Three Times The Hummel Verse

Procrastination

"So your telling me that if I don't take a health class this semester then I wont be able to graduate?" Carson asked both annoyed and confused.

Miss Pillsbury nodded as she reached into her desk and pulled out a form. "I suggest that you take it online. This way you wont have to drop any of the classes you enrolled in this fall." She reached across the desk and handed Carson the small packet. On it held instructions and login information. "Its normal to take this online. I've had students take it and get it done within a week or two. It all just depends on how much work you put into it."

"When is the deadline?" Carson asked as he folded and pocketed the forms.

"Well it needs to be done by the end of the semester, but It shouldn't take that long. I think you can get it done by the end of October."

Carson nodded and stood to leave. This was not how he had wanted to spend his lunch on the first day of his senior year. Being told that you might not graduate was no picnic either.

Later that night Carson went to the website on his laptop and logged into his account. Immediately he was taken to a home page with the health course in the middle of the screen. He clicked on the link and opened the activity page.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that it would all be on his own time. There were no projects or assignments due on certain dates. When he finished the course he was finished.

Along the left side of the screen displayed the different chapters in the class. Carson smiled widely when he only counted sixteen chapters. This was going to be a piece of cake.

Eager to get it over with, Carson clicked on the first chapter. Instead of taking him to a new page like he thought it would, it only showed a drop down box that displayed more options. Carson cringed when he realized that they were sub sections of the big chapter. A feeling of dread started to settle onto his shoulders. Hesitantly, Carson clicked on the first sub chapter link and waited. The computer loaded in a new page.

He started to read the first few lines that explained what the meaning of health was. He clicked the forward arrow a few times before he realized that within every sub section there was a mini unite.

Carson audibly groaned. The health class when from being a minor annoyance to a huge time devoting nuisance.  Angrily, he grabbed a pen and some paper and started to take notes on the reading material.

After spending about thirty minutes reading he clicked a last arrow and found himself on a review page. He easily filled in vocab and answered some multiple choice questions. He then started to take a ten question quiz.

Carson continued this process and repeated each step over and over throughout the month of September. He only did the course a sub section at a time. every time he finished all of the subsections in a big chapter he had to take a final post test on the whole thing.

By the time September turned to October Carson had only finished about four of the sixteen chapters. He was angry. So angry that he found himself barely working on it anymore. Before he knew it Thanksgiving had come and gone and he had only finished six chapters total.

Carson realized that he just needed to finish it and get it over with. He started to get to work and by the time school let out for Christmas he had finished ten.

He purposely took a break until after the new year. He was so tired of reading about why drugs and alcohol were bad for you. He had never seen anything that promoted abstinence more than the class. He found that part rather funny.

He started to pick up where he left off a few days into January. His due date was the twenty-seventh and he still had six chapters to go.

He was quietly plugging along on the course until his father got a call from Miss Pillsbury. Apparently she was required to alert the parents about the approaching due date. Burt wasn't too pleased to say the least.

"Carson you have had this class since September. Why isn't it done yet! You can't graduate if you don't complete this."

"I know dad. Its a lot of reading and not to mention the fact that there are so many parts to it! I'm working on it the best I can. "

Burt still wasn't too happy but he left Carson to work.

Carson finished the class on the twentieth of January, seven days before his deadline. After he completed the sixteenth chapter he had to take a sixty question multiple choice test on everything he had learned. He got an eighty-eight. He was content with that.

***

This is the true story of my online health experience. It was a nightmare. I hate being a procrastinator. To celebrate completing it, I decided to write about it. Hope you enjoyed!