Denial: I have plenty of time. I don’t really need to study… or do my reading… or go to class. Exams are a long way away yet, and besides, I’ve got hurricanes/baseball playoffs/BCS controversies/March Madness/Great Big Sea concerts/South Park kerfuffles/Sabres games to watch and blog about. And hey, I pulled out a decent GPA at the last minute last semester, didn’t I? I can waste time now and catch up later.
Anger: Dammit, why didn’t I study and pay attention earlier?!? Now exams are getting close, and I don’t know what the hell we’ve been doing all semester! God, I’m an idiot!! I’d better start catching up… but, oh look, something shiny! Gotta blog about it. I’ll start catching up tomorrow.
Bargaining: Okay, no way am I going to be as prepared as I wanted to be. But please, O mighty law-school gods, just let me learn enough to get a B, okay? Seriously, I’ll start studying in earnest RIGHT NOW, if you’ll just… what? There’s a tsunami warning for Fiji?
Depression: I’m doomed. DOOMED! I’m going to fail out of law school, I’ll lose my shot at a plum big-firm job, we’ll never pay off our credit card debts, and our kittens will starve! I’ll die homeless and penniless and no one will ever love me. Well, okay, Becky loves me, but she’ll probably leave me for someone who can afford cat food. Oh, woe, WOE is me!
Acceptance: So, my exams start tomorrow and I’m still woefully unprepared. So what? When they’re over, they’re over, and I won’t have to worry about them anymore. No point in fretting, right? And really, I’m prepared as I’ll ever be. Instead of studying, I might as well blog something pointless about how unprepared I am.
:)
May 7th, 2006 at 3:37:24 pm
Wow….that’s scarily accurate to my attitude towards exams as well. Minus the blog part.
May 7th, 2006 at 3:39:53 pm
Heh. Well, yeah, the blog is just my chosen method of procrastination. It’s a symptom, not a cause (for the most part). It’s pretty much immaterial to the underlying stages. If I didn’t have a blog, I’d find something else to distract me. :)
May 7th, 2006 at 4:53:58 pm
I sympathize.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:59:05 pm
lololololololol, gasp, lololololololol
May 7th, 2006 at 7:11:26 pm
Ditto, but add to mine a husband who makes me feel guilty by talking as though it’s his job to inspire me to do my work and mourns that he has failed miserably.
May 7th, 2006 at 7:45:48 pm
Be sure to explain to CJ Roberts that you really shouldn’t be arguing before him b/c your GPA at NDLS was insufficient.
All that really matters is that you manage to pass the bar exam in whatever jurisdiction you wish to practice.
All this fretting over GPA numbers is akin to CW complaining that the team had a bad practice the Tuesday before the USC game last year.
Larry the Cable Guy is soooo right. (Just) Git ‘er Done!
May 7th, 2006 at 7:46:37 pm
This is good. I would probably add a variant to the ‘Denial’ one:
“I got a good score on the exam in Class ___ last semester, and I walked in to the test feeling like I had no idea what the heck I was doing.
The exams I am concerned about this semester are just like that one last semester because of ____, ____, and ____.
Therefore I will be a big success, regardless of my feeling walking in”.
May 7th, 2006 at 7:47:32 pm
Aren’t you in BA? If so your exams don’t exactly start tomorrow…
May 7th, 2006 at 7:52:15 pm
Why don’t you just get a law job where you’re ***PAID*** to blog all day? And if you can’t find one then INVENT IT!!!!
BRENDAN, you’re the future,
so make it so…
May 7th, 2006 at 7:55:02 pm
Anony, you’re right… I’ve been working on the BA exam all weekend, and am almost done with it. Although, my exams do “start tomorrow” in the sense that my first sit-down exam is tomorrow, and the B.A. exam is due tomorrow. But my (attempt at) humorous commentary on the “five stages” wasn’t meant to be taken quite that literally.
May 7th, 2006 at 11:07:59 pm
I just got over the whole “worrying about grades” thing so early after first semester of 1L (Insty’s Torts I exam was a killer), that I just sat back and did what I had to do to graduate.
As I always said, “D” equals J.D.
Besides, who needs the kind of job that causes ulcers and alcoholism, anyway?
May 7th, 2006 at 11:34:24 pm
You’re one of those kids who goes on and on about how unprepared you are yet somehow manages a 4.0, aren’t you?
May 8th, 2006 at 12:24:57 am
Not quite, but he does pull a respectable GPA despite underpreparing. Brendan works best with a massive looming deadline, reads fast, has a good memory, and is rather a smart cookie, but he does underperform compared to his capabilities–primarily due to massive procrastination and an unfortunate tendency to not show up to classes. At least, if he’s acting remotely like he did as an undergrad.
May 8th, 2006 at 11:13:19 am
Tis a sad, sad day when people prioritize this “law school” business over Great Big Sea… Walk ‘em along, Brendan, carry ‘em along!!
May 8th, 2006 at 1:47:30 pm
I havta suspect that Brendan may well be one who successfully harnesses the Power of Procrastination, albeit selectively …
When it really matter, he seems to be able to procrastinate on his procrastinating - and he gets done what needs to be done …
And, that talent, when combined with a good-to-great potential IQ, is VERY powerful …
May 11th, 2006 at 11:54:25 am
This is incredibly witty :)!
(Now GO STUDY!)