Nice weather vs. Work

By Matt Owens

As we begin to realize how fast the end of the semester approaching us, the tension and stress are mounting. With the final review of the semester for our thesis coming up in a week in a half students have begun to squeeze some production out of every hour of the day. There is always plenty to distract us from our studies, and is very easy to give in to the temptations of anything that isn’t work. Each semester is different in the distractions of which may pull a student from their work. For any football fan every weekend during the fall semester is packed with college football on Saturday and pro football on Sunday. To be in school that has a football team each Saturday there is a home game there is plenty of tailgating and festivities that would be hard to miss. March madness hits during the middle of the spring semester and is one to the biggest sporting events during the year. Now even if you are not a sports fan there are always a lot going on surrounding the football and basketball games that draw even the uninterested person. So what big distraction fallows the culmination of the college basketball season in March? One might think that there will not be any bid distractions sporting wise after this. Spring break has come and gone as well, so students should be free of distractions and be able to focus on their studies and for us get some work done on our thesis!

So why do I have the feeling that it is so hard to get anything done lately? Even though we had an incredibly mild winter it is always nice to get back to warm weather and get back outside, but its only early April, it shouldn’t be this nice out? Over the past month record highs have been recorded all over the country. The weather here in Southern Illinois has been amazing! Most plants have even already bloomed and the trees and grass are lush and green. People have been mowing their lawns for a month already. So what has been distracting me from my work? It has definitely been the great weather. As I write right now it is a beautiful 62 degrees outside with a perfectly clear blue sky and surprisingly enough very little humidity. It feels amazing outside right now and I am stuck in studio. I feel like I should be out there enjoying this beautiful day! There is also so much to great outdoor activities to enjoy down here in Southern Illinois, wineries, hiking, or just enjoying the beautiful scenery. I can attribute to lack of productivity I made last weekend to the beautiful weather. I couldn’t pull myself from the back porch at my house. It’s not like I was even doing anything either, I was just sitting there by myself, but it was so nice!

So I didn’t get much accomplished last weekend. I can’t do that this weekend, work needs to get done! I am almost hoping that it won’t be so nice so I don’t have the temptation.