Senior English and criminology and criminal justice major
So it’s the three-week mark of the spring semester. Classes are already in full swing and the workload is piling up. I will forever be jealous of the people who kept their New Year’s resolutions. But I am unbelieving of those who have maintained their motivation since the start of the semester.
Spring semester is particularly demotivating because it’s the more popular graduating semester. Seniors, like myself, have either dubbed this semester their breaks, already submitted their transcripts to graduate schools or run themselves dry after four years of work. I don’t care how lazy or illogical it sounds; I am content with my lack of motivation and see little problem with it.
But there are others not like us. Students who aren’t graduating, students whose last semester grades need to be in their transcripts, and worst of all, motivated students.
We don’t hate these people. We are secretly jealous of them. We convince ourselves that, no, we really don’t want to be like these people. But we know our own truths. We do.
I imagine these people get home from class, sit down at their desks and don’t open Netflix or YouTube on their laptops. I imagine these people go to all of their classes. I even imagine they go to bed on time. But that might be a long shot for anyone.
And just because I find motivation this semester so hard to come by, I see motivated people as perfect and illustrious beings who are probably perfect in every other aspect of their lives. That should say a lot about how delusional I am about what it’s like to have motivation.
At the beginning of every week, I tell myself this is the week that I turn everything around. I write all of my assignments in my planner, tidy up my desk, label some folders and even write out a schedule. Let’s see how next week will go. I’m sure it’ll work this time.
Margaret Zelenski is a senior criminology and criminal justice and English major. She can be reached at mzelenskidbk@gmail.com.
