The spring semester has always been a favorite of mine. The idea of sweating out finals then stepping into a long summer of fun induces motivation. This is partly the reason why I am elated about this term. But also because if everything goes as it might, I will graduate in the summer. It is most interesting that I will be using a whole semester to write one paper. A new experience which feels rather cool! But it means also that my time management skills would be put to test. I am a procrastinator, after all, and a lot of time usually has a negative effect on my productivity. 

I have decided to work out a daily routine to research and write. Should I be successful, it would be wonderful, especially since all such past attempts have been unsuccessful. However, I just saw this Ted Talk on breaking bad habits which I think could be helpful in establishing new ones. What is awesome is that I am very lucky to have for an advisor an amazing professor through whom I have gained some of the most interesting and exciting perspectives on life. Prof. Masciandaro is not easy, hence the whole thing should be the more challenging, thus a great learning experience. 

My thesis is on love through the lens of sin based on a Revelation of Love by Julian of Norwich. The goal is to write an impressive paper; something I can brag about nonstop; something I can start sentences with and bring up in the middle of conversations that are not in the least related. The sort of thing that one can become a broken record about––eventually all your friends have it memorized, not because they wished to, but because they have heard you say it too many freaking times! I will probably frame it on my wall. I am serious. Hence it must be a work of art. But easier said than done, right? This is why I am daring myself to prove to myself (who better can I really impress?) just how good of an essayist I can be. Just this once. I do not plan to write anymore research papers. The understatement is, therefore, I am excited.

Photo: When one loves a poem but is too lazy to memorize it, one writes it and admires it. These lines, beginning Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” are from Dante’s Inferno.

Happy February!
J. A. Odartey