crackity jones
my mom recently gave me a big box of stuff she'd kept from when I was a kid. looking through the assorted detritus I found some elementary school report cards. you know--the ones where you got a check, or a check plus or minus, plus some comments from the teacher. Perusing the 3rd grade report, Ms. Higdon (whom I adored) had this to say:
John is a delight to have in class. He has excellent organizational skills!
okay, my handwriting wasn't up to snuff but I apparently had the organizational thing DOWN. So I move on to 4th grade. Mr. Young (we had our differences) had this to say....many times over:
John has a severe lack of organizational skills. Without improvement, this will hinder his future performance.
obviously, either one of these teachers was on crack or some extreme mental modification occured in me around age 8. I hadn't yet discovered girls or caffeine, so both of those can be ruled out.
moving on to exhibit #2: in middle school and through high school I was notorious for completing homework assignments, then forgetting to turn them in.
in the present day, the situation is as follows. This evening I sat down to pick out songs to play in church tomorrow night, got up to get a pencil and ended up caulking my bathroom. Only when I sat down again to finally pick out the music did I realize I never got the pencil. Is there such a thing as adult-onset ADD? ever see that episode of the Simpsons where they put Bart on the drug Focus-In and he has those paranoid ideas about major league baseball reading his thoughts by satellite?
actually, I don't think the issue is attention deficit. In fact, it's just the opposite. I am extremely focused but as easily distracted as a crow in a room full of shiny objects. And once I get distracted, I simply focus on the new shiny object and completely obliterate all memory of the previous five minutes. Homework, once completed, is forgotten. Tasks are left undone if I'm disturbed for half a moment. Now do you see why I empathized with the main character in Memento?
Things started turning around for me in college when I finally got a planner. Oh, it didn't solve the day-to-day, but at least I generally remembered to do projects and homework and turned them in on a more regular basis. Nowadays I am sadly indebted to my Outlook reminders on my computer and I make endless lists of tasks to complete. When I leave work in the afternoon I have to leave myself a note about what I was last working on, otherwise I get back the next morning and sit at my desk thinking, "What the hell am I doing here? What's going on?" and so forth.
identify the problem and find a solution. divide and conquer. and yet, I still haven't picked out those songs for tomorrow. But first a new CD to put in, then maybe I'll make some dinner, then I have a letter to write, and pretty soon I'm reorganizing my kitchen. so it goes.
John is a delight to have in class. He has excellent organizational skills!
okay, my handwriting wasn't up to snuff but I apparently had the organizational thing DOWN. So I move on to 4th grade. Mr. Young (we had our differences) had this to say....many times over:
John has a severe lack of organizational skills. Without improvement, this will hinder his future performance.
obviously, either one of these teachers was on crack or some extreme mental modification occured in me around age 8. I hadn't yet discovered girls or caffeine, so both of those can be ruled out.
moving on to exhibit #2: in middle school and through high school I was notorious for completing homework assignments, then forgetting to turn them in.
in the present day, the situation is as follows. This evening I sat down to pick out songs to play in church tomorrow night, got up to get a pencil and ended up caulking my bathroom. Only when I sat down again to finally pick out the music did I realize I never got the pencil. Is there such a thing as adult-onset ADD? ever see that episode of the Simpsons where they put Bart on the drug Focus-In and he has those paranoid ideas about major league baseball reading his thoughts by satellite?
actually, I don't think the issue is attention deficit. In fact, it's just the opposite. I am extremely focused but as easily distracted as a crow in a room full of shiny objects. And once I get distracted, I simply focus on the new shiny object and completely obliterate all memory of the previous five minutes. Homework, once completed, is forgotten. Tasks are left undone if I'm disturbed for half a moment. Now do you see why I empathized with the main character in Memento?
Things started turning around for me in college when I finally got a planner. Oh, it didn't solve the day-to-day, but at least I generally remembered to do projects and homework and turned them in on a more regular basis. Nowadays I am sadly indebted to my Outlook reminders on my computer and I make endless lists of tasks to complete. When I leave work in the afternoon I have to leave myself a note about what I was last working on, otherwise I get back the next morning and sit at my desk thinking, "What the hell am I doing here? What's going on?" and so forth.
identify the problem and find a solution. divide and conquer. and yet, I still haven't picked out those songs for tomorrow. But first a new CD to put in, then maybe I'll make some dinner, then I have a letter to write, and pretty soon I'm reorganizing my kitchen. so it goes.
random bits cobbled together by j-dub
1 Comments:
Heuhhhh (ala Beavis). You said "detritus."
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