Qantas (this title is irrelevant to the subject matter of this post)

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to go for a photo blog of "A Day in the Life of..." simply because I'm going to be home all day studying, so I need something fun and frivolous to distract myself when I am in need of procrastination.

Now that exams are on the horizon, I have come to pay special notice to the trivial and often unnecessary things I do. On the other hand, I think they work for me.

In high school, I was the person who always finished her maths notes at least four days before the maths test. And who spent the weekend studying every question in the study guide so that by the time the school week started, I had nothing left to study.

In uni, I write out my lecture notes up to four times. Every semester, I like to write my notes out in a different format. For example, last semester I wrote out all my notes in these little exercise books. For this semester's midsem, I just simply wrote them out on file paper. For finals, I'm writing them out on clear sheets of paper, reminiscent to the maths notes of year 12. Different subtopics are kept in small boxes. For my NS midsem, I wrote out my notes close to five times for some of the lectures, my reasoning being that I could simultaneously get my notes really neat while hopefully absorbing some of the information.

I'm constantly erasing out stuff and writing it again. I'll rewrite something if it's even a little off center and not straight.

I glue down the corners of my books where they've been separated (the sheets of cardboard in book covers). I hate it when the corners of book spines are dented. I hate it when there are thumbprints and dirt marks on the inside spine (the page part) of books. I've been using a piece of paper to hold and turn the pages of the book I'm currently reading.

I changed my handwriting three times while writing my NS midsem notes this semester. The second time, by the time I'd finished, the last few pages were distinctly different (smaller) than the first few pages. I rewrote them all. It was a vicious cycle.

But I enjoy it. I like things to be perfect. When I know something is imperfect, I won't be able to sleep or do anything else. I'll keep looking at it, touching at it, weighing up how long it would take me to write out 40 pages of notes again...

J