Another one bites the dust

Well, it's now officially the very pointy end of semester.

That is, classes finished last week, so this week is officially 'reading week' or 'swotvac' as it was known at Tas Uni. Next week is exam week, and at the end of that week, first semester is officially over.

Fortunately, I don't have any formal exams to sit this semester, but before the end of next week, I do have to submit:

** 1x 2500 word essay (bit the dust this morning)
** 1 x 3000 word paper (currently writhing in the dust, hopefully will bite later today)
** 1 x 2000 word essay
** 2x "take home exams" (approx 2500 words each)
** and a portfolio of bits and pieces (including self-critiques for both of my in-class sermons) for my Worship and Preaching course for Friday Program

The good news is that the reality is not quite as bad as this list implies, as this morning I submitted the 2500 word essay (for my Christology class) and am hoping to finalise and submit the 3000 word paper this afternoon.

I think I may have mentioned before that this semester I have been experiencing a rather savage case of writers' block. I'm sure any of you who have been students will know the feeling. You think, "yeah, 2000 words on applying 2 different ethical frameworks to a particular situation.... piece of cake!", and then when the time comes to actually sit down and DO IT, you just want to run screaming from the computer. (I personally tend to end up curled up in a corner in foetal position, rocking, in utter denial). So this has resulted in being rather behind in my workload (eg 3 of the items on the above list are currently 'overdue', but hopefully by the end of today that will be reduced to only one overdue piece of work.)

One of my dear friends and fellow-students, has been quite concerned about my state, and has gone to a lot of trouble to help me motivate myself to get over this block. Not sure whether she was drawing on her experience and training as a teacher, or as a Mum, but either way, her strategy seems to be bearing fruit.

A couple of weeks ago she presented me with a box, full of envelopes and little packages, each with a message on it, along the lines of "open this when..." She said that she was hoping my curiosity to find out what was inside each envelope would drive me to fulfil the conditions required to open the various envelopes (eg: "1 hour of fruitful work done!", or "essay halfway", or "essay completed!" etc)

Two of my favourite envelopes so far have been:

Christology essay halfway- open when you've done 1000 words- this contained a little wrist band with "WWJD" on it, and an accompanying note which said: "WWJD- What Would Jesus Do?"- if you knew that you would have finished your bloody Christology essay before now!

and (I think the ultimate fave so far)

Please make me smile - this contained a folded sheet of paper, with the label "Liturgical Centrefold" written on the outside. When I opened it up, it turned out to be a photocopy of a picture from a text book, featuring our own Professor of Worship presiding at a Eucharist service, circa 1980-something (and he had the haircut- and colour- to prove it!) This not only made me smile, but it made me roll around on the floor laughing my head off for quite some time... my only query being, "if this is a centrefold, where do the staples go?" :-)

So, a big thankyou to Linley, who has helped so much in getting me over this hump (and even having some fun on the way! :-)