I was sitting at my desk last night, looking at stuff on the Internet, losing at poker, when an email came in from a friend. The subject was ‘Congrats.’
On being finished with year 2 you lucky bastard.
Enjoy your time off!
Jeff is also a Distance Learning student at Mississippi State, though a year behind me.
I read the note and realized it said everything was over. He was done. But I hadn’t taken my two finals. Had I screwed up in this weird summer schedule when my student rhythms are off? It’s tough to pass if you blow off a test worth 30% of your grade!
I went to the MSU website. My stomach had already fallen to knee level. The website was s-l-o-w. It took at least 45 seconds for the first page to appear, and there were two more to go (which must be navigated in order) before I’d know what had happened.
Sweat began to form on my forehead. My pulse quickened.
My normal modus operandi is to wait for the last minute. Had I miscalculated?
I finally got to the page. They’re due tomorrow morning, meaning I can take my two tests tonight. One will be cake. The other I dread.
This is not the first time I’ve panicked like this. My life is full of disorganizational nightmares, though most of them are in my deep past.
I wrote Jeff telling him how he had made my life a living hell for about 5 minutes.
I am just ahead of the game — that’s one more night
of hitting the sauce for me 😉 —