Heather:
The spring is always a hectic time here at my small college nestled in the hills of West Virginia. The last few weeks have been, for me, a blur of senior projects and campus events. Our seniors begin taking their Comprehensive Exams on Monday and final exams commence the following week. Baccalaureate and Commencement will quickly follow and then my students will scatter to the winds for internships, summer jobs, and first jobs. If I were an accountant, this would be my tax season. I’ve had more cups of coffee today than I had hours of sleep last night and I’m not the only one. My colleagues and I often compare this time of year to running a marathon at a sprint pace.
The spring is always a hectic time here at my small college nestled in the hills of West Virginia. The last few weeks have been, for me, a blur of senior projects and campus events. Our seniors begin taking their Comprehensive Exams on Monday and final exams commence the following week. Baccalaureate and Commencement will quickly follow and then my students will scatter to the winds for internships, summer jobs, and first jobs. If I were an accountant, this would be my tax season. I’ve had more cups of coffee today than I had hours of sleep last night and I’m not the only one. My colleagues and I often compare this time of year to running a marathon at a sprint pace.
I’m not complaining.
Really, I’m not. I love
what I do. I get to watch students make
the journey from awkward first-year student to confident graduate. They recommend music to me and I lend books
to them. They come to me with problems
and I recommend solutions. We laugh
together, we sometimes cry together, and when the “plague” is running rampant
on campus, we sneeze and cough together.
I consider myself lucky to be doing what I do. There are times, however, when I don’t feel
up to the task. There are days when I
don’t think I have my own life together enough to be able to offer life advice
to anyone else. For example, I’ve missed
trash collection for the last three weeks.
Granted, I haven’t been home that much as I have been traveling a great
deal to see Gran while she recovers, but three weeks?
Someone take my adult card.
It’s in moments like this that I need to remember to be
nicer to myself.
This week I am going to start taking better care of
myself. I’m going to go to bed earlier,
drink less coffee, and eat more veggies.
I might even take a field trip to a book store to wander up and down the
aisles. I’m going to remember that I can’t
make it to every event and I’m not going to beat myself up when I miss one.
I’ll check back in a week and let you know how it’s
going. In the meantime, make good
decisions and enjoy at least one sunset.
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| Sunset in Piedmont. |
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