Posts around here have been few and far between. It's not the first time, and it certainly won't be the last! Daniel and I are settling into married life, which is quite a change (but a change that we love!) I also started graduate school for Physical Therapy at the beginning of September (one week after we got married! Crazy).
Now I must say, graduate school is not a change that I am loving. The first week of school was extremely tiring for me, and though it has gotten better, it's still a major adjustment. I wouldn't say it's very different than doing my undergrad, but at a lot faster pace. I do have Mondays off, which I am very thankful for, but other than that I am at school all day. I miss my husband a lot! We have lots of tests and we have to maintain an 83% in all of our classes to pass.
All in all, I've been feeling very overwhelmed. I know that it's probably not true, but it feels like everyone else in my class has got it all together. Then there's me, who doesn't have a clue what our teachers are talking about, struggling to keep up. In a way, I think it's a way of making me realize I can't control everything. During my undergrad, I didn't have to work all that hard to get good grades. School just came easily to me. Now, not so much.
Life experiences like this make me realize how much I need to rely on God. Trying to be the best on my own robs me of joy and brings only frustration. Rather, I have been trying to come up with some ideas to help me. Such things as having "study periods" where I focus only on studying, instead of distracted studying. This allows me to study intensely and then give myself a break. Daniel and I always make time to spend several hours together in the evening, including doing Bible study. I've also decided to take Sundays off from school to give me a day to refresh and focus on God and my family. It may sound counterintuitive, but we all need a break to recharge and refocus.
I pray that doing these things will help me to keep my priorities straight! Thanks for listening to my struggles. What have you been struggling with lately?
Totally with you there! I've been having struggles with school as well, but mostly as applied to an exiting portfolio since I'm in commercial art and graduating soon. It's fiercely competitive and there's always the constant pressure that you have to be THE BEST in order to get into the field. It's a never-ending process of creating--not feeling like it's good enough, getting harsh critique from peers, and then starting all over again and hopefully making it better and improving the second, third, tenth, etc. time around. Of course it's enjoyable doing design, but it's also tireless and there's an expectation that it should consume every free moment that is available. Which of course, runs into issues when it starts crowding out the time that should be set aside for God!
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