By Nate Bloomquist

Thousands of Americans, most of which are college students, have a hard time grasping the concept of promptness. I am among this group.

But the tardiness isn’t deliberate in most cases, mine included. Those thousands of Americans are have a disease called Chronic Lateness Syndrome. There is no known cure for the travesty that is more commonly known as CLS.

Those who are afflicted with CLS are constantly scrambling to make it to class, and/or work on time. The affliction has no known cause or cure, and those with the disease have symptoms of uncontrollable lateness, and can’t walk at a normal speed when en route to a destination.

Because tardiness is such a harsh word, CLS victims prefer to be known as ‘punctually-challenged.’

I was diagnosed with CLS by a doctor five years ago when I repeatedly showed up for a freshman-year high school class at least five minutes late.

At that time few of my peers had CLS, or if they did, they were in denial. As we step into a new month, year, century, millennium, or whatever, CLS has grown into a nationwide and college-wide epidemic and it must be stopped.

My own lateness isn’t intentional, for I am well aware of the consequences of being late (a lesser grade, less pay, or the embarrassment of singing in front of a class). I typically plan to be punctual, but en route to my destination (class, work, etc.) something goes wrong and I wind up being late.

Such is the case with countless other CLS sufferers. Countless new year’s resolutions have been thrown at the disease, and this is often effective in some mild cases of the disease, but for those with full-blown CLS, the resolution is quickly thwarted.