Assignments, Papers, and Desire to Apply Knowledge

It's been a bit of a pain in the back, to say the least, to keep up with school and the expectations of those who teach me. I feel as if I've lost a lot of my initial gas in school. not a lack of drive to learn but consistently a fear to apply that knowledge and have to work within the rigid guidelines and structures of the English Language and formalized writing styles such as APA and college level MLA. It's usually very fun! But also taxing, mentally in a lot of different ways.

A thing I've been trying to keep in mind is that comparison is the enemy of joy - as in comparing your work and efforts to other peoples generally better or different in a way in which you find appealing we tend to beat ourselves up for our own reasons. A good thing I try and remember is that literally everybody does this, we all desire to improve through the desire to be the best, but a lot of people let that be the reason they do not try or refuse to make an effort to change things.

For me, I've been really good at coming up with ideas and structures for papers, things I really would love to explore and develop a more thorough understanding of and actually write something informative and well researched but, that is exactly where I usually get stumped, the actual research. I recommend, if you're struggling with that, put a lot more time into your research and reading than you have been. Hell, use wikipedia and track their sources if you have to. Just be ready to interpret academic language and confusing concepts.

I am determined to write decent enough papers to have okay grades! I gotta make it happen.