Finally, a look back at the past week, one of the toughest weeks of my spring semester so far. I always tell myself to break down big things into smaller, more manageable parts, and this was integral to my surviving such a hell week.
In terms of work, there really wasn’t that much. I had just come off a week of midterms and papers. Last Sunday, as I looked to the coming week, I thought, “No big deal.” Just a 10 page history research paper and ABA yearbook.
Except that research paper was 30% of my grade, and I really needed to ace it to do well in the class. So I spent hours working on that paper, deep into the night, averaging four hours of sleep.
The worst part was the bibliography. Our GSI wanted us to cite in the Chicago/Turabian style, something that I thought was totally unnecessary. There were no good generators for this style, so I had to learn it from scratch. I ended up spending over 2 hours working on the stupid bibliographies and footnotes. Not liking Chicago at all…
On top of the research paper, I was also spending the week at the printers. Sanjeev, the owner of Instant Copying and Laser Printing, is a really charming guy and does quality work. We’ve printed all four ABA newsletters with him this semester, with no big complaints in quality.
Thursday saw a huge release of stress as I finally turned in the research paper. I celebrating by going to Boat Dance with the free ticket I got. I had an awesome time with my floormates and small group, and even though I was dead tired throughout, I really appreciated the little breather before…
BANQUET. The big day. The cumulative event that reflected the entire semester.
After buying my buddy gifts, I quickly rushed home to dress for the big event. I was a driver for the event, so I got to ferry people to and from the banquet room we reserved at a quaint hotel in Oakland.
Things looked great for a while, but there were bumps on the road (literally and figuratively…ha). On the way to banquet, Ana told me to not worry, that these things happen to make things a bit more interesting, and that things would turn out fine, like in the movies.
This cheered me up a bit, but of course, I was still really stressed out. I tried not to show it, and continued to make trips to and from Oakland. The driving was really fun, by the way. Driving is always a form of comfort.
In the end, the yearbooks couldn’t have come out better. I was utterly impressed and relieved. The response was more than positive. To make things better, I was presented the Newbie of the Semester award and awesome gifts from my committee. Suddenly, the most emotionally-draining day of my life had become one of the happiest days of my life.
The congratulations, the pictures, handshakes, everything was just so surreal. I guess Ana was right: things sometimes do turn out like in the movies. You just have to stay strong, remain calm, and tackle challenges one by one.
I can’t wait for next semester of ABA.
Pubs love!
ABA love at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com.
