Ding dong! The paper’s dead! Woot!

Yes, I finished my paper, and my professor agreed to take it, so I’m golden. I’m actually moderately proud of my paper, if I don’t look too closely at the conclusion, which was a bit rushed and not as elegant as I’d hoped it’d be, but since when have conclusions been my forte? At this point, I’ll be glad just to pass.

I keep going back and forth on how I should feel about my accomplishment. On the one hand, my paper was *6 weeks late.* On the other hand, only 11 people even tried to get a grade in the course, out of at least 40 warm bodies that attended class. But I don’t just want to be one of the few students who toughed it out. I want to be the shiny-gold-star student. So with that in mind, I’m starting my paper for the course I’m currently taking next week. (No shit—I already have a possible topic and will be at my prof’s office hour next week to discuss it.)

So what was the total damage on my paper?

• 23 + pages


• cover page


• an anti-plagiarism statement


• an index


• 2 pages of bibliography

= 29 pages handed in

What did I clear off my desk in the sunroom afterwards?

• 6 reference works


• 21 copied articles (7 of which I didn’t end up using in my paper), for a total of 226 sheets of paper, most of which were 2 book pages per sheet, so 294 book pages


• 27 pages copied from reference works I didn’t want to lug home from the library


• 35 pages of my paper’s contents, printed out and marked up


• 126 pages of notes and handwritten content, plus a small pile of pages off the phone pad, a couple of envelopes, strips off a sheet of paper, and even 1 page from a Sudoku game

= 414 sheets of paper juggled by yours truly over the life of the paper

This is what *just the notes/handwritten content* looks like in shredded form.



And now I am going to watch Muppets with Hannah with a clear conscience!