An essay. A format for relaying information that is commonly used to test students’ knowledge, patience, and overall resilience. Every now and then you will have that course that starts its first day making references to THE ESSAY. THE ESSAY is not simply an essay. THE ESSAY is the thing that the whole course seems to be built around. Every topic brought up in lecture contains a possible applicability to THE ESSAY. The professor seems to bring up THE ESSAY as if you are a Master’s student working on your thesis. The presence of THE ESSAY in your life conjures feelings of anxiety, sadness, and fear. By around the second-to-last week of school you begin facing the fact that you do, in fact, have to start THE ESSAY, and so you start looking for ideas. Through all of this, you may come up with an idea that you either think is genius…or mediocre, but you might be able to research it enough to make it seem genius.
Whatever route you take: the late nights researching your sources, the emotional turmoil you go through in writing your essay, and the satisfaction of sloppily editing your writing is enough to make the end of the essay-student relationship a difficult point in time. Sometimes, one needs to learn how to let go. Here is how to break up with your essay (and some corresponding cliché words of encouragement, so that you may someday learn to love again):
1. Remind yourself that you are only an undergraduate.
There are many other essays out there. Your young adult life will be filled with opportunities to write different essays. Why be tied down?
2. Cut off your emotional dependence on your essay.
Sleep. Your essay most likely took advantage of your stressed, disgruntled state, luring you to commit all of your time to it, leaving you without any time to yourself. Relax. Remind yourself of what life is like without your essay. And sleep some more.
3. Give the essay some space.
Make it clear to yourself that you are moving on from the essay by exploring other ideas. When internet surfing, it may be best to avoid sites pertaining to the topic of the essay. Look into different topics instead.
4. Avoid reading your essay again.
It may be tempting to indulge in one last analysis of that thesis, but resist. Giving into the temptation will only make matters worse by dredging up old feelings, and your essay may try to keep you from moving on to other essays. Not giving attention to other essays could be damaging to future grades, affecting your future as a whole.
5. Let the experience from this essay guide you in future encounters with other essays.
Before this essay, you didn’t even know how to properly format Chicago citations. Before this essay, you couldn’t even fathom writing ten pages on one single topic. This essay has changed you. Accept that, learn from it, and all the blood, sweat, and tears put into this essay will feel like a thing of the past.
Good luck to all those handing in their end-of-semester essays. Remember, you’re all strong and independent students who do not need one essay to define you.