I Have SUCH a Hard Life!

My residents laugh at me when I tell them I'm going to my room to work on homework because they know I'll come back downstairs three hours later for an ice cream break and report that I've gotten nothing done. Just tonight, I showed one resident that I finally had an outline for my paper. She replied, "that's it? You've had THREE weeks to write this paper. It's due tomorrow and you have an outline?"

Have you ever watched About a Boy where Hugh Grant lives his life in "units of time" doing nothing that is not purposeless? This is my dream life. Never mind that Grant learns his lesson and has selfless, meaningful relationships by the end of the movie--this is not the lesson I learn from his example. I like to pace my room aimlessly listening to music and thinking about nothing. I can spend whole hours sitting in my oversized chair and looking at a book cover.

I mistakingly thought grad school would cure my contempt for paper-writing and reading. I was wrong. Unlike my undergrad and all those horrific gen ed classes we all must suffer through, my current assignments are not stupid. In fact, I even enjoy most of my work. I am finally focussing on things I like; plus, I picked a program that caters to my academic strengths (well, I'm really not academic, so it's not very accurate to say "academic strengths" but this program includes little of the things that are definitely not my strengths). And yet, simply because it's homework, I don't want to do it.

But that statement isn't exactly true. I don't want to do my assignments because they were assigned to me, yes. But I also don't want to do them because it's productive and I'm not generally fond of productivity.

Unfortunately, my professors have informed me that distaste for productivity and deadlines is not an acceptable excuse for late work. They also said that picking assignments is their prerogative and I don't get to skip the one's I don't like. I tried proposing a multiple choice approach to homework but they said no to this too. Bummer.

I wonder if future employers will operate the same way as my professors. What will I do then?