The last time I felt lazy to do something, I got into serious trouble that required a lot of pleading and ego stroking to get out of.
It was Monday afternoon when my class coordinator waltzed into our general class group to inform us that we were to begin clinical rotations the next day. Initially, I thought the young man was bluffing and would finally announce that we should resume the rotations the next week so we could all get our affairs in order. But with every passing minute, things became more serious. At that very moment, I made a mental note not to go anywhere until the next week. This was where the laziness set in.
To back up my laziness, I started looking for excuses. The very first excuse on my list was my nails. My friend had convinced me to be a nail model for her and I shamelessly accepted knowing fully well the department I am in. As expected, two days after fixing long acrylic nails, we were summoned to the hospital. This was my first excuse. “I can't go to the hospital with long nails because I can't attend to patients with them”
The second excuse was my uniform. I mentioned to my mom that my uniforms weren't fitting anymore and even when she helped me loosen and couple the uniform the same day, I didn't want to go anywhere.
Other excuses piled up and I validated every single one of them with logical reasons because why not? Little did I know.
The Monday I finally decided to go for the clinical rotations, a medical emergency emerged and I had to spend my Monday at a different hospital. At this point, I was anxious because the present clinicals director has a record of berating students, especially those who choose to stay back from clinical rotations. I had to call and text some friends who were in positions to take permission for me. I would say I was anxious at this point because I actually wanted to report for duties but I couldn't.
The next day, with my tail in between my legs, I reported to the hospital and immediately went to the director's office to report myself and get posted to a unit. He wasn't around so I just tagged along with some of my colleagues in their unit.
The next day, I went to the man's office, this time around with the student's coordinator and when we finally met the man, he began complaining. I stood there in his office, hands behind my back with my mouth shut because I knew I put myself in that particular situation. If only I had just shrugged off the decision fatigue and actually presented on time for clinicals, I wouldn't have been in that situation.
After the man expressed his unhappiness, my colleague began giving excuses for me, excuses that the clinical director wasn't buying. Alas, after asking to meet me in private, the man mentioned that he would have given me extra work days, weekends included, to make up for the days I didn't report but since I was at the hospital the day before, he would let me go. The clause however was that I had to be present every other day without missing a day. I agreed and I was set free.
While reflecting on the trap I set for myself and how I narrowly escaped, I realized that laziness was indeed a major part of it. Because if I stayed back with concrete reasons or because I had a very important thing to do, that would make sense but looking back, my reasons were not concrete as I had initially imagined them to be. Be that as it may, I was happy to escape with my self esteem intact.
I guess the long and short of this post is that laziness is a universal human experience which is accomplished sometimes by procrastination. But in times when laziness can be avoided, that's a better option, avoid it.
Images used belong to me, except stated otherwise.
