Deadlines

“All I have are deadlines!” Kara complained, deleting yet another full paragraph from the essay that was due that night no later than eleven fifty-nine PM.  “I can’t think, my brain hurts, and I don’t understand anything!”  She slammed the lid of her laptop shut, frustrated.

A head popped out from behind a shelf filled with books, “Could you maybe be a little quieter?  We are in a library you know.”

Kara’s eyes widened with horror.  Her outburst had been out loud!  “I’m so sorry.” She apologized to the irritated student.  “None of that was meant to actually be verbal.  I thought I was freaking out in my head.”

The student looked at her like she was crazy.  “Okay.” He said slowly as he went back to reading whatever book he’d found interesting.

“Great.” Kara fell forward onto her laptop and groaned.  “I need a break.” She mumbled to herself.

“Yeah you do.  What are you doing?” Kara recognized the voice that belonged to her best friend, Jackie.

“I’m wallowing in my self pity, what does it look like I’m doing Jay?”

“Mmm, let me rephrase that.  What are you supposed to be doing?”

Kara picked up her head and groaned yet again.  “I waited till the last minute to write a paper for my business class.  It’s stressing me out.”

“Duh.” Jackie looked at Kara sideways.  “When you procrastinate as hard as you do you’re bound to get stressed out.”

“Yeah, but I find that I work better under stress.”

Jackie rolled her eyes.  “I’ll never understand your methods, but whatever.  Need any help?”

“Not unless you want to talk profit and loss and business plans to avoid the loss.”

“No thank you.  I have to go to class, but enjoy your stress.  May I suggest caffeine?”

“That’ll make it worse, Jay.” Kara loved coffee, but it did not love her.  Or maybe it did, a little too much.  “You know it makes me hyper.”

“Yeah and if you’re hyper maybe you can think and type faster.”

“Uh, no.  I’ll be distracted by everything, you know this.”

Jackie threw her arms in the air as a signal that she’d given on on Kara’s hopeless case as she walked away.  “Don’t say I didn’t try.”

“Oh wait!  Did you get notes for our chemistry class?”

Jackie turned on her heel, dropped her backpack onto Kara’s table, and pulled out a notebook labeled ‘Chemistry can die in a hole.’   “Have at it.” She said zipping up her backpack.

“You’re the best!”

“I’d better be.” Jackie mumbled as she left the library.

Kara looked at the notebook filled with things she didn’t understand, then back to her laptop where her paper was waiting.  “Alright, Kara,” She said to herself,  “Prioritize.  Chemistry homework isn’t due till tomorrow.  Business paper is due tonight.  Write the paper first, then do chemistry later.”  Kara opened her laptop back up again, took a deep breath, and started to type again hoping that whatever was being said made some kind of sense.

In the top right corner of her computer, a reminder popped up: “Music midterm due Friday.”  And another reminder showed up below it: “History Paper due Wednesday.”

Kara felt her stress level sky rocket and her hands started to shake.  She jumped up from her seat and shouted through the library, “I haven’t even had caffeine today!  The stress is real people!  Does anyone feel like writing a business paper or taking a music midterm?!  Because I certainly don’t!” She fell back into her chair and tried to keep back the tears.  “I’m just being dramatic.” She whispered.  “Calm yourself down.  This isn’t nearly as bad as you think it is.”

Her laptop dinged, another notification.  “I can’t look!” Kara shut her eyes and took in a deep breath.  “Maybe it’s something good.” She told herself.  She slowly opened one eye and saw the notification.  “Oh come on!” There in the right hand corner below the alert that said, “History Paper due Wednesday” was another alert: “DEADLINES ARE THE WORST.”