No, I'm not abusing solvents.

I'm the kind of college student who, in theory, takes the day off for the sole purpose of finishing assignments and ridiculous poetry projects but, in actual practice, ends up spending the whole day in bed watching Desperate Housewives or googling pictures of mountain lions.

But that's not really a big deal. It's the done thing quite a lot of the time, (well, maybe not the mountain lions) - at least it is where I'm from. I have a friend studying in Boston who told me that for every class she misses it amounts to her squandering about $500. Say, what?! That's insane. $500 would cover almost half of my tuition fees for an entire year.

I've broken it down, you know, roughly. For every class I miss (read: skipped/intended to go to but didn't/left halfway through/forgot was on) it means I'm wasting about €5. You see the difference, right? It's kind of big and hard to miss.

It would not be inaccurate to describe me as a lazy, free-loading, procrastinating bum. In fact, if I had to sum myself up, those are the words I would use. And I guess, just did use. I float through university, much like I floated through school. I do as little work as possible and get good grades, then I rinse and repeat. I'm quite happy with this system, I have it fine tuned down to an art form. But the process is getting more and more difficult. I think it has something to do with this whole 'final year' business. It's like, all of a sudden, I should at least consider working towards my goals. I should actually consider having goals to work towards.

Something has definitely changed in me this year. I'm wasting less and less of those €5s and even, dare I say it, occasionally taking notes in class. Besides all the regular college stuff this year, I also have a gigantic creative writing project that needs doing. Poems don't write themselves and this particular assignment represents about half of my final results for the year. It translates as a lot of work, constant writes and rewrites plus, the need to keep a 'process journal' (some wishy washy notations of my thoughts throughout the project, my initial drafts, etc etc) and constantly find/reference other poets in an 'inspiration diary' (seriously, who comes up with this nonsense?). But I don't even mind the extra work load. It's almost as if I enjoy it! Something has gotta give.

Now I'm not saying that overnight I've turned into a functioning member of society who vastly contributes towards the process of higher education – on the contrary. I still leave everything to the last possible minute – I just don't mind doing it half as much. Which makes a big change and is really quite good for Academic Me though bad for Delinquent Me (or at least the small part of me that still likes to think of myself as a hooligan. Though real hooligans don't use the word hooligan - and I think that's the kind of thing that's always stopped from becoming a crime lord). It's important to note, I'm not entirely comfortable with this turn of events. It has never been in my nature to be a doer or an over-achiever.

That all said, I have a history essay due in the morning and should start writing it/researching it/finding out what the title of it is. Though I guess just one more episode of Desperate Housewives wouldn't hurt.

PS. My father just popped his head in the door and asked me if I was abusing solvents. After I told him that, no, I wasn't abusing solvents, he complimented my good judgment and offered me €20. As I am never one to kick a gift horse in the mouth (the knees, sure, but never the mouth), I guess that's four more classes I can skip, guilt free.