why? Because in the end, spending time with friends and socializing is more important to people who do not have senioritis. If you have senioritis you choose sleep because four years of high school has been too much for you and now you are… well… just done.

Procrastination would be the word to describe someone like myself and many of my peers. The feelings of leaving high school are becoming real, so now you want to do everything in your power to try to be with your friends and embrace your final times at the high school. Unfortunately school work gets in the way of this. For me, like many others, I have been motivated the past three years to get decent grades, so it’s hard for me to try to let go of those responsibilities. Every day when I get home from school, I have intentions of doing my homework out of habit but then a better opportunity comes about and, wanting to spend as much time with my friends before it ends, I choose to not do my homework.

Okay, so that sounds bad… because technically I do complete my homework, I just choose to not do it right then. I still care about learning the material, but instead of doing it at a reasonable time I decide to do it during the dark hours in the night. Or in the case of this article, I’m currently writing it the day it’s due… but I mean it’s totally worth it! right?

Anyways, when my alarm goes off at 6 in the morning I press snooze and wake up ten minutes before I have to leave, my life becomes more chaotic than it has to be. Yet another example of procrastination.

So back to my original question, is it worth it?

My answer to you is YES!

Yes because even though I procrastinated and lost sleep and time to eat breakfast in the morning, I gained more memories to add to my senior year. Also I am happy to consider myself a procrastinator and not someone diagnosed with senioritis because every day I decide to roll out of bed, even if it’s ten minutes before seven, I am able to go to school and spend another day with my best friends.

Now, do not take this article as an excuse to not do your work… I am encouraging to do your work, but I am also giving you the reassurance that having a social life is understandable. Even Merriam-Weber defines procrastination as ‘to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.’ The words ‘to put off’ still imply that the work needed to be done will be done. So therefore, procrastination is understandable.