I will be the first to admit that I’ve never pulled an all-nighter. Well, not until yesterday, but I’m getting to that.

I like to consider myself a fairly responsible student, and the idea of waiting until the day before a paper is due to start it has always felt like a bad idea to me. I mean, how can you possibly do your best work when you’re exhausted and have a limited amount of time to get it done? Is it really worth the possible drop in your GPA?

I’ve always made an attempt to start lengthy papers days and maybe even weeks early. It’s a good way to lessen stress and make sure that what you write is to the best of your ability. Then again, maybe that’s just my view on writing papers. I think I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to papers in general.

I never thought the day would come when I’d end up writing an entire paper the day before it’s due, and in a matter of four hours. That just doesn’t sound like me.

However, I ended up having no choice.

See, it all started when I took out this book from the QC library. Needing it for a Critical Book Review that was due today, I made sure to take it out a month and a half in advance. I figured that this would give me plenty of time to finish the book and write the six-page paper.

I wasn’t aware that there was a limit to how many times I could renew a library book. After renewing it three times, I discovered that I would have to return it and wait 24 hours before taking it out again.

The book was due the day before Thanksgiving. I returned it on the Tuesday before, so that I could go back and take it out on Wednesday, therefore giving me the entire Thanksgiving break to work on it.

When I went back to campus on Wednesday, just to get the book back, it wasn’t on the shelf yet. Just my luck.

So, I spent my Thanksgiving break attempting to write  a book review on a book that I hadn’t finished and needed quotes from. I wrote 3 rough drafts, assuming that I’d get the book back on Monday and throw in the quotes as needed.

Good news: I got the book back on Monday and was able to finish it.

Bad news: Everything I had written was completely irrelevant and I had to start from scratch.

I really had no choice but to bang a paper out fast, but I somehow did it. It wasn’t half-assed either. I put my all into it and wrote it with as much attention to detail as I would have given it had I started it days before.

What’s this? Is it possible that I work well under pressure? What?

This interesting discovery made me think that maybe procrastination isn’t always so bad.

Then again, I need to see the grade that I got on the paper before I can determine if it worked out in my favor. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel good about it.