My Procrastinator 

Oh, poor Matthew B.

I touched on the fact yesterday that I had to take Matt to two different libraries to get a book that he needed for school. To elaborate, this is a book for his advanced reading class. That he is supposed to have finished when he walks into class tomorrow. 

His procrastination is something I’m faced with regularly. And while it’s annoying and I’ve lectured him about it on countless occasions, I do understand that this comes with the territory. He is an intellectually gifted pre-teen boy with ADHD. Any one of those has procrastinator in the definition. Let alone combining all three in one person. And there has been progress, believe it or not. He actually doesn’t procrastinate nearly as often as before. He also keeps his grades up despite his procrastination. So while I still lecture him, I also try to be compassionate. I bitched about having to visit three libraries in one day; he knows I’m not pleased. But I still did it. It’s fun keeping the scales level with this boy. Please note the sarcasm in that last sentence. . . 

Anyway, so he started the book yesterday evening. It’s a 200ish page book and he sat down and quickly calculated that if he reads X amount of pages per hour, he can have the book finished by early evening today. He took the book up to his room and began. 

Not long after he came downstairs with a sheepish look on his face, book in hand. “I’m going to go into Chases room and read,” he told me. “There’s less distractions in there. ” Chase is gone for the weekend. Slightly proud of him for making a responsible decision, I only nodded. I kept it to myself that he wouldn’t be in this position had he not waited til the last minute. He had a week long break from school. He could have read the amount of pages he’s currently reading in an hour per day instead and finished it in time. I felt zero sympathy for the boy. Lessons are hard, and sometimes they have to learn them on their own. 

He came out again a little while later. “I can’t concentrate! It’s so boring!” He lamented. I chuckled.

“Welcome to advanced literature,” I said, patting him on the back. I told him of my senior year, which is when I took advanced literature classes, and struggling the same way with Catch 22 and The Great Gatsby. “I had to drag myself through those books,” I told him. “But once I was finished and looked back on the stories themselves, it made sense and they actually are very good.” He looked at me doubtfully and walked back to his little brothers room to continue the trudge. 

I do feel for him. It does suck being smart sometimes. While his friends are reading fun books, books that don’t require much thought, he is actually being challenged and having to think. 

He also has recently figured out that he picked a book that is the third in a series. Double whammy. I asked him how he pulled that off, and he said he was in a hurry and just grabbed a book off of the shelf.

Poor Matthew B. I say that phrase as I laugh a little. I bet next time he’s faced with a similar situation, he thinks a little more and plans accordingly.