On writing papers

I know that I’ve had a post similar to this before but bear with me. If I remember correctly, I think I’m heading in a different direction than that post.

I’ve always considered myself to be better at writing fiction than nonfiction or at least I should say that I feel much more comfortable writing fiction than nonfiction. I remember the one time I had to write an article when I was on staff of my high school newspaper...pure torture. Sure, no one had any problems when I was done with it but the process was most certainly torture.

Almost every time I write a paper of any significant length for a class I feel the same way. (Magnify that feeling ten times for my senior history paper last semester). I remember thinking that my freshman English paper was junk and completely inadequate in so many different areas when I handed in. On a rough draft where the average score on the return (and this is average of the student body mind you) is in the D range imagine my surprise when I receive back a paper with the score of 57/60. A. I still didn’t think it was adequate enough but of course I wasn’t about to argue with the grade.

Bringing this in relation to the present.

I am in the midst of the torture sessions in writing all of my papers this semester. (Although I got a big relief this morning when I found out that my Linguistics paper could be written in English...and the presentation too :D... writing papers in a second language is not fun lol).

If I let myself think about all that I have to do and the caliber that I want my end result to be I could very easily become overwhelmed.

Perhaps I bring this all on myself. I can’t help but set the bar high. I think that something inside of my knows that I need to set the bar high in order to keep myself motivated and working. That way, when it all comes back I won’t be utterly disappointed because there was plenty of room to fall before I got below the critical level.

Does that make sense?

I’m sitting here at my computer with my head on my shoulder as I type wondering if that past sentence will seem as confusing to anyone else as it does to me. :D

It’s late so forgive me.

We’ll see how things go.

A minor note (of hope!): I counted the actual class days left until the end of the semester (excluding weekends, and exams and such) and discovered that if my calculations are correct... less than fifty class days remain of my college career! Hah... I think I’ll be doing more than a few of those calculations as the day draws nearer.

(I’ll be getting close to my Hispanic/Mexican roots too... I graduate on May 5th.)