Hands down the most tragic day of my college career was the day I realized it doesn’t actually take that long to write a paper. It used to be that the night before my 5 page paper was due I’d sit down and think ‘well crap, now I have to do an all-nighter.’ And then I would. I’d sit down at 10 (because I’m physically incapable of being productive before 10) and ‘start working’. 3.5 movies, 12 cups of tea, and 8 hours later I’d be done. 
Then one day I was writing, just a little something for myself, nothing special. And I realized that I could finish a page (single spaced, obviously)  in about 20 minutes. That meant it could, theoretically, take me under 4 hours to write 10 pages. Eventually I convinced myself that fiction writing and essay writing were, in fact, more then a bit different and that this epiphany should no way translate to my school work. But it was too late, the seed was already planted. 
Then one horrible day I actually knew what my essay was going to be about and I had appropriately high-lighted and sticky-noted my books. That 5 pager took me 3.5 hours. It was the beginning of the end. 
If that paper could be done in so little time, why not all the others? I asked myself.  What made them so different? A lot, really. I am notoriously disorganized. Most of the time when I highlight something in my readings its because I found it to be a tidbit of interesting information that will never, ever be useful in real (or academic life.) I also have an alarming tendency to draw hearts next to anything related to classics, or any of my many, many, many historical crushes. Charming to look back on in future, probably. But 100% useless towards getting an A. Unless, I suppose, my teacher also happens to share a fan-girlish like love of Lafayette, Hadrian, George Washington, and Bolivar. 
Which is why I’m writing this, on a blog no one reads, fresh from a rather wonderful shower, with 1 page of an 8 page paper done while watching But I’m a Cheerleader and debating whether I should watch The Parent Trap or She’s the Man next. That paper is due in 5 hours.