Holland's life: Obsessions
Holland Olsen
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Opinion
I love the spring because I get to watch baseball, The Masters and all my friends disappear to get ready for finals.
This year it is different because I don't have to come back next year, which makes studying that much harder. Trying to stay focused while catching spring fever was hard, but staying focused with senioritis and spring fever is another issue.
The last several weeks have been some of the hardest weeks I can remember while going to school at Dixie State College. It is not because my class load is overbearing. It is because every time I start studying, I get sidetracked by baseball or I start frantically searching the Internet for jobs I can apply for. This search usually ends up with me laying on the couch, watching TV and feeling doomed to unemployment.
While I am not behind in any of my classes, I have this amazing feeling of anxiety building up each and every day. Most students feel this heavy anxiety around this time of the year because of finals, research papers and an overpowering feeling that they want to have fun outside because it is spring.
I have no answers for this. I don't know how to stay focused on a 10-page paper while the Red Sox are on TV. I don't know how to go to the library, knowing the Dixie baseball team is playing. I don't have the willpower to lock myself in my room so I can focus on job applications or study for a test. This is one chunk of knowledge that I cannot give to my underclassmen because I have never been able to do it myself.
I think my overpowering anxiety comes from a problem I have always had: obsession. Have you ever heard how to catch a raccoon? Well, you put a shiny object at the bottom of a hole just big enough for the raccoon's paw to fit into and grab that object. In the hole you have nails pointed at an angle toward the shiny object.
With the object in the paw of the raccoon, its paw becomes too big to pull out of the hole because it will get stuck on the nails. Although all the raccoon has to do is let go of the shiny object to be free, it won't let go.
This year it is different because I don't have to come back next year, which makes studying that much harder. Trying to stay focused while catching spring fever was hard, but staying focused with senioritis and spring fever is another issue.
The last several weeks have been some of the hardest weeks I can remember while going to school at Dixie State College. It is not because my class load is overbearing. It is because every time I start studying, I get sidetracked by baseball or I start frantically searching the Internet for jobs I can apply for. This search usually ends up with me laying on the couch, watching TV and feeling doomed to unemployment.
While I am not behind in any of my classes, I have this amazing feeling of anxiety building up each and every day. Most students feel this heavy anxiety around this time of the year because of finals, research papers and an overpowering feeling that they want to have fun outside because it is spring.
I have no answers for this. I don't know how to stay focused on a 10-page paper while the Red Sox are on TV. I don't know how to go to the library, knowing the Dixie baseball team is playing. I don't have the willpower to lock myself in my room so I can focus on job applications or study for a test. This is one chunk of knowledge that I cannot give to my underclassmen because I have never been able to do it myself.
I think my overpowering anxiety comes from a problem I have always had: obsession. Have you ever heard how to catch a raccoon? Well, you put a shiny object at the bottom of a hole just big enough for the raccoon's paw to fit into and grab that object. In the hole you have nails pointed at an angle toward the shiny object.
With the object in the paw of the raccoon, its paw becomes too big to pull out of the hole because it will get stuck on the nails. Although all the raccoon has to do is let go of the shiny object to be free, it won't let go.
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