Ever since I switched my 5th period class into journalism, I’ve noticed I always come in late because I take my time getting my lunch and getting to class. This semester I decided to challenge myself by attempting to come to class on time before the second bell rings.
Starting out the school year with a terrible schedule and no 5th period made me annoyed because, although I had a longer lunch period, I had nowhere to go or no one to spend it with. I ended up emailing my counselor to add me to a class. I didn’t know any available classes so I asked my friends, and one of them told me I should join journalism.
For the first month I was early, on time, or just a little late, but once I started getting comfortable with the year I started becoming more and more laid back and began to be 20-40 minutes late, or even not make it to class at all. This really affected my grade as I could never finish the assignments since I wasn’t able to work on anything at home because I would always just fall asleep as soon as I got there.
In the beginning of the school year taking this class being late wasn’t a worry to me because it was an elective and I thought it was a class where you would get little to no work. When I would go to class most of the work was just notes and Do Nows. At the time I would rather have a longer lunch then sit there and take notes when I could just ask my friend to send me the notes, but then I found myself not doing it even when I was given the work.
Being late everyday to 5th period started had other effects. First, it was disappointing to see that journalism class was the only class I was failing, and second, my counselor told my parents I was always late to class, which got me in trouble. So I decided to challenge myself by getting to my 5th period on time to be able to complete my work.
My plan to complete my challenge was to either go to places that were near school and weren’t as busy so I wouldn’t have to wait in line for my food the whole lunch period.
On the first day I had a doctor’s appointment which gave a lot more time to get to my Journalism class on time because I was excused for all other classes that were before lunch. Once I got to school I went straight to Teaspoon to get boba and instead of staying there until the last minute waiting for the bus, I used google maps and saw which bus that would take me before the second bell rang. I took my time getting to class because I thought I had a lot more time than I actually did, making it to class at 1:39 and feeling scared of almost failing on my first day.
The next day of the challenge I was able to drive my parents car to school which gave me the chance to go to other places that were a little further away from school. I decided to drive to Square Pie Guys because I was too lazy to walk down and up the hill. This was also because I saw a lot of parking spots near the school. I underestimated the time it would take for my food to be ready, which at the time didn’t worry me because I had completely forgotten about the challenge until after it was past 1:40 and I still wasn’t given my food. Seeing that I was already late made me take my time because it wouldn’t matter for the challenge if I rushed over when I was already way over the time I was supposed to be there but I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it halfway through the week without being late and that I might have to restart for a new week. Making it to class 15 minutes late I didn’t get much of any work done, but it was still around the same amount as I would do even on the day that I made it on time.
Although I had already failed the challenge I wanted to try to keep going just to see if I could make it on time by actively keeping it in mind. For the whole rest of the week I stayed in my 2nd period teachers class with my friends because I knew if I went out I would be late. This only lasted 2 days and on the last I went to get food and due to my awareness of the time and distance I was late again.
I kept thinking about giving up, even though I still had 2 days left that I had to complete. When the new week started I was spending lunch with my friends who only went to CVS and went to school right after. This was good for me because I would be able to hang out with my friends, get something to eat, and make it back before the bell. These days as soon as I got to class I sat but didn’t get to do my assignments again. I realized near the end of the challenge that not only was being late a bad habit of mine, but also procrastinating on my work, rushing through it right before it was due. This was a bad habit that I had with all my classes but being late made it more difficult to get things done in this class.
Knowing that being on time won’t help me if I also don’t stop procrastinating I’ve learned that I would have to start doing my work as soon as I got to class instead of waiting on my phone for the time to go by. This challenge helped me see that even if I did complete all 7 days making it on time, the difference would be small if I didn’t change other habits I have that are holding me back.
