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Health & Fitness

The Late Bloomer...

A senior in high school finally decides to grow up... finally.

“If I had to describe you in 50 words, ‘cowardly’ would definitely not be one of them,” Mr. Trudeau reassured me. 

But with a tattered up homework assignment in my hand that was due two days before, I was quietly imploding with disagreement. How else would one describe a girl who’s outspoken in a class discussion but basically plays whack-a-mole come time for turning assignments in? When there’s an assignment due, I end up coming to class with something, but am either too ashamed to turn it in because of the simple fact that it’s late or that I don’t think it’s ready to be turned in because it’s crap in my standards. When it’s one day past the deadline and I’m still dissatisfied with my assignment, I quietly work on it without even mentioning to the teacher that I’m still working on it. Sometimes silence is useful in intense situations like in a heated argument, but this kind of silence— the one I seemed to have mastered— isn’t quite as useful or as smart.

Mr. Trudeau proceeded to read the homework assignment carefully and willingly, and told me that I would receive half credit and that we would have to have a discussion about the state of my research paper first thing tomorrow.

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Normally, I would go about the rest of the quarter with a zero for an assignment rather than approaching a teacher to:

  1. Plea for an extension of the deadline
  2. Ask for help

Plenty of students ask for help and extensions, but I’m consistently the most reluctant person I know when it comes to doing these tasks. 

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Mr. Trudeau’s level-headed and understanding approach to my laughable self-deprecating and deadline-dodging nature made me belch out a cartoonish sigh-of-relief, which I did promptly after I’d walked out of his room. 

What so many students do everyday is something I’m baby-stepping my way towards…

I’m graduating in a month.

Cue the humorous crashing sound. 

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