monday, february 26, 2001
balance of time

one of the biggest problems i am having with being back in college is the balance of time. for example, this journal. when i started classes, i would come home and write right after i came in. it provided me a much needed break from the education mindset and let me eat lunch without also having to deal with heavy thinking (deep thoughts and lunch just don't mix in my mind. eating time is a time to relax, savor the food, and so on). then midterms got close, life got crazy and i was finding time whenever i could . . . and not writing much as a result. there was no time.

there is a balance needed for classes, personal and family, and i am struggling to find it. all work and no play makes me more than cranky. all play and no work, well , i think we all know where that would go! two weeks in a row now i have had to miss family time and the kids are not happy. well i am not overjoyed either, but there is just way too much reading required right now. i had an entire play to read (oedipus) this weekend and got all but part of the last portion done (actually, it was 3 plays in one book, but let's not get too technical), plus 2 80+ page chapters. that doesn't include the journal articles i never got to for a research paper due on the 8th (about a dozen of them). i am not complaining about the work here, it is expected. but how do i balance the student, mother, personal aspects of my life here?

i have to have my own time. but i admit, i got a bit cocky with my a's on my midterms and took more time for myself than was wise (have you seen the new forum??? no? go, look, play, post!) and i am going to pay for it now. but something tells me with the amount of work being thrown at me for the end of the quarter (3 entire novels, 10 - 80+ page chapters, 150 pages of miscellaneous other reading, 3 think pieces, 2 research type papers, a 3 page paper, and another 30+ pages in yet another textbook . . . all in 4-5 weeks) would have overwhelmed me no matter what. are these instructors sadists or something??? or maybe they think that they're class is the ONLY class in my day? regardless, i am having even more time balancing issues than before.

i think i said it before but i will say it again: i hate the quarter system. granted, the 24+ week semester isn't much better. but about 15 would do me just fine. i say we vote on it.