Today was a success!

I had the last class of the semester for my Film History class. And guess what? I was early!

“I see you’re early for the last class, Ms Zwane,” our Lecturer, Ms Van Rensburg, says sarcastically when I enter. The whole bloody class breaks out in laughter. Gerben-The-Sleepy, the one with a hoarse and gruff voice, laughs the loudest. Something in me wants to tell Ms Van Rensburg why Gerben-The-Sleepy is always sitting at the back in class, but I don’t.

I just walk to my sit, next to Mosquito, and take out the hefty textbook and a highlighter. The class goes on. Mosquito and Mbali, my classmates, are presenting on Chapter 13 of the textbook, but I’m not listening to them coz I already read the chapter on my own. It really does pay to be prepared!

The class doesn’t last longer than an hour. It’s so unlike Ms Van Rensburg to let us go. Usually, if we finish before time, she keeps us in class until the whole two hours have passed by making us watch old films. The films are so old that most of them are in black and white. The characters don’t even have dialogue (talk to each other) – there is only musical accompaniment.

It’s not the kind of music we listen to though! It’s not the sensuous jazz that my father taps his feet to, nor the gospel melodies that my mother sings along to. It’s not Taylor Swift or R Kelly. It’s old classical music that lulls Gerben-The-Sleepy to sleep. So, the movies are boring, right? Not at all.

Not all of them, at least. Some of them are really so good, that you won’t believe they were made in the 1930s. Take Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”. It’s a seriously funny movie yet the characters don’t talk – they just make gestures.

It’s so good that it managed to keep Gerben-The-Sleepy awake for the whole two hours. He kept laughing and laughing and laughing the whole time – not that any of us minded though. After the class, I had decided that it’s better when he snores than when he laughs. That’s why, today, when he laughed at Ms Van Rensburg’s lousy attempt at being funny I almost lost my cool. But I didn’t.

I didn’t want anything to spoil my mood for the day. I mean, this morning, when I woke up, I looked at myself in the mirror and declared that today was ‘going to be a productive day.’ I know you probably think it doesn’t work like that. You can’t just stare at yourself in the mirror and “speak life” into your life. But it does, trust me!

I’m tired of unproductive days! I mean, I say I am a writer, but I don’t really write that much nowadays. I say I’m a student yet I’m notorious for getting to class late and not submitting assignments on time. All that’s got to stop!

I want to be productive! I want every day to be like today. I want to sit in front of my laptop and spend my time doing assignments and other productive things – instead of spending time scrolling aimlessly and reading people’s posts on Facebook. I want to sit my ass on the chair and write. And write. Write.

I’m happy about today!

ZZ xx

Dish it: What do you do to motivate yourself?