- Calm before the storm -

There comes a time in a student's life when he is sapped of interest in his studies to the point that there no longer remains so much as a modicum of motivation.
It is a curious, yet inevitable and well-documented phenomenon which seems to only occur between his penultimate and final examinations. Indeed, studies have shown that the extent of this apathy is proportionate to the duration that separates these papers.

It has been said that the saddest moment in a person's life must come when he has lost the will to live. If there is a student's equivalent to that, this must be it.
This is a tricky period of contemptible disregard for that which he hitherto saw as being of great importance, when he begins to feel emaciated, his taste for progress severely attenuated.

In an act of semi-rebellion, he delights in indulging in all that distracts him (which, I may add, is not very much indeed) from the greater goal, as if to say that he has had enough, that he no longer wishes to be accountable to a force that seems to lie ultimately beyond the borders of his control.
Football seems to be the divertissement du choix of the typical male student, with a passion for the sport and a desire to neglect responsibility blending well to create a cocktail sufficient to tempt even the most focused of personalities. Images of players gliding past their established counterparts with the ball stuck to their feet, with all the grace of a danseur noble, carving out a new artform within the sport, is enough to bring a tear to the eye, and certainly serves to trigger a sudden strong urge to rush down to the nearest pitch, turf, court, or just pavement, to hone, or even display, his own skills.

However, it is at this juncture that an innate sense of guilt sets off a timely intervention that restores some perspective on the fundamental purposes for which an education is procured: money, a good degree leading to future career prospects, personal improvement, money, material objectives, a good record, girls, money.

That is, until the student flips to the back page of the ever-reliable tabloid.

Ballack signs for Chelsea for reported 130,000 pounds a week.

Now that is enough to bring a tear to the eye.