The weather's glooomy

Today the weather is gloomy. Just like my mood. Even though these tests are bogging me down just yet, all I want to do is crawl in bed and watch gobs and gobs of Disney movies. I'm sick of sitting in class, studying for tests, listening to teachers, etc. I need a break.

Spring break is almost here. It's quite literally the light at the end of my tunnel. While, another 7 weeks or so remain in the semester, I've never looked so forward to doing nothing in my life. And I mean nothing. My plans consist of sleeping in and working out. Jealous? You should be. I certainly am - that is, if I make it.

Speaking of which I should probably go. I have lots of studying to do and I just remember I still have those damn concept maps to finish. Fabulous.

It's true - when it rains, it pours.

Life doesn't just happen

You will only be faced with lessons that you are capable of learning and are specific to your own growth - you cease being the victim of fate or circumstances and become empowered - life no longer just 'happens to you.'
- Jack Canfield

Life doesn't just happen. Trust me, I have 22 years of experience to go on. 22 years of making decisions and taking chances. 22 year of success, but also failure. In its essence that's what life is.

Anyways the quote I posted at the top was meant for a little inspiration. This week is my hardest week of the semester, meaning one thing: Midterms. While I have been fortunate enough to have one take home exam and no Friday class this week, I find myself bogged down with an unrealistic amount of studying to be done. My first midterm is on Tuesday in my hardest class: sensorimotor. So far I've only made it through half of the material. It'll be interesting for sure. My other in class mid term is on Wednesday- doesn't really give a whole lot of study room. Oops.

Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty calm. Despite everything that needs to be done, I have this faith that everything will get done. Maybe it's the Spirit of God calming my soul so that I make it through this week or maybe it's just the lack of effort trying to persuade myself everything will be okay. I'm not sure. Could be either, could be both. But I've made it through so much worse, I know I can make it through this too.

It's just life I suppose.

My weekend in pictures.

Went jogging/walking with Joanna at Purcell on Friday

Went to the baseball game with Laura and Billy (JMU won the first game 37-7)

I slept from 8:30-8:30 on Friday night. Glorious!

Gym

Went to a YR meeting. It was fun.

Ate delicious sinless ice cream

Watched Easy A

Homework...

These were the highlights. :)

Assessment Day

Assessment day is a fabulous tradition hereat JMU. Fabulous, that is, if you don't have any assessments to take. It's mostly for sophomores and seniors (and the occasional over-achieving student whose credits fall within the category but technically aren't considered as much - I was one). As a grad student, assessment day means a day off. :)

Lucky for me, I was very productive last night. I did all of my homework due on Wednesday on Monday night - that's about as far in advance as I can go with my busy schedule. I woke up this morning and I'm sick! I still managed a tough work out at the gym, but once I got home I thought I was gonna be really sick! I've spent most of the day in bed just watching tv trying to take it easy. It really stinks though because there's so much I could have done with this day. Anyways, I'm gonna go lay down now because to top it all off, I'm getting a sinus infection. What a wonderful week this will be....

One fabulous weekend down, three horrendous weeks til Spring Break

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit by horrendous. In fact this semester has in no way been as bad as last semester. Anyways, my weekend was fabulous. I went to Richmond to visit Kim. I got a lot of homework done, we helped paint a friend's apartment, we car shopped, we went out to dinner, went to the movies, and we worked out a ton. It was a great weekend.

Of course there's always more work to be done, but thankfully I have Tuesday off (Assessment Day) to catch up. My class is also having a Valentine's/chick flick movie night/no boys allowed get together on Tuesday night. It'll be fun. I came back from Richmond this evening and went to a new bible study being started up at church. It's going to be really good. We're studying Francis Chan's Forgotten God - it's major emphasis is on the Holy Spirit and how to get that back into our lives. It seems like it'll be really intense, but really worth it.

There's no better feeling in the world than having a passion for Christ. When I first became saved, for a whole year or more I was on fire for God. He had complete control of my life and I can't remember a time when I'd ever been happier. For the past year or so, I've felt that something has been missing and now with this bible study starting, I feel like I might find that passion again.

Anyways, I had a fabulous weekend but now it's back to the grind. Hitting the books and the bed. Gotta rest up to make it to Spring Break.

Dinner

10,000 things to do, but no time to do it

I don't know where I last left off, but I do know that one thing never seems to change: There's always about 10,000 things to do and never enough time to do it. This week alone I have article summaries that need to be written, group projects that have to get done, field work goals, worksheets, papers, etc. There always seems to be something going on. It's a lot of busy work (and while it is better than neuro or anatomy) no matter how much I get accomplished, I never feel completely done. It's a gross feeling especially since I like write up a to-do list and cross everything off of it. So naturally, my list never gets shorter.

On top of that, I just got an email from a professor saying that we have another assignment due for Friday and most of it we can't do until we go to Field work on Thursday. It's so frustrating. I'm just trying to make it week by week.

On another note, my roommate is always around. She got sick last week and took 3 1/2 days off work. Normally she goes home every weekend but this weekend she stayed here. To make it worse, her parents came all day Sunday. And there's only so many places to hide to my small apartment. It really threw off my whole routine. I'm used to coming home and having the apartment to myself for a few hours which is when I'm the most productive. Instead, I was interrupted and bombarded all week/end long. Petty? Sure. But after a while all of the little things start to add up.

All I can say right now is thank goodness for caffeine and my diet coke.

Stress, stress, and more stress

Since starting grad school, my favorite accessory seems to be the inevitable: stress. I can't seem to get away from it. There's a certain stress that comes with school and education, more of a pressure really to do well. And I feel that's a legitimate stress. But there are so many other things that stress me out that I feel like I didn't have to worry about before. There's definitely a stress with finances, housing arrangements, friendships, and the list goes on. Being in grad school (or college in general) is kind of an awkward stage. I mean, I rely on parents for a lot of emotional and some financial support. Of course, I've also taken out loans which just adds to the pile. Right now, in the midst of this semester, some friends of mine and I are trying to figure out our living situation for the following school year. It's hard to be flooded with an overwhelming amount of school work, but to set up housing appoints, read through leases, and figure out the logistics for the unknown just makes everything that much harder. Even my friendships can be stressful. My friends are from and live all over (Louisiana to Colorado to Georgia to Pennsylvania). I definitely have to make much more of an effort to see my friends and while I do a good job of that (or so I think) it's not always easy. I guess learning to deal with all of the outside things as well as the grad school thing is just a part of the process.

So, these last couple of weeks have been crazy, but I've been doing the best that I can to deal with all of it. I'm trying to attend at least a couple of social events within my program, spend time with friends, work out, and definitely clean. All of which so far I've been able to manage. The hardest thing right now is just tying to stick to a normal sleeping pattern. I'm working on it though. This semester is in no way as bad as the past one. :)

So in an effort to be more relaxed, I'm trying to cut out some of the unnecessary tension in my life. And I came upon this really good quote that reminds me of what I'm striving for.

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are." -Chinese Proverb

Couldn't have said it better myself.