Sometimes it's better to dance

As a teenager going into her senior year of high school, I have some issues to straighten out for the coming school year. Seeing as this is one of the most important years of my schooling career, what with plans for the future and college applications soon to be piling themselves on my desk, my responsibility level has automatically been amped up several levels.

Basically, I need to stop procrastinating.

I procrastinate about almost everything (considering it took me about a week to finally sit down and write this article after I got the idea). Most people do - it's a common human characteristic. As a student in honors classes, I've seen it happen to the best of people; reading entire Shakespearean plays in the early hours before class, writing and editing research papers the night before the due date, finishing poetry projects as the bell was ringing. When my junior year ended, I made a vow to myself to prepare for things ahead of time to decrease the constant pressure I had always felt during the year.

However, a few days ago, I found my research paper in my old backpack. I laughed when I read the "A-" at the top of the page, remembering how I had rushed writing the majority of the paper backstage during a performance of my play. I also found the grade to my poetry project (half-prepared in the back of my car): "A" on that one, too.

Then I stopped. If procrastinating is such a bad thing, why do all my last-minute projects turn out so well?

Procrastinating is not always such a bad thing. We live in a fast-paced world: fast-food for quick "nutrition;" cell phones for quick communication; even TiVo for catching episodes of our favorite shows that we are too busy to catch on time.

I think what people need to learn - including myself and my peers - is to sort out priorities. I'm not recommending ditching work to watch your favorite daytime soap opera, but sometimes compromises need to be made in life to accommodate both responsibility and fun. It's okay to listen to music for a half hour before digging into a complicated project - putting off a duty almost always increases the chance for a more creative outcome because the majority of people work better under pressure.

In the long run, it's more beneficial to read a book for enjoyment instead of the one assigned for purely educational purposes. In the long run, it's more important to sit down and write a letter to a forgotten friend than just text messaging a simple "Hello" in a matter of seconds to cover for the fact that you've been "too busy".

Dancing through life is more important than running through it. We can afford to waste time every now and then.

And for those who are my age, going through the same things I am - we need to slow down and appreciate our last year of school, spend time with our friends, savor the fact that our parents still do our dishes. Everything will fall into place. It usually does.

So for once, just sit back and relax and watch TV. Homework and dishes will take care of themselves. And anyway, good things come to those who wait.



n Ashley Noel Hennefer is a senior at Douglas High School this year and an intern for The Record-Courier.