I wanted to talk about Travis Driskill, who made his major league debut in 2002 with the Orioles at age thirty, a full decade after being chosen in the fourth round of the amateur draft by the Indians. He hung around until 2007 and racked up a lofty 5.23 ERA, but he made it after all. Besides, he went 5-0 to begin his career and that's something that can't be taken away. Travis has an encouraging story of perseverance, but part of me imagines that he took so long to make it because he's a procrastinator. "I'll earn that promotion to the big leagues tomorrow!"
Travis might not be a procrastinator, but I certainly am one - one of the best (or worst?). It's been that way ever since middle school. Those are confusing years for everyone, and it was like a switch was flipped inside me. I was always a quiet, intelligent kid who worried myself sick over things like grades, but eventually I just decided to save myself the aggravation and let things ride. I probably went too far in the other direction, deciding to start putting together a science fair project the night before it was due or just plain ignoring some homework assignments, as if there would be no consequences. I straightened up a bit eventually, ensuring that I would make it to (and through) the high school of my choice. But the procrastinator in me has won many battles over the years. In college, there were many papers finished at four or five in the morning. I threw myself at the mercy of a few professors for deadline extensions. On one memorable occasion, I sat in my bathroom memorizing a script for a friend's final scene in directing class...approximately fifteen minutes before I was due at the theatre.
If you don't believe that I'm more than willing to put off 'til tomorrow what could be done today, take a look at the time stamps on most of my blog entries. Tonight we're cutting it close to midnight again. I'm finally getting annoyed by my own dawdling, so I'm hoping to start knocking some items off of my to-do list that have been lingering for as long as several months. I haven't made much progress here at midweek, but hopefully writing about it will get the ball rolling. I've got a few overdue packages of cards that are ready to be mailed to trade partners, so that's something. What's next? Updating my resume, adding some must-have music to my iPod, sorting my Orioles cards, filling out an online dating profile (yes, I'm really going there...eventually), putting together some marketing materials for my theatre troupe...something, anything, everything.
But it will have to wait for tomorrow. If I don't get to bed soon, it'll be hard to accomplish anything for the rest of the week.
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