Rough Week

This week has been rough.

If only just one or two of these had happened I would have been ok.

But they all happened.

-I got back two midterms which I didn't do super well on. One was deserved and I took that in stride. The other was completely ridiculous and the whole test should have been thrown out.

-My poor car was in a fender bender. The damage isn't too extensive, I just have an unhealthy attachment to the car.

-I was assigned the awful time ticket of 6 pm for registration. Last time my time was 1 pm and I didn't get into the classes I wanted.

-Speaking of registration, I have a mysterious hold on my account related to a transcript. So I can't even register at the ungodly hour of 6 pm.

-I have 5 specific classes that I must take in the spring in order to start my internship next summer. 3 of them already conflict with each other and the assistant dean is ignoring my emails.

-Speaking of ignoring my emails, I sent 4 emails to university people yesterday and none of them have responded. Am I invisible?

Ok, that's it. I will stop my whining and work my tail off the rest of the semester.

p.s. anyone know of an article that will show the C25K plan is evidence based?

Thoughts On Graduate School

I remember this time last year. I was dying to get into the U of I's School of Social Work. I prayed about it all the time. I asked pretty much everyone I knew to pray about it too. It was all I could think about. I worried about it all the time.

One year later, I am a student at the U of I's School of Social Work. Sure, I was elated a few months ago when I found out I was accepted. Now, I am more of stressed. Now, I kind of wish I wouldn't have got in and that I was out working a job that would actually be relevant to a career in social work.

I remember loathing the waiting process so much. I remember thinking it was so hard to wait on God to answer my prayers. As hard as all the waiting was, it was so much easier than actually doing what God calls you to. I don't know that I have ever wanted something so desperately and once I got it, wished it was something else.

Waiting seems so easy now. It was easy to be in limbo and easy to wait because it just required some faith. Actually going to graduate school requires so much more faith. It isn't that my actual faith is being challenged, it is that I am being challenged and it requires me to put even more faith in God.

I don't know how many times I wonder if I will make it through. Twenty hours of graduate level classes is a lot. And somehow it took me until yesterday to fully grasp that. Twenty hours of class and spending 9 hours a week in my car is more than draining.

I am learning a ton about myself. Like, I suck at time management. And I am awesome at procrastination. And I am easily distracted. Also, I am not as disciplined as I once thought I was.

This week was midterms and it showed my true colors. I was mostly unprepared for all of them, yet somehow I think I will be ok. This has been a huge wake-up call and I now have the proof that a major overhaul is in order.

Wednesday

Wednesday is always a letdown for me.

Monday and tuesday are so full that by the time I get to wednesday I want to crash.

And I usually do. I'll do some cleaning, but that is usually the most productive thing I can accomplish. Sometimes I'll cook something. Like today, I cooked a Pioneer Woman meatloaf. Yum!

Usually, this isn't a horrible issue. But tomorrow I have a midterm. That I haven't started studying for at all. And I've already had three midterms so I'm even more tired than normal.

That being said, I'm going to go study.

And eat some meatloaf.

Conversion Stories

Lately I feel like I have been spreading the good news about two things. C25K and PW.

C25K

Also known as the Couch to 5K running program. I have been doing it for two weeks and I love it. Of course, that is easy to say when I am only two weeks in. About week eight I may just want to die. I think C25K is fabulous because it gets me exercising, which makes me feel good and it isn't super hard or scary. I will confess that I am a bit intimidated at the thought of actually running a 5K. Even though I am intimidated I am confident that I will be able to run a 5K, no matter how slow, by week nine. Between the first and second week I went from running 60 second intervals to 90 second intervals. Ninety second intervals of running was intimidating at the beginning of the second week. That could just be because I am so horribly out of shape, though.

After finishing just the first two weeks I feel so empowered and motivated to complete the full nine weeks of the program. I thought the first two weeks would be so terrible and they weren't so that gives me the courage to get back out there and do it again next week. Now, if I could just find evidence-based-research to support my findings. This whole exercise thing started because of a class, you know.

PW

Pioneer Woman. Or PW for short. The Pioneer Woman is my hero. I want to be the Pioneer Woman. Go google her right now and check out her story. Or, if you're in a hurry, just know that she has changed the way I view cooking. I've always been a bit nervous in the kitchen. Especially in my kitchen, the one with the oven that doesn't have numbers on the temperature dial. Cooking is always an adventure in my kitchen. Regardless, her recipes are so simple to follow and she spells everything out for you, complete with pictures. I am obsessed with her cookbook and can't wait to own it. Until then, I will follow her blog religiously.

These two things have changed my life. I have converted to the way of the Couch to 5K and the Pioneer Woman.

Amen. (If you've read PW's blog this will make much more sense.)