The Ten Minutes Celebration

We slid in according to our comfort level. The most fearful arrived early, glancing through their pile of notes, scanning 74 textbook pages, pacing and mouthing words while rifling through the vocabulary cards. The most confident arrived with their Starbucks cup and just sat down and waited.

At 8:30 sharp we were converged into one tense group ready to start our first full exam. My study buddy did not have a lexicon, which we were to bring for the translation section. Because I had offered to share mine, she asked the prof if that was OK. He didn't think so. Silence. She, like me, was one who would feel better having the lexicon - and the prof knew it.

Then another student suggested he go home - which was very near - and get an extra he had.

Silence.

"Yeh, do that." WOW! What grace. While rejoicing that she would have a lexicon to use (I wonder if she knew how to use it any better than I did), I wondered if the time spent to get it was going to come from our precious 75 minute total. So selfless...

Then the test was in front of me...

...and things looked familiar! In fact, I was feeling rather good about how it was going. I had learned something!! I checked and rechecked for breathing marks - if I missed one, it would be maddening!

We all finished before 10:15. What a relief to turn it in! The first major test! It was over! What an achievement! Let's celebrate!! How about taking the rest of the day off?!

It was 10:25 when we reconvened - and we spent the next TWO HOURS jumping into another "biggie" in learning Greek! No pause, no reflection, no swapping comments on how you did - just pushing right on! I tried to think of an appropriate analogy. Yeah! You finished the half mile swim AND the 100 mile bike race - here's your running shoes - start your marathon! Rather lame analogy...

Just ten minutes between all the effort put into preparing and taking your first exam and starting the next section of the race.

But the clock is ticking! Nine chapters down, 26 more to go! The next exam is Wednesday - on FIVE more chapters! Please, prof, start the lecture!!

I left at 12:30 PM, so incredibly exhausted and yet fearful of taking time to rest. More on that later. I dread Monday and learning my exam score. Did I do something really stupid again? Will I do the "yeh, but..." self-justification thing? No time to celebrate - and no reason to?