Gurgle grumple moofenblump. *drool*

It’s funny how quickly nine months without homework can make one forget the pain of sleep deprivation. This morning I went to bed at 5:00 and woke up at 7:15. I’m surprised I can still spell. Maybe I can’t, and I just haven’t noticed.

I got home from teaching at 9:30 last night and spent the next long while (okay, after a wee break) doing homework for my China class: reading three chapters in the book (out loud, because I’m weird like that), taking notes (lots of notes, pretty notes, color-coded notes), finding a current event (the Chinese announcement of their next manned space mission) to share with the class, and studying for a vocab quiz.

I don’t usually study for things, but I dug into that vocab. There were maybe thirty things on the list, most of them names. Chinese names. They were transliterated, of course, but the words still run together in a jumbled mess in your head when you don’t speak a shred of the language.

When I got to class, though, we spent the first half hour going over the reading and all of the vocab, in very specific terms: “This word will not be on the quiz, so don’t worry about it. This one will; the important thing about him is… .” Okay. Oh, and the quiz was a ten-question matching quiz. Which we took in groups. And if you missed one (there were more words than blanks), you still got a 100. And by the way, the first quiz is just for practice.

So I worked waaaaaay too hard. (This is without a doubt the first time I’ve typed that sentence.) I suspected as much while I was studying, but I kept on keepin’ on for several reasons, of varying significance:

1. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, and I figured it was better to be over- than underprepared.
2. I am a perfectionist.
3. I like to write things out by hand and make them pretty.
4. The material is fascinating and something I want to learn more about.
5. “New beginnings” boost my work ethic and focus about 500%.
6. As a physics major in a history class, I feel I have something to prove.
7. Martyrdom is fun and easy.

My enthusiasm will wear off, I’m sure, as the semester wears me down, but hopefully I can hold out for longer than I’ve done before. I know I shouldn’t set perfection as my goal—it fosters an all-or-nothing mentality which is never healthy and which will only help me talk myself out of putting in my best effort. I’m going to try to be more actively aware of that this time around.

But for now, if you’re looking for someone to enthrall and delight you with a retelling of the dramatic hundred-year story of the fall of the Ming dynasty and the establishment of the Qing, I’m your girl.

Tags: school, sleep

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