It's one of those things you forget to fantasize, when you remember the classroom spaces that were your favorites, your friends and brilliant teachers; that crazy mental hustle and bustle that you felt like you were just starting to appreciate when you left.
It's the thing that never shows up in those daydreams. It's the stuff that they never seem to write on the syllabus. It's the oil that makes the wheels of the brain grind smoothly.
It's homework.
And, let me tell you now, do not (i repeat: do not) get sick and slack off and put aside your homework. Don't do it for a day or an hour, much less a weekend.
Because it's a pain in the ass to get yourself back to the place you started from, that mythical 'ahead' place where you have plenty of time to study for tests and you get your papers done a day in advance. Don't put the books down for a minute because as soon as you do, you slip from ahead to behind, and you feel like you're clawing your way back up.
However, I did get (yay me!) an A on my linguistics homework and a B- on my first lit paper in 7 years. The sad part is that I got marked down for the grammar. And I deserved to be marked down for the grammar. Sadly, I just came from a job where I was an editor of sorts. Ye gods, TBG, you should shudder at what I left behind.
