Balancing Act

I'm pretty sure weekends are the key to my life right now.

With working full time, a great deal of one's time, energy, and focus are automatically dedicated to work.  However with going to college, one must dedicate a substantial amount of time, energy, and focus to studying and attending class as well.  It is for this reason that a promotion opportunity at work has recently passed me by, and though it is a bit of a bummer, I know it's probably a positive thing.  After pulling at least one all-nighter for school each week for the past three weeks, I'm not so sure as I could handle more work responsibility on my plate.

At the same time however, I can't go to school full time because I have to work full time.  Due to the reality of adults having to pay bills, buy groceries, etc., I can't really cut back on work hours and jump into school as deeply as I'd like.  So my weeks are full of a constant tension between work and school, and not being able to invest as fully as I'd like in either endeavor, which is highly irritating.

Meanwhile, I have zero writing time during the week.  I have this budding novel that whispers to me almost every single day with its big, puppy-dog eyes, "Please come edit me?  I promise I'll behave!"  Which any writer knows isn't exactly a trustworthy statement, but the poor thing just sits around all the time!  The War of Nostras (tentative title, I know it isn't terribly exciting) has lots of potential, and much of its progress is sitting in my head instead of on its pages, but staying up all night studying for quizzes and writing papers and running back and forth between school and work and using my no-class days to actually sleep, my novel writing just doesn't happen.

So in essence, my life is being pulled in three different directions, and that's without this strange phenomenon of the human species called "sleeping" that's apparently necessary for optimal functioning level as well as simple survival.

Thus, we have "The Weekend," a glorious two days where work does not exist, I get to turn off my alarms, and aside from church on Sunday morning and any plans with friends (Social life?  WHAT?!  That's right, ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, I have one of those!  Not as substantial as before this semester, but I do have one!), I have time that doesn't need to be fueled by caffeine to be spent.  I have spent most of today editing my manuscript and running diagnostics on its pacing issues, and it's gotten me past a particularly difficult chunk of it.  I am now a quarter of the way through this editing pass!  (Though I fear that with the volume of completely rewritten scenes that it will require additional editing passes before being sent off to a few Beta readers!)  Tomorrow, I intend to spend some quality time with some poetry homework, in an attempt to complete my homework for the week and actually sleep like normal people do!

Next weekend, I shall be going on an adventure to Chicago with one of my best friends from back home, for which I am extremely excited!  This will be my first time to Chicago as well as my first time to just go on a road trip for mere kicks and giggles, and I think breaking the monotony of what my life has become (and threatens to be for a very long time) will be amazing!  And after this magical, exciting trip, it shall be Spring Break.  Most of the time, I struggle with breaks, as they mean less social time and more time alone in the apartment slowly losing my mind, but I think this time around it's going to be okay.  I also intend on editing every day through Spring Break, and who knows?  Maybe I'll be through an editing pass when it's all said and done!

So this is me: balancing my life in three different directions.  Sure, it's driving me a little crazy... er than usual... but I can do all things through Christ! ... And Coffee!