I walked by the computer and it stared at me as if it knew my heart and all its secrets. I didn’t want to give it any attention, so I continued on as if it never existed. At night, my mind decided to have an opinion and said, “You have to write that paper first thing in the morning.” I nodded and agreed, “Yes, I’ll get to it in the morning.” The next morning, I sat in front of the computer to write. I suddenly found my nails to be interesting. Was my pinky nail always longer than the rest? Guess I should trim, file and paint all of them to make sure they’re even.

A few days later I received a reminder about the assignment. The deadline was fast approaching. I had to sit down and complete the work. My mind said, “Take an hour this afternoon and start the paper.” I nodded and agreed, “Yes, I’ll get to it this afternoon.” That afternoon, I sat in front of the computer. I suddenly found an interest in pop stars in the UK from the nineteen eighties. I went on Wikipedia, and three hours later I was deep into haunted saloons from the nineteenth century American west.   

The Word document icon on my dock started to bounce and, cleared from my stupor, I realized that I’d wasted an exuberant amount of time on the internet. I opened the blank document so I could finally start the paper, but my eyes hurt from staring at the computer screen. It was time for chocolate anyway and the Nutella was calling my name. So much for starting that paper!

A week or so passed by and I heard other students talk about how they were so happy to complete a second revision of the paper that was due by midnight. I jokingly said, “I haven’t even started yet.” They laughed and said, “You had like, five weeks to finish. You better start!” My mind was smug and if it had arms, they would have been folded when it said, “I told you so.” I looked at my watch. I had about seven hours until midnight. I told my mind, “Seven hours? I have loads of time! I can watch ‘Emma’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow and still have a few hours left to write.” My mind said, “Are you crazy?! You’ve seen that movie about a hundred times! Write that paper!”

I stomped my foot on the ground, slumped my shoulders and shook them from side to side. “But I don’t wanna!” My mind gave up on reasoning with me. All was silent. I stopped thrashing and held still. When my mind doesn’t argue with me, I know I’ve done really bad. “Fiiinnnee! I’ll write the paper!” I threw myself on a chair, whipped my laptop open and a piece of dust caught my eye. Hmm, now where did that come from?

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