If you’re like 99% of the human population, you have been late to something at least once in your life. Being late is just part of the human experience. I’ve been late for many things: class, birthday parties, going across the street to grab breakfast in the morning. Being late is just part of my DNA. Multiple times, I’ve kept my friends waiting five, ten, even twenty extra minutes for me to meet them to hang out. Not only am I a chronic late person, but I’m also a chronic procrastinator. Whether it’s putting off homework, doing my laundry, or even just getting out of bed, I will put anything off until the last minute.
So what happens if you are late to class? What happens if you’ve put off that essay until the night before it’s due? Here are some tips from a perpetually late person to help you deal with the stress that comes from tardiness.
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Relax: Okay, this one is pretty self-explanatory. There have been many times when my stress level has gone from 0 to 100 because of me being a procrastinator. I’ve left everything from worksheets, to fifty page readings to four page papers till the last minute. I’ve gotten extremely overwhelmed and felt like it was impossible for me to get everything done. In times like these, I remember to take a breather and to calm down. I admit that it was my own fault that I procrastinated and then I get straight back to work because I have no time to give myself an intervention.
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Don’t Make Excuses: When you’re currently sprinting to your friend’s birthday party because you’re running twenty minutes late, you’re probably thinking of a great excuse. How convincing and elaborate can you make your excuse so people think you’re telling the truth? It’s always best to throw out any excuses and tell the truth. Instead of trying to tell your friend a false but creative reason about why you’re late, it’s better to just say you watched a few too many episodes of House of Cards and didn’t keep track of time.
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Remember, it’s not the end of the world if you’re late: Okay, so you’re five minutes late to class. It’s fine. Don’t freak out about being just a few minutes late because it might be the case where either the professor is late as well or you’re coming into class with some other students whose alarms didn’t wake them as well. Nobody is going to take you to court because you’re late to class. Unless it’s a mock trial class.
Tardiness happens. When it does happen, you just have to remember to relax and it’s not the end of the world. Everyone is late at one point in their lives, take it from me, a girl who was thirty minutes late to her own birthday party.
