Fighting Against Procrastination




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  • 2012-11-12 12:59:58
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The Writing Center held its crowning event – “The Long Night Against Procrastination” on Sunday, 11-12 of November, in Balkanski Academic Center (BAC).Students swarmed and occupied Panitza Library, Writing Center tutors scutteled along the halls and potential tutees waited in line for a helping hand, or pen. Lisa Clark, the coordinator of the Writing Center, was the main organizer of the event with writing tutors by her side brandishing pens and ideas. The opening event gathered a large group of participants. Three large posters on the outside wall of the library gathered immense attention. One of them read: “Describe yourself in 6 words”; the other two detailed a student-written story which dealt with Camel cigarettes, “global cooling” at AUBG, and “bad news for Obama and the tiger” (the tiger being the protagonist). It was actually composed by combining different scraps of paper written by students who did not know the whole story. [caption id="attachment_8374" align="alignright" width="286" caption="Writing Center Tutors"][/caption] At 8:15 p.m. Students occupied BAC Computer Lab. Prof. Michael Cohen, Arts & Literature Department, led a mini-workshop on overcoming writer’s block. He enumerated different methods of fighting against this most common and lethal writer’s disease, many among which, he interposed, AUBG students should be well aware of. He even came up with a story off the top of his head: “A dog eats your cat. The ghost of the cat befriends a ghost mouse." End of story.   [caption id="attachment_8367" align="alignleft" width="286" caption="Library Challenge Game"][/caption]   9:00 p.m. Participants gathered once again for a challenge game organized by two tutors, Michael Rieger and Elizabeth Loeffelman. Situated on the basement floor, they accosted anyone and everyone, challenging them to test their knowledge of the library. Students got a slip of paper with a catalog number on it, and were supposed to find the respective book with another paper slip inside it that read “you found me”. Bringing back the second scrap would earn them two pieces of candy.   [caption id="attachment_8368" align="alignright" width="286" caption="Prof. Cohen's mini-workshops"][/caption] 10 p.m. Prof. Cohen gave a second mini-workshop on “generating ideas.” He listed several options for finding the course that your story would take, and concluded that whichever method you choose, in the end it’s a “stone’s throw.” What that means is that you are throwing an idea, or a metaphorical stone, into the distance, and you are trailing your way to where it landed. That’s how a story comes into being. Then he asked participants to write a brief response to a “misogynistic” quote by Buddha.   [caption id="attachment_8372" align="alignleft" width="286" caption="Star-gazing"][/caption]  
12 p.m. Tiredness or plain procrastination prevented the majority of participants from taking part in a midnight walk around campus. The event boiled down to five people, reporter included, led by writing tutor Nekruz Mamadalizoda. The group rigorously improvised jogging skills, but was soon forced to return indoors due to the weather.   3 a.m.  Participants were able to perform the ritual of star-gazing. Milos Vukicevic, another writing tutor, gave a brief lecture on constellations with references to Harry Potter. Afterwards all retired back to the library and the beverages in the lobby.   8 a.m. For some it was a long night, for others a typical morning. And whether they fought for or against procrastination, struggled or slept, the hard workers that remained till the end were rewarded with a long-awaited breakfast. Three lucky winners received special prizes for their efforts throughout the night.           [gallery order="DESC" columns="4" orderby="post_date"]