Assignment One: Buzzer Beater Shot

As you all know, Assignment One was due on Friday. After doing well on both quizzes, I was confident going into this assignment. I was pumped to ace this assignment and wanted to get an early start on it. However, university life is not so simple. Working on the rest of my courses, the time I had to do the assignment was slipping from my grasp. Now I'm not making excuses for myself. I admit, there were times where I had the time to start on the assignment, but I failed to capitalize on the opportunities. If you are like me, you suffer from chronic procrastination. Aware of this, I attempted to finish the assignment a day before the deadline.

The first two questions were simple enough. The first question was a tangent to the examples with the binary search trees. I followed a somewhat similar style to the other proofs, and I hope that will be suffice for the question. The second question was reminiscent of the days in CSC165. After looking through some of the examples done in lecture and tutorial, I was able to speed past the opposition. After the first two questions, I was ready to run through the rest of the assignment and score a a hundred points on this assignment.  I was going in for the slam dunk, but my overconfidence only led me to slam right into a brick wall. The third question was like reading the hieroglyphs; I could not grasp the concept at all! I was rereading the question over and over again. Needlessly to say, I had no idea how to get past this difficulty. After many trials, the question seemed familiar to me, but I didn't know where it was from. My instincts told me to fly rather than fight. The final question was easier for me to comprehend, but finding a solution was something  I did not see happening anytime soon. The momentum I had came to an abrupt stop, and I decided to work on the rest the following day.

I entered the fourth quarter; the final day for the assignment. My confidence had drastically fallen from its former glory. The Friday lecture had come and our helpful professor gave us some last minute advice. We were told to look at the first lecture for ideas. After going home, I remembered why this question was so familiar. One word started to flash in my mind: Bijection! Bijection? Bijection! This one word had the effects of a energy drink! I was ready! I had the pieces to complete the question, but they was no perfect piece. Like on laundry day, there was a sock missing. In this case, the sock was a the formula given to us. I had no idea where to use it, or even develop another formula for the n+3 problem. I left my idea in the pieces and noticed the time. The clock was ticking down, and I still had to complete the fourth question! The adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I looked at the final question and it was seemed much more difficult then the first time my eyes had lay upon it. I constantly had to look at the time, as I was paranoid of missing the deadline. My paranoia overwhelmed me! The mythical "I do better when I finish the assignment in one night" did not knock on my door! I was searching for the "light bulb moment", but it never came. I felt like I was deserted island, with no civilization in sight. The only thing I was missing was a volleyball named Wilson. Disappointed, I submitted my incomplete in MarkUs. That feeling of being so close, but running out of time was awful.

So did I learn my lesson from procrastination? Maybe. Chronic procrastination isn't a simple fix, and is a routine very hard to get out of. Hopefully, I pull up my socks for the next assignment and work on it slow and steady. There is no time for me to dwell on assignment, as the midterm is just around the corner. I just need to take everything one step at a time. I'll seek help earlier on (visiting office hours) and not leave myself so stressed in the end. Also, it would be helpful if I had maybe asked a question on Piazza. I had shot the ball in the final moments of the game to beat the buzzer beater, but I hit one off the rim. So close; but not close enough.