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I work with many students who find essay writing a very stressful process.
All of these scholars experience their essay writing anxieties in different ways;
Here is my unique take on it;
1) The Procrastinators – you would rather clean your room, anyone’s room than start your essay. If this is you then you are welcome to come to my house as I could do with a free cleaner.
2) The Last Day Before Guys – you leave your essay until the last possible minute and spend a full day and night working none stop against the clock. You smell and look like you have been marooned on a small uninhabited barren Scottish island for the last year.
3) The Over Preparers – you have created mind maps, charts, highlighted quotes, drawn timelines, prepared course notes and you spend your time and energy organising and reorganising them. You will be finding post-it notes everywhere for the next term, even in your underwear draw.
4) The All By Myself Brigade – Like a student version of Bridgette Jones iconic ‘All By Myself’ scene you drink too much Mad Dog 20/20, dance around in your PJ’s and sing sad songs into your Manscaped Trimmer about the unfairness of having to write essays and being alone. That hangover is going to make your essay writing standard pure mince (as we say in the Scottish vernacular)
5) The Overstimulated Over Loaders – you indulge in energy drinks, caffeine, sugar anything to keep you alert enough to write your essay. With the highs will also come the crashing jittering lows.
6) The Feedback Folk – you need to ask everyone from the Barrister at Starbucks to your 5yrs old nephew Bartholomew, how you should structure and write the content of your essay. You really don’t trust your own knowledge and skills.
If you know of any other archetypes please let me know in the comments section.
My message to all of the wonderous learners out there is as follows;
· BREATH
· TAKE A BREAK
· IF YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO CUDDLE THEN GIVE THEM A SNUGGLE
· PUT POPING ROCK CANDY ON YOUR TONGUE
· SWITCH OFF THE SOCIAL MEDIA, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DEATH SCROLL TIC TOK’S MARVEL CHARACTERS WINKING AT YOU
· AS ONE SWALLOW DOESN’T MAKE A SUMMER NEITHER DOES ONE ESSAY MAKE A FULL QUALIFICATION
· JUMP INTO A COOL SHOWER
· PLAY WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS BY QUEEN REALLY LOUDLY
· STEP AWAY FROM A 6HRS NETFLIX BINGE OF SERIAL KILLERS DOCUMENTARIES
· HYDRATE – H20 PREFERABLY
· PUNCH YOUR PILLOW
· ASK FOR AN EXTENTION IF YOU NEED ONE
· EAT - EVEN IF ITS JUNK FOOD
· HOLD A MEETING WITH YOUR LECTURER AND ASK THEM YOUR QUESTIONS
· SLEEP BUT REMEMBER YOUR NOT SLEEPING BEAUTY
· HAVE A STUDY BUDDY
· BE IMPERFECT - “If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.” Margaret Atwood
· REMEMBER THIS IS JUST A MOMENT IN TIME
· YOU HAVE ALREADY ACHIEVED SO MUCH, BE PROUD OF THE AWESOME PERSON THAT YOU ARE!