the academic bubble

I was supposed to go into the city and volunteer at SEAMAAC (a nonprofit that works with Southeast Asian refugee/immigrant communities) today, but when I woke up, I couldn't stop coughing, my voice was completely gone, and I basically felt like I wanted to melt into my covers and die (melodramatic? me?). My immediate reaction, and the course of action that I ended up taking, was to email the woman that I work under, explain that I was sick, and suggest a different day for me to come in. I thought nothing of it (granted this was around eight in the morning, and my mind tends to think about nothing anyways), blearily sent out the email, and then promptly fell asleep again.

Now, five hours later, awake and refreshed, I wonder: How much does a sense of (college student-developed) entitlement play into or motivate my actions? I mean, as an undergrad, it seems totally natural for me to skip classes or meetings with professors when I'm sick, expect extensions whenever I'm delayed (even if it's for no good reason beyond my -extremely poor- time management skills), and so on. But how are these expectations going to fly once I'm actually in the "real world"? How am I going to survive when deadlines are strict and non-negotiable and being sick means hauling your ass to work anyways?

I got really concerned about this (and my future survival in the job market) until I remembered that I'm going to be in academia for the rest of my life. Barring my dissertation (which does have that important time limit, considering that after five years MY FUNDING RUNS OUT), I suspect that everything will remain negotiable in grad school. And as a professor, I can (within reason) do most things (like grading papers) on my own time schedule.

While this was obviously a cause for relief, I really wonder, is it such a good thing to never have to learn time management skills? And really, what happens when the only things motivating my output and timeliness are the desire to publish and ratemyprofessor.com?