“Untitled 2” by Charlie Parsons

There was a time that I had to race against the clock, this story takes place last year in mid May. The end of the year was approaching and math was my biggest struggle. The math class was structured uniquely, following a self paced timeline for assignments and quizzes. This meant that students had the choice when to work, as well as when to slack off and watch Youtube. It's around the middle of May and I am behind on 5 lessons. Meaning that I wouldn't know how to do a large portion of the semester test, as well as tank my overall grade. I did the math (I usually don't), and I had 4 days before I had another lesson, which requires the previous 5 to be understood to complete. The problem with those 5 lessons isn't only that I've put them off, I just didn't understand how to do them. It's not like I didn't try at all, I definitely did, but even I knew I didn't put in my full effort. I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The first obstacle I encountered was my after school activities. Tuesdays and Thursdays I had sailing after school, from 4 till 6:45, I would get home shower and sleep. So that really meant that I had 2 days. I scanned my schedule like a copier machine for all breaks and windows in hopes to find as many bits of time. My largest breaks were lunch alternating from 40 minutes to an hour. The other times I had time to do math was in math, which I had every other day for an hour. All in all I had 5 hours, 20 minutes, and 2 days after school to get caught up. I was already halfway through the first assignment of the 5, and I partially understood it. I finished it in a short lunch, the second lesson I got help from a friend in math that Monday afternoon. Things were moving quickly and I was even ahead of my set schedule. I had even planned to start more that Monday afternoon, but before school got out I had gotten a text from my mom telling me there was a change in plan and I had to go out do errands with her until the late evening. It didn't throw as much of a wrench in my plans as I had previously thought, I still had three days to do three lessons. Less work got done on Tuesday, I was losing focus and motivation. Only did half a lesson, down to 2 days with 2 and a half lessons left. Wednesday really did feel fast, I was working but not fast enough to catch back up to my same pace. I had only finished the prior lesson and barely started the next. Almost 2 lessons and 1 lunch period to do them, I decided I would wake up earlier and do one before school and one during, simply. So I had thought, I slept through my alarms and only woke 30 minutes earlier than usual. The time still helped me in the end though, that Thursday I worked harder than I ever had. Yet I didn't know why, I didn't know why I was trying so hard. I mean I knew it was because I had to go to school, but why did I care so much in that one moment?