the cruel reality of writing competition
you think you're done. you think the pressure is off b/c finals are done. you think, one week to write a memo and do some cite checks and whatever? no problem. i'll make lots of social plans and plans to exercise (to get out of finals form and back into fighting form). but then all of a sudden it's thursday night and despite rumors of a midnight post office, you're pulling an all nighter, the first all year. even when you had hundreds of pages of reading, you didn't stay up all night. but for this memo, this non-compulsory assignment/competition, here you are at 4:30, brewing coffee, looking for tape to tape your eyes open, and contemplating with every other flick of the neurons, the impact on your career if you opt out of writing competition. you think about how you don't buy into crap, don't do things just b/c it's prestigious (well, not since high school anyways). yet, you trod through. you'll do it. and god allowing, you're not going to trek across town to the midnight post office; you're going to the perfectly acceptable one across the street. damnit!