- Open up the email from your study abroad program. Realize that you have a 15-page paper due the day you arrive in Buenos Aires. Allow yourself five minutes of internal complaining/whining, which may sound a lot like the children you’ve been living with: “But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? I don’t waaaaaaaannnnaaaaaaaaaa.”
- Pull on your big-girl panties and take a look at the readings you’ve been assigned. Allow 30-40 minutes for skimming and online shopping for any books you need. Try not to get distracted on Amazon by all the novels you could buy, were it not for the mere $18.34 in your checking account.
- Balk at the idea of forking over $60 for a pre-departure reading, even if the book seems interesting and possibly relevant to your independent project. Find the chapters you need on a sketchy Internet site. Print to PDF and save.
- Repeat step 3 for all required materials.
- Make yourself an overly ambitious assignment agenda, complete with due dates and color-coding. Promise yourself that you will meet every single goal and deadline that you’ve set for yourself. Have enough self-awareness to know that you will definitely break that promise.
- Because you’ve been so incredible productive in making that assignment agenda, allow yourself into the rabbit hole of social media for 10 minutes. Note: 10 minutes here actually means 45 minutes.
- Drag yourself away from any cat Vines, Buzzfeed posts dedicated to your future husband Chris Evans, and/or comment threads on Jezebel.com. Create a Word document to draft the first portion of your assignment.
- Open up the relevant PDF file. Skim for about 7 minutes, at which point you will realize that you are hungry. Go downstairs and make yourself whatever weird midnight snack your heart desires. The author recommends microwave popcorn or grilled cheese sandwiches.
- Now with delightfully greasy fingers, type out some vague notes about relevant passages in the material to be used for writing later.
- Consider that a good night’s work. Save, close and open up Netflix. Watch five episodes of your preferred sitcom. Author’s recommendation: Parks & Recreation.
*No, Mom/Dad/other concerned adult parties; this is not all I did with my summer. I gained professional skills, made new friends, ate my vegetables (most of the time), and did various other responsible adult things. Promise.
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