Weekword: the Tardy Edition

Predictably tardy posting this entry, too! I had a very early night yesterday so, even though this was written, it didn't make it to the published stage. Please go and read these entries on Tardy too:

Emma at the Gift Shed
Jen at Timballoo

Congratulations, ladies, on creativity under time pressure!

I hate being late. I am the person who is three hours early for the flight. I get to school half an hour early in the morning because I insist on leaving by 7.15am in case there's traffic. I can be spotted hanging around outside a shuttered Get Knitted on the first and third Saturdays of most months, because I turn up for Knatterers before they open. Awkward.

It wasn't always this way. I was always late for school as a child; I couldn't imagine being a teacher and having to be there early - quelle horreur! Mother Hand runs to her own times and was late for my wedding because she insisted on eating a sandwich first, much to the incredulity of my in-laws (it was OK though, I was 15 minutes late also, for reasons which I can no longer recall). But I think the shame of having to walk into places in front of everybody flicked a switch in me some time in my very late teens and now I make the effort to be early.

I wish I could say the same for completing tasks, though I am better in this respect than I used to be, also. I am pleased to say that I managed to mark all the GCSE assessments in the Easter holidays which is fully a month before the deadline, thanks to a little regular weeknight date online with some colleagues for a shared marking experience. It's also easier to make myself do the marking when I know I'm going to have to see disappointed faces the next day, if it's left undone.

It is something that comes later in life, though. Perhaps after enough humiliation. One of my A2 students was 7 weeks tardy with his essay, and I had to bring out the big guns to get him to complete it. Alas, he had left it so late he resorted to copying and pasting large chunks of text from Wikipedia. Awk. Ward. After a shaming like that I think I'd never leave anything to the last minute again.

This post was brought to you by weekword. To play next week, please check back with my blog on Monday when I will post a new word on which you should ruminate by Friday. I hope it's OK for me to pick two weeks in a row!