A Week of Ones

The week after Thanksgiving break is sinister.

It's a week filled with incomplete oneness.

After chowing down on turkey, sweet potato pie, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, stuffing, collared greens and a host of other treats that I don't bother cooking myself, who can move?

Who wants to write a paper?

Who wants to study for an exam?

Who wants to traipse to a college campus?

Who wants to wake up at 7 a.m. and not return to a comforting bed until 1 a.m. the next morning?

I didn't want to do any of it.

Alas, I have no choice.

There's one more full week left of classes. There's one more issue left to publish for The Johnsonian. There's one more assignment due for news reporting. There's one more newsletter that needs to be produced at church. There's one more gathering for the college ministry. There's even one more test before finals start.

I'm convinced it's a conspiracy.

Here is where university administrators make you or break you; where they test your value as a student.

With stomachs full and a brief taste of academic reprieve, you're pushed to your limit.

Everything is due within this week. The stuff you started on before Thanksgiving always manages to carry on afterwards--especially if you were unable to access your files due to dial-up connectivity down home :(

Your dedication is tested. Will you strive for an A or settle for a B?

Will you even attempt that one extra-credit assignment?

Will you keep your sanity as professors unload unrealistic expectations onto your fragile frame?

Will you ever go to bed at 10 p.m..? Probably so, just not this week.

Will you finish your Christmas shopping?

Will you make the effort to put up a Christmas tree?

Will you feel holiday joy or will the sounds of children singing classic Christmas carols only upset you?

Will you get it together?

Will you finish this blog post?