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Prompt responses due Friday

14. Procrastination. If you had more time, you’d be able to put it off longer. What do you put off to the last moment? Why? Tell a story about how you just barely got something done in time – or didn’t.
Alternate: Splat! Use that word in a story or a poem.

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I'm Not Ready

Submitted by lducharme on April 30, 2008 - 20:11.

Wait!
I'm not ready for this.
Living far from home,
In a new place, with new people.
Parties,
the pressures that go with them.
Having professors who don’t know my name.
Learning in a place where I'm one in a hundred
Instead of one in twenty.
The make-or-break-it Finals,
and the late nights cramming for them.
I'm not ready for college.

Wait!
I'm not ready for this.
To be thrown into the world.
Expected to know all I need to make it
No guidelines or syllabi.
Finding a job, a home, paying taxes,
Living on my own for real.
Clubs and bars,
the strength to know when enough is enough.
Living in the real world,
With all its responsibilities.
I'm not ready to be an adult.

Wait!
I'm not ready for this.
Saying "I do",
Changing my name,
Having a whole new identity.
The nine months of pregnancy,
Hours of labor,
A lifetime of motherhood.
Raising children,
With the rest of my life,
the patience that's required.
Being responsible for another life,
Twenty-four/seven
I'm not ready for a family.

Wait!
I don't have to be ready for this.
I'm only 16.
I will be ready for the rest of my life.
One of these days.

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