Hi, my name is Andy and I’m addicted to email. I check my email at least 5 times a day, probably more some days, depending on where I’m at and if they have free wireless. I have 3 “main” email accounts, 2-3 “secondary/junk” accounts (which I only check once every couple days), plus the inbox for my facebook and myspace pages; add it all up and the amount of time I spend simply checking all my emails (not even reading or writing messages) is getting out of control. My “problem” has become more noticeable lately as I’m trying to be a productive student and finish the semester strong. I have a lot of work to do before I can really enjoy the Christmas season and working on school stuff often takes a backseat to other-much less important things; I’m actually proud/embarrassed to admit that sometimes I find myself checking email or reading articles online while sitting in class (I hope none of my professors are reading this, although I doubt I have them confused since it’s probably pretty obvious that I’m not paying attention to their lecture). I’ve come to realize that grad school is pretty much all writing (papers and projects) – at least it is in my experience as a seminary student – there are very few tests…in fact, this is end of my third semester (plus one J-term) and when I buy new books after Christmas I will have only taken one real test (you know, the kind you take in a classroom after the professor comes in and asks everyone put away all their study materials and all you hear for the next two hours is the sound of furious writing – the joyful release of knowledge before it’s forgotten – and an occasional sniffle, since students are always sick around finals, especially in December when it’s cold outside and people haven’t been getting much sleep).
The thinking seems to go something like this… when you’re studying for a test you’d rather be writing a paper, but when you’re writing a paper you’d rather be studying for a test. Read the rest of this entry »
