New Thing #46: Epitome of a Contradiction

In the delirium of Friday morning came a new thing with both irony and implication. I am a procrastinator, rooted in perfectionism most likely for those of you who know me, but it is something that I have tried to change for the past twenty years of my academic existence to no avail. Maybe I have what they call, "student syndrome", which I would put money on having an ICD-9 diagnosis code associated with it in the next decade.

I had a paper due Friday, of which the deadline had already been extended one week. As of 10:49 Thursday evening I had 3 sentences. Needless to say I was up all night practically. The Friday deadline was for extra credit, but in my perfectionist procrastination personality I had to finish by this deadline. My paper was on Farm Subsidies and Obesity, looking at how farm policy over the last thirty years or so has contributed inadvertently to the waistlines of Americans. The government subsidizes only certain commodity crops, the two main crops being corn and soybeans, which are main ingredients in high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil respectively. These items are most readily available in processed, low nutrient dense foods, and because they are subsidized so heavily they are more inexpensive than say fruits and vegetables. Farmers have less incentive to grow fruits and vegetables because they receive less money for these items. I do agree with this theory, although the causes of the obesity epidemic are multi-factorial I think that the government needs to take more responsibility for the foods available at reasonable prices. Regardless of what you think you can read more here. 

The point of the previous two paragraphs of rambling was that as I was writing this paper I was a complete and utter epitome of a contradiction to myself. While writing a paper on unhealthy food and obesity, at 3:00 am I just had to have some Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos and a Pepsi. Yes, because with sleep deprivation your body craves carbohydrates so I just had to have them. I will not lie, those Doritos are good, first introduced to me on The Colbert Report, but it seriously got me thinking.

We have all been hypocritical in our lives, whether it is with our knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, values, or faith to name a few. But how often to we step back and realize that the actions that we choose to take are so opposite from our words. It is a life lesson that I hope to have more learning opportunities around during this year of new things. I never intended this blog to be intuitive or pensive, but for today it is. Who would have thought there is a higher lesson to be learned from eating Doritos and procrastination.