"Motivation," he said, "is the key to success in whatever you want to do."
The speaker cleared his throat and glanced around the lecture hall at the small assortment of students who had shown up, evidently the last day before the end of the semester was not a good day for academic progress.
He decided to step it up a notch.
"How many of you have looked at your homework and thought 'I'll do it tomorrow?'", he asked, looking up at the motley crew of disinterested kids and kids only here as part of their quest for 100% attendance. Several hands went up.
"Does anyone know why we do that? I mean, if you say to yourself 'I'll do the homework tonight', its done, its out of the way and that way you can spend the next night stuffing your little adolescent faces or going online or whatever it is you guys do for fun these days", "Motivation," he went on, " is the act of realising that change does not come without effort, and if it does, it's not going to stay for long, and furthermore..."
Blah. Blah. Fucking. Blah.
Hazel opened her eyes, he was still talking.
Oh wait, no, he was now talking with his hands.
She allowed her eyes to close again, it was nice to have the buzzing in her head stop, even if only for a little while.
"With the right motivation, anything you want can be yours!"
How about a gag for this guy?
"Yeah, that car you always wanted? Motivation can get you a job to get it", the speaker winked Great, so im stuck with a Ferrari and a job i hate.
"That promotion at your new job? Motivation has it"
What fun.
"That special someone..."
Woah. Now that got her attention. The buzzing in her head was replaced by the sound of 19 year old gears turning, slowly at first, a small trickle of ideas, then finally caving in and allowing a flood of mildy interested thoughts in.
Who IS that special someone, for me? I have no boyfriend, no prospective boyfriend and little or no chance of getting one any time soon, all my free time is already being taken up either working for a fat little man in a cafe i despise, serving people who make more money than me, or else being forced to attend pointless lectures like this as punishment for being consistently late due to all night studying sessions.
She groaned.
Everyone looked at her, she'd timed the groan accidently, to perfection, it had come just as the speaker drew breath, something he did roughly once every 6 years by the sound of things.
"Miss? Are you okay?"
She saw opportunity and seized it with both hands.
"i think im going to go lie down", she murmured, picking up her bag and heading to the exit, as the speaker resumed his animated, yet hugely one sided debate.