I am awesome!

But probably more unbelievably lucky!

I do one of my degrees externally (I'd do them both, but one isn't offered), and each semester, I have an external attendance school to go to. It sucks. I have to give up a Friday, Saturday and Sunday and go to uni and sit through boring classes where morons ask ridiculously stupid and basic questions they wouldn't be asking if they'd actually read their material. But anyway.

During these EASs, I usually have a midsemester exam or two to take, but this semester, I didn't. At the start of the semester, when I drew up my assessment calendar, it looked like I only had one thing to do, and it would literally take 1 minute and was super easy. No actual studying required. So although I wasn't looking forward to the classes, at least I wasn't being assessed on anything.

Or so I thought.

At 7pm on the Thursday before, I was looking at my timetable for the EAS. And to my horror, I saw that I had a 10 minute presentation at 3pm the next day! For a subject I have done very little work for. Apparently, the problem had been released 2 weeks ago, and I was supposed to be arguing on the "for" side. And it was worth 20%! Argh!!!!!!!

I hit the panic button. The only thing I was grateful for was the "for" side seemed easier than the "against." I got William to flick through my textbooks with me and try to find anything that seemed relevant to my problem. I took an hour out for dinner, and then went back to it. I got to bed at 1am, completely stressed out that I was completely screwed. But at least I had something to present. Imagine if I'd turned up and had no idea I was presenting anything! I think that would be my first fail ever. I was actually trying to come up with ideas on how I could get out of going to the EAS. There was some turkey in the fridge that had been there longer than advised, and I even considered eating it and giving myself food poisoning. But I chickened out.

I had classes for another subject from 8am to 1pm, and then a two hour break until my presentation. I went to the library and tried to see if I could add anything further to my argument, or find any more sources. The only thing I can say in my favour is that I can be extremely persuasive when I want to be. I have had friends tell me that I speak with great authority even when I have no idea what I'm talking about. I was hoping to use that to my advantage.

5 minutes before I was due to present, I printed out my final copy. I was literally shaking like a leaf. I'm not much of a fan of speaking in front of people. I walked into the room and found out my opposing side actually worked in the industry for which the problem was based. "Great," I thought to myself, "I'm completely screwed."

There was one team before me. The first girl got up and started her presentation. She was freaking amazing. I just kept repeating to myself, "I am screwed, I am screwed, I am screwed."

Then it was our turn. I got up and gave my half. My partner got up and gave most of his presentation, but was clearly going over the 10 minute time limit. He had already been speaking for 20 minutes when the tutor said he would have to cut him off, but as he was interested in what he was saying, he was going to let him finish after the other teams had done theirs. So we sat back down. I thought this was pretty unfair. The time limit was clear. 10 minutes. I don't think he should have been allowed to continue past that, regardless of how interesting it was. Although some of the sources he had located to back up his argument was amazing. If we were getting graded on the outcome (whether we had convinced the tutor), I think I would have been screwed.

The other teams did theirs, and left at 5pm. We got back up. My opposition kept talking for another half hour. So 50 minutes in total, for something that was supposed to be 10 minutes. Some of what he was saying was preposterous. I was furiously scribbling notes down on the points I could have rebutted.

The tutor had noticed this, so after my opposition was finished, he gave me a right of reply. I got back up and started rebutting some of the points the other guy had made. Then he rebutted again, and then I rebutted again. 2.5 hours later, we were finally finished. I couldn't believe it. The tutor said he was letting us continue because he was fascinated by what we were saying, and because we were very good at speaking!

I was honestly very shocked. I couldn't believe I had managed to succeed with something I had pulled out of my arse in about 5 hours, with no previous knowledge, and very rushed research. Unbelievable.

Perhaps I should do all of my assignments 5 hours before they're due!

In other news: the house has settled! Yay! William and I are now officially part of the mortgage club, and are henceforth broke for the next 25 years! I can't wait until the tenants move out, and I can get the kitchen redone. And a walk in robe! I am so excited! I get to custom design one to go into the 4th bedroom. Very exciting! I'm going to have a wall of shoes!