The best laid plans of mice and men… | Annie Hoey
Well, here we are. Back to the old slog. The daily grind of getting up mid afternoon, eating cereal from the box, strolling into our lecture twenty minutes late, and spending the allocated study hour in the Student Centre creeping on newbies. Y’know, the usual stuff I have been getting up to since I began in UCC.
Or will it be different this year? Will I get up at 8 o’clock, chipper as the dawn? Maybe I will be so bold as to go for a brisk morning walk with the dogs. I will have a healthy breakfast of fruit and some slow release porridge to stave off those mid morning cravings. Then I will go to ALL my lectures. And I will revise my notes immediately after the lecture so that I am not left with mid April panic wondering what the hell “Plath cat 3v +” means (is it a code? Shorthand of some description? Is it the secret formula to a first class honours??) I will bring a healthy packed lunch, so that I don’t have to eat the mystery soup in the Main. I will spend plenty of time in the library and submit my assignments three days before the deadline. I might even take up yoga in the Mardyke! Yes. This year I will be a whole new me.
Who am I kidding? Every year, around this time, I get the same surge of excitement that this year will be different. I will be that dedicated, organised, fit and healthy student I have always wanted to be. I buy a week-to-view student diary to keep track of my days. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to keep track of the actual diary, and I end up losing it about three weeks in. Inevitably, I give up.
But maybe this year will be a little bit different. I am older now. I have been in UCC a long, long time. So this year I won’t set myself such unrealistic goals. Firstly, I am a post-grad and I don’t have any class until 4 o’clock on Tuesday. So there goes that plan of getting up at the crack of dawn. However, the downside to this is that I really don’t have any excuse not to go to class considering how late they are in the evening.
Healthy home-packed lunch? Considering my previous point about my late starts, I guess I could just have my lunch at home. Great that is those two down! Ok, now what about taking notes? The one good thing about being in UCC for so long is that I am pretty hot at taking notes. All those years of practise and frantically trying to decipher what my scrawls mean has taught me how to take notes properly. And if not properly, at least in a way that I can understand! So if my notes are legible, then I really don’t have an excuse for not handing in my assignments on time… Hmmm, that one might be a bit harder. As a fiend once said, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they whizz past me.”
I must admit, I have heard the deadline whoosh too many times. So this year I will get all my assignments done on time. I really have no excuse. I have abandoned the getting up early, home-packed plans. So all I have left really is the assignment one. Plus, as I discovered recently, it actually feels pretty good to hand in something on time. That smug satisfied feeling you get when walking up to the department, and the secretary looks at you expecting you to blurt out some excuse as to why you need yet another extension and instead you hand over your (two!!) neatly printed and stapled copies of your assignment. A whole hour before the deadline too!! Yes, that feeling is definitely worth it!
So we will see how my plans go. I really have no excuse this time round- it is time to get serious! And as for my plans of going to yoga in the Mardyke… Well you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men….