On Sunday, February 20, 2015 I, Zach Kilgas stayed up the latest I ever have in order to complete homework. I enjoyed a fun weekend, until a phone reminder did just that. Cornell Notes for ten short stories, an essay, and this column all were due the next day. I started this daunting task at (of course) the prompt hour of 10 p.m. My tasks kept me busy until after 4:30 p.m.

Instantly I was stressed and began to take it out on those around me.

At 11:30 p.m. my mother and father were my first victims, “Goodnight Zach,” they called up to me.

I replied by yelling down to them that it was in fact not a good night and that I was not going to get any sleep.

At 1:30 a.m. my cat strolled into my room meowing at me and I yelled, “No shut up, I don’t have time for your meowing.”

Stress and fatigue mixed with adrenaline to make me work insanely fast. As I typed, I watched my fingers tap the keys and my paper became five pages and though my handwriting became wild and sprawled, I finished my notes.

Though the example I gave was entirely my own fault, homework does tend to pile up, especially when we tend to save it for the last minute. When we have an hour of homework from math, two from science and a paper to write, the easiest answer is to give up. However push comes to shove we are all very capable.

Groggy and cranky, I dragged myself out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready. I frowned at myself in the mirror, pouting because I wanted to skip. I wasn’t even done with all of my homework. It was then I decided I was going to have a good day—the stress didn’t disappear, but it helped.

My message to you is we are very capable people, not that people should stay up all night to do their homework. Honestly, it takes more energy to maintain the cranky attitude than it does to start a day fresh, despite the lack of sleep. And P.S. I finished everything. (Although, Mrs. Oyler found 18 uncharacteristic typos in the first draft of this column.)