Stress

I don't know if you know a lot about me, but if there's one thing you need to know it's that I don't deal with stress well. There's a reason I keep a diary, and it's because I work best when organised.

Since starting university, I've found that the main issue I have is that the normal stress that I'm used to feeling (like two or three weeks before an assignment is due) is now closer to two or three days before an assignment is due. If I'm being realistic, it's because high school and university are two very different things.

With high school, you are told a good one or two months in advance when things are due. From there, you get to have maybe two weeks to work on your draft. You then get to hand it in, and can expect a full recount of all the things you've done wrong, along with things that you could improve and how to get a better grade. You then likely get at least another week to work on your 'good copy' before handing it into the teacher.

At university, it's a whole different story. Sure, you get a whole month or two for knowing when things are due, but there isn't the same pressure. They'll mention when things are due in the first lecture, and then not mention it again until the week before it's due. You aren't really allowed to hand in drafts or get detailed notes on how to improve. It's all very vague, and I think it's a little hard to adjust.

I mean, I can't really complain. As a writing student, I'm fortunate in that we generally have to go through some sort of peer review before handing in the final product. But even then, that's a piece of assessment.

So you can imagine my surprise last semester when I realised that three or so assignments were due in a week, and I'd only briefly started them. Cue me locking myself in my room with a cup of tea that was magically renewed every three hours or so. Needless to say, this semester I'm going to work really hard on not repeating that period.