Honors Human Growth and Development was my first education class here at Longwood. I was excited because not only was this class the first introduction into my future profession, but I was taking it with many of my friends. All education majors, nursing majors, speech pathology majors, etc. are required to take this class, therefore, I wasn’t surprised when I walked into the class and knew every single face in the room.
On the first day of class, we went over the syllabus as the teacher, Dr. Cosby, explained her expectations of us for the year. As I turned the last page I saw something that I knew was coming, but was not excited to see. We had to write two, seven page papers.
The first paper we had to write was a research paper based on any topic of our choosing. I chose to research the effects of drugs and alcohol on adolescents. More specifically, I looked into how they effect home life, school, work, and sports. My research paper is attached below.
I knew that since this was going to be the longest paper I had ever written, I needed to get started. The paper would require many hours of research and numerous sources. I started by taking it slow, working on one page at a time. I was trying my best to add in as many details as I could so that it would be simple to get to the page count. I decided that it would be easier to cite my sources as I was using them (as opposed to citing them all at the end) so that I would not forget about any of them. I was doing really well on my paper until it became time for Spring Break. I worked really hard to get the paper done before Spring Break started, but with all of my other homework and assignments it just wasn’t possible. This meant that I had to take my paper home with me and work on it over the break.
My plan was to finish writing and editing the paper on the first day of break, that way I wouldn’t have to worry about for the remainder of my Spring Break. Unfortunately for me, that didn’t happen. I had plans everyday, so I didn’t get to finish the paper until the night before it was due, which was also the last night I had with my family before I went back to school.
Instead of hanging out with my family, I stayed up late that night to finish my research paper that was due the next day. Not only did my procrastination negatively effect me, I let my family down because I couldn’t hang out with them. Since then, I have learned to work on major assignments as soon as I receive them, so that I am not cramming the night before.