Torn between education and vacation

I'm two weeks back in school for the second semester after a three-week semestral break, but I'm already itching for Christmas vacation, especially that I found out that it will be three weeks long again. I know, I know. It's pathetic to be looking forward for something that I still haven't earned, with classes only just began.

To keep my head in the game, I decided to find some sort of inspiration. It has been written that the mainstream thing any girl my age would do is to look for a guy of her preference (a face of a celebrity, the height of a skyscraper, a 160-plus IQ, etc.) and develop a crush on him and melt every time he passes and have friends tease her to death. And, voila, she's "inspired" to study, possibly to get good grades, but honestly, to get attention from the guy. However, I find this idea not feasible for me because (1) most guys are taken or prefer their own, (2) swooning and melting and daydreaming about guys eat up a lot of study time, and (3) having unattainable standards is the curse of a fan of many fictional fandoms. Sigh.



So with that option crossed out, I proceeded to my last resort (having only two plausible solutions for my inspiration problem). Off to the bookstore I went to grab pens of different colors, notebooks of different sizes and a bunch of other unnecessary school paraphernalia. I felt the bliss of shopping and it was enough to "inspire" me to use the stuff I bought for the good of mankind and, more importantly, my grades. And my currently on-diet wallet has become a constant reminder.

Okay, so it was my conscience knocking on the door. You see, I'm neither totally for nor against capitalism. But as much as possible, I keep my expenses at a minimum, only the necessary food and travel fares. That's why spending large sums of money in one go makes my pockets tingle and my conscience on high alert level. It just can't take my recent splurge, but somehow, the feeling of guilt pushes me to maximize the use of every drop of ink, every leaf of paper. I guess guilt is, this time, a good thing.

Now, I hope this push would continue to help me focus on my studies, at least in the time being before the Christmas vacation. Guilt is never a good feeling to stomach, but I not using the supplies at all in notes keeping and studying is more wasteful, and more guilt-inducing. If you can avoid this, please do so.

For future reference though, what do you do to inspire yourself? Or at least to keep yourself focused on the task at hand instead of taking a break and succumb to laziness?