'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in

          Have you had one those moments where something you've known all along suddenly sinks in and you get it? I had that last night. I've been struggling with procrastination for so long now that I've become jaded to the possibility I'll ever overcome it. I'd start each semester with enthusiasm. (Yeah! This time I'm going to stay on top of it and do well.) Usually about a month in I've lost it and fall into a rather depressive and anxious apathy. It's not pretty.
          There's a progression that can be traced to the procrastination. I started by finishing a homework assignment due Friday on the Monday before it was due. I felt good. I was making notes from powerpoints online in preparation for class. I was reading the texts. It was awesome. I started to get comfortable. I figure, "I can do it later". Very quickly, I find myself waiting until the night before an assignment is due (sometimes even in the hours before the class). In many cases, I don't even bother to do the assignment or study. Come test day, I go in with no real idea of what I need to know. I earn a bad grade and I start to wonder if there's any point in trying to do better for the next test. Midterm rolls around, I'm stressed, depressed and resigning to failure. It's a quick drop from there to the actual outcome (failure).
          Doing this every semester since....freshman year (oh man) takes its toll. I've always had trouble with it. When faced with something I don't want to do or deal with, I run away. I'm a daydreamer so it's easy to do that. Some of my most popular works on deviantART are the result of me avoiding study. I've logged over 45 days in World of Warcraft as a result of it. I follow 16 webcomics (and counting), 24 people on twitter (and counting), subscribe to 28 channels (and counting) on youtube, watch 260+ deviants and clubs (and counting, see the pattern?), I read Dear ---- everyday, I have bookmarks to diverting sites including the Cheezburger network the site index. More are added on a regular basis. These all aren't bad in and of themselves but I only know about them because I've sought them out in avoidance of productive work. I check my social networks daily (often several times a day) and it's really pathetic. I could spend an entire day just keeping up to date with all of them. So what changed last night?
          Christ Church Conway didn't do it's "off-week" get together. The "on" weeks, we meet with Patch and are going through Galatians. The off weeks we wanted to get together to pray, care for each other, and whatever else God inspires us to do. Well, Drew was gone at work and only a couple people showed up. So, I came back to the apartment. For some strange reason I came in, sat down, put up my Movie Music Pandora station and full screen SitBack on deviantART (set to spring-related deviations). This is my study combo. It's mostly instrumental music with nice images on the screen (the rest is black so it blocks everything else out). It keeps me focused a lot better. Anyway, I started on my physics homework and I was struck at how easy it was. I was relaxed doing it. BAM!. Why have I putting myself through all this misery over an easy and almost therapeutic assignment?
          It's carried over to this morning. I got up and worked a little on an assignment that's due Tuesday. After this blog, I'm going to finish my lab write-up for Organic and do next week's pre-lab assignment. Sunday afternoon I'm getting with a friend to figure out how to write our physics lab report. And it goes on. I mean, wow! That moment was quite a while in the making. There's more to it. As I've said, I've known about this problem for a while and exactly how to fix it. Get it done early! You have more time to do the fun stuff and suddenly those time wasters are much less interesting. So what are the other pieces? Hm.
          I was very lucky to get away with C's for the first physics and organic chemistry tests. I like to go back and find the correct answers to the questions I got wrong. I was able to get most of the ones reworked to the right answer but there were a couple I was unsure of. I finally got to meet with my organic professor Tuesday afternoon to ask him. During the course of the conversation, he said a of stuff I already knew. That conversation was another push in the right direction because I studied some for the organic quiz on Thursday. As Caitlin said to me, "Sometimes you just need to hear it from someone else." Wednesday I didn't go to chemistry tutoring but I stayed in and studied for a few hours more for Thursday's quiz in organic (I think I did pretty well on it, by the way).
          Well, the last pieces are ready to fall into place. My mp3 player (which I accidentally dropped into water a week or so ago) seemed to finally be working properly again yesterday. I'd had various songs stuck in my head but I wanted to hear Gravity (originally by Chris Martin of Coldplay, first recorded by Embrace). Now, my mp3 player is set to shuffle unless I'm listening to certain playlists (usually the writing ones). The next three songs after Gravity were what I needed to hear: "Let It All Come Out" by Newsboys (lyrics), "Day by Day" by dcTalk (lyrics), and finally "Sleeping in" by Nevertheless (see below). Crazy, huh?

          And so it all came together into that one simple truth finally sinking in: get it done early.

"Sleeping in" by Nevertheless

I've been sleeping in for days,
'Cause when I am awake,
I will have to face my life.
And I'm hoping it's a phase.
The walls that I create
Can only make it seem alright.
And I get carried away like I'm the only one
Who's ever felt the way that I do,
But I can hear you say, "You're not the only one.
'Cause everybody hopes to get through."

And it's got me sleeping in.
Every day God, it's the same thing.
Yeah, you caught me sleeping in.
I'm still hiding; I'm still waiting.
I need you here with me to face the world outside
'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in.

I've been waking up with fear,
'Cause all that I can hear
The ringing of alarms downtown.
It's been going on for years,
And you have made it clear
That I am not alone in this crowd.
And I get carried away like I'm the only one
Who's ever felt the way that I do,
But I can hear you say, "You're not the only one.
'Cause everybody hopes to get through."

And it's got me sleeping in.
Every day God, it's the same thing.
Yeah, you caught me sleeping in.
I'm still hiding; I'm still waiting.
I need you here with me to face the world outside
'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in.

Open up my eyes.
I'm tired of sleeping in
In a world that's dying to wake up.
And it's got me sleeping in.
Yeah, It's got me sleeping in.

And it's got me sleeping in.
Every day God, it's the same thing.
Yeah, you caught me sleeping in.
I'm still hiding; I'm still waiting.
I need you here with me to face the world outside
'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in.

'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in.
'Cause I'm tired of sleeping in.
Yeah I'm done with sleeping in.

School connects with life

Introduction
          This may come a shock to some but you learn a lot of stuff in college that is usable in the "real world". I'm not just talking about the classes you take. Actually, (in this case) I kind of am. In classroom management this week, we've started talking about caring and safety in the classroom. If students don't think we care (about them and our job), why should they? If they don't feel safe, it distracts from learning. One of the aspects of this is being sensitive to students' concerns. It involves various things but I want to focus on what I have to present on Tuesday (in a poster): privacy in addressing things.
Lead-in
          There are certain things you want to address privately in the classroom: grades, inappropriate behavior, and emotional/social issues. Students don't always want to stand out. Some would be embarrassed to be singled out for a particularly good or bad grade. Inappropriate behavior is a difficult one, too. You don't want to call them out in front of everyone but it can't be ignored. If a student is having an issue (break-up, troubled home life, etc.), it's good to talk to them, to help them understand what they feel and how to deal the situation (if they can).
The meat of it
          So, this can apply to "real life". As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are accountable to each other. If a friend is going through some rough times, talk to them privately. Their problems don't need to be made public. If someone does something inappropriate or otherwise bothers you, that should be addressed privately as well. I would do this for you and I expect you to do it for me. In truth and love, we care for one another. We must heed His urges to help guide and correct one another. In doing so, we create unity, accountability, and caring. It's all for the advancement of His kingdom and deepening our relationships not only with Him but each other as well. That is how the body of Christ functions.