“You should really get around to cleaning your desk, Panayi!” Mom said as she walked past my room. I know, I know, I’ll get around to it eventually, I thought to myself. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this plea from my mother in the last few days, but in my mind, I had more important things to be doing than organizing my desk. It’s just not a priority right now, I kept telling myself.

I had just been accepted to Herbert W. Armstrong College. As an international student from Australia, I was busily working toward obtaining a visa. My sister and I were all set to leave for Melbourne in just under a week for our interview with the United States Consulate. After piles of paperwork, phone calls and emails, our visa interview was the last thing we needed to check off the list before we were officially coming to hwac!

In all the excitement, cleaning my desk wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. However, it was on my mom’s. Seeing it littered with paper and textbooks piled on to each other, my mom decided to take action. When I arrived home from work that evening, I was astonished to see a clutter-free desk! She had even added a mini set of drawers to help me organize my paperwork. It looked great! It had order! All I could see now was a neat, fresh and workable space, not daunting piles of messiness. I wondered why I hadn’t done this earlier. But in all the excitement of having a newly organized desk, I didn’t realize that something important had gone missing.

Two nights before our scheduled trip to Melbourne for our consulate appointment, I was compiling my collection of visa paperwork when I realized that one crucial item in my collection was missing: my passport! At first, I was confused; I had left it on my desk specifically so I wouldn’t lose it. It really shouldn’t be missing. I asked my mum if she’d seen it, and she reassured me that she’d placed it with all the family’s passports for safe keeping after clearing my desk.

Sadly however, the relief I felt from this was only short-lived. When my mom went to find it, it wasn’t there. After a night of frantic searching and turning the house upside down, nothing was found. We prayed to God for His intervention to show us where it had gone, but still, nothing. In less than 48 hours, I was scheduled to be on a plane to Melbourne for my consulate visa interview. No passport meant no visa, and no visa meant no college. To me it was the worst thing that could have happened under the circumstances.

I eventually had to replace my passport before it was too late, resubmit the paperwork, and reschedule the interview appointment. All of these things culminated in my missing nearly two weeks at the start of my freshman year at hwac.

Have you ever procrastinated? If I had just been proactive and organized my desk when I was meant to—or if I had never let it get to that point in the first place—it would have saved me a lot of trouble in the long run.

I can see now that God allowed my passport to remain lost. To this day, we have no idea where it could have gone. I know that God, if it were His will, could have made it appear out of thin air—but He didn’t. God was trying to teach me a vital lesson in responsibility. If I had been proactive about organizing my desk, my mum would never have had to think twice about clearing my desk, my passport would never have gone missing, and I would have arrived on time and ready to go for class.

I had to learn this vital lesson the hard way, but you don’t have to! There are always activities or chores that don’t seem like huge priorities in our lives, or like the most fun activity to do. We might make excuses for ourselves and think that we don’t have enough time, or that it’s not important. It can wait, we tell ourselves. What’s the worst that could happen? I thought the same, and the worst did happen. Don’t take that chance.

Don’t procrastinate and push things aside, even if it seems unimportant at the time. Neglect on your part can lead to big problems in the long term, just like with my passport. Organizing my desk seemed unimportant, but the effects sure weren’t. Be proactive; do it now. It can’t wait.