The Northern Light

Don't lie; you are one of them, aren't you? You leave off something, intending to do it later, and then not doing it until much later. You have practiced the subtle art of procrastination. In the history of humankind, there have been decades where mass throngs of people have procrastinated.

For example, Afro Man wanted to clean his room, but he procrastinated. NASA was supposed to send a spaceship to the moon; however, they dilly-dallied. My friend Sarah told her brother she would do the dishes on Monday morning but ensued scrubbing them on a Thursday.

The special mystique that this art form holds for people, especially college students, is undeniable. What makes it such an attraction that college students act like flitting moths flying towards a burning fire? To root out the cause, it is important to know of the meaning of the very word.

In order to carry out this task, I wasted approximately half an hour eating a candy bar and about a third of a day on MySpace, after which I chanced to look up the word.

Procrastination is derived from the Latin pro €" forward €" and crastinus €" of tomorrow. In order to be adept at the art, one must endeavor to put off something - it could be anything - until a later day. Habitual carelessness and laziness are considered strong character traits, while stringent discipline and management of time skills are considered foes of the art.

In this world of procrastinators, there are very few who are true masters of the process. It takes hard work, energy and some effort on the part of the individual to be good at this art form, especially in the field of academia. I have devoted thousands of excruciating hours to the perfection of this skill, yet there are friends of mine who are true heroes.

I have known an individual - let's use the pseudonym "Tom" €" who has had a seven-page poetry paper due on a Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. and did not start working on it until ten that morning. What is truly confounding in this situation is that "Tom," who surpasses many in his daily habits of dilly-dallying, got an A on that particular paper.

Some wise man somewhere once said, "Tomorrow is the greatest labor-saving device of today." What a profound aversion to exertion must have led to the coining of this phrase.

This motto holds true for anyone who has had an association with this art. Instruction and practice are what makes an individual form a habit. In order to do well at this art form, constant practice is necessary, as well as adhering to the tenets of laziness and carelessness.

For a college student, it is especially important to be up-to-date and keep up with one's work or else one might fall behind. But for those who would like to shilly-shally, loiter, protract or stooge around, the age-old adage "practice makes perfect" should be scarred indelibly in their brain cells.

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