Friday, March 23, 2012

Dodging Stress Bullets

I had one of those forgotten-class-stress-dream moments today.

You know the one I'm talking about. You're just going along in your dream, minding your own dreamy business, when the dream-version of a kid you haven't seen since like seventh grade is all, "Man, are you ready for this calculus final today?" and you're like, "Wait, I'm in a calculus class?!" and they're like "Yeah, you've been enrolled this whole time... I was wondering why you haven't been going to class!" and then you're like (1) thanks a lot, jerk, for reminding me about this now, and (2) I have to go take this freaking final right now! And you're super stressed out and you don't even consider the possibility that you could just drop the dang class because you're just going to be a liberal arts major anyway.

And then you wake up and you're like, whew, dodged that derivative bullet.  Relief.

I had a similar experience today, except without the dreaming. I just got this overwhelming sense that there was all this stuff that I should have already done--finishing classwork in the degree program that I'm wrapping up, finding myself a job in California, figuring out where we're going to live--and I froze for a second and thought to myself, what have I been doing with my time?!

And then I realized it's only been a week since we found out we'll be moving. Breathe, self. Chillax.

Dr. D has a job. I've already applied to one of my own, and there are other prospects on the horizon. There is no shortage of places to live, for crying out loud. It's a major city. And once I write a few more papers, I'll be done with my Masters.

Yes, there's a lot to do over the next couple of months, but we will get through it.

Sometimes you just have to smack yourself awake and put things into perspective.  And something tells me I'm going to have to do that quite a bit before we move.

To those of you in a similar situation, what are some things you do to keep things in perspective?

2 comments:

DJ said...

i have no advice for you, but you just summed up my life perfectly. Especially the finishing up graduate work.. I've know about this 20 page final paper for 5 months, WHY did I decide I would start it when we were house hunting/job hunting/packing?! It's panic attack city over here. I hope we both fare well.

And I hate to break it to you, but my dad (who is turning 65 this year) tells me he STILL has that exact same dream.

N.N. said...

I have been a hardcore premed for last 3.5 years and I just recently realized that I no longer want to be a physician. God knows what I have been thinking in past 3.5 years... But yeah, I came from work today (I work at the hospital), and my friends were discussing MCAT, and they asked me about if I'd had registered for the exam yet, and BOOM! Ahh.... Thoughts started flowing in my brain like, Why I wanna be a doctor? I am gonna end up taking several 'maternity leave's anyway and all those primal female instincts with all of those natural notions of being a happy wife, a mother one day rushed me with emotions and tears, plus fears that my husband would not wait for me sitting patiently on the couch blah blah... and I ended up crying in front of my academic advisor???.

Ditto, perspectives! And, perspectives can be scary. It is alright, too.

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