Column: Sean Says: Try to stay focused at the library

Sean Hastings, Sports Editor

So lemme tell you this. This is the worst time of the year for everyone.

We’re all doing our final projects, writing final papers, and we need to start studying for finals.

But this is the time of the year where you need to be most focused because if you aren’t, it can come back to bite you.

Thursday afternoon I didn’t have any classes so I thought I would utilize all that time to finish my project for my sports geography class, start reading a 20-page article and begin writing my six-page essay.

I got the project done because I was working alone and had no distractions, but man did I drop the ball on reading the article and starting the essay.

The reason was: I was really distracted. The distraction was, I went to Jimmy Johns to get my $1 sandwich, which was not a bad idea. It was actually one of the better decisions I made Thursday.

The Jimmy Johns sandwich was really good, and I hope you took advantage of the deal they had going Thursday afternoon.

But the problem was that I went to the library with two of my friends, and I couldn’t stop talking to them.

I spent two hours in the library and got none of the work done.

The paper is due Monday, thankfully, but I would have much rather had the weekend to relax especially because I’m going home.

I’m not a bad student. I have an A in the class, so it’s not like I am slacking to do my work.

It was just that I was not focused on anything I had to do.

Going to the library with my friends would not have been a big deal if we were all working on the same thing where we could help each other out. But we were all working on three completely different subjects.

We talked about everything from hanging out at my friend house to different types of majors and how were are looking forward to the summer.

People kept Facetiming and getting phone calls so that was an easy thing to talk some smack about.

We also just kept joking about how distracted I was and how “angry” I was getting about having to do my homework, and how I have not even started reading the article. It was quite comical for them.

Even though I was a complete distraction to myself by talking so much, I prevented them from doing their work as well. But I do not feel too bad about that because they were talking just as much as me.

Another big distraction was that the Blackhawks were playing their elimination game against the St. Louis Blues Thursday night, so I was even more focused on that rather than the task at hand.

That was the biggest priority for my Thursday in all honesty. I am a die-hard Blackhawks fan, but they sure do a good job of distracting me from everything else I have to do. I will drop just about anything to make sure I can watch the game.

This is the most crucial time of the year, and it can make or break your GPA and only you have control of it.

The lesson I really learned Thursday was: try to avoid going to the library with friends if you can. You’ll always want to be talking to them.

Second: just eliminate any other distraction, and just start getting your work done.

Hope your weekend is better than mine, and good luck the rest of the way.

Sean Hastings is a sophomore journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].