Round 2

One year ago I started graduate school. Looking back ROUND 1 was a crazy 9 months of trying to dive back into the academic world. After being out of the ring for three years, it took some adjustment to juggle a full work-load, study-load, and just enjoying being back in my hometown. 

Fall 2014

Let me just say....#gradschoollife is a thing! There is a unique frame of mind and life pattern to these in-between years that most twenty-somethings are living now a days. No matter what profession your higher education is calling you towards graduate school is...weird. 

Most choose to work and do school...let's just say that's not for the faint of heart. It takes a great multi-tasker who literally wants to put their social life on the back burner. Others decide to simply "do school" for several years, hoping for a GA position to become available so they can afford their daily ramen and cut back on student loans. 

Grad school is like marriage...people tell you that it's going to be hard but you ignore them because you think you'll be the exception...then you get into it and realize....dang it this IS hard! Studying isn't what makes graduate school hard, taking difficult tests is not what makes graduate school hard, writing papers into the wee hours of the morning or dealing with group partners is not what makes graduate school hard...what makes graduate school hard is learning how to still have a LIFE while in grad school! 

This was the biggest challenge for ROUND 1 of graduate school for me. I was working at a job that provided no sense of purpose, I was spending my nights in rather than out with friends,  my weekends were used preparing assignments for the week, and all the while I felt myself slowly slipping away from simply Authentically Me. 

You see, LIFE gives LIFE. LIFE breathes LIFE. I cannot have LIFE without first living LIFE. A simple thought but a powerful one. What gives you LIFE? For me it's a list of about five things. Some days I am able to incorporate all five and its a great day, some days I can only do one. Yet, if at least I just do one of them a day I feel lighter, less burdened by all that my task lists entail. 

As school starts back up this is on the forefront of my mind for ROUND 2. I want to relax into a balance of work-school-life. The up front and honest truth is this though: if I don't start now I never will have it. If I...if we...don't start trying to incorporate the habits and life styles we want in five, ten, twenty years NOW we will never ever have it THEN. 

Another truth is this: I have a great job that gives me purpose and joy, a school that fills my passions, and a beautiful LIFE filled with people that I love living it with. I am more and more thankful and grateful everyday for this little LIFE that is MINE. I am more humbled that I am able to LIVE it and be a part of this small piece of time that I have been called to be present in. 

So here I am...ready for ROUND 2 and all that I hope it will bring. Here's to stepping back into the boxing ring that is #gradschoollife for the second time!!

-Authentically Me

The Promise of Summer

Summer. There is an unexplainable and immeasurable beauty to be found within it. We look forward to it and miss it when it is gone. These brief months called summer seem to hold a promise. A promise, a hope, that something unexpected just might be around the corner.  

The last few summers for me were all filled with the unexpected. Unexpected adventures, life changes, travels, and new experiences. Why else do we love summer then the freedom it seems to bring? Freedom from the normal, freedom to do and be, to feel and just breathe. A surpassing joy seems to fill each new day and carries itself into the warmth of each summer night.

We find the time to be out and about, to explore, to take on the things we always wanted to do the last nine months. We stop making checklists and start making to-do lists. I want to do this...I would love to do that...I would love to go there...wouldn't it be amazing if we could just do that! Maybe it is me, but we come alive in the summer! We live our lives in a way we rarely do the rest of the year.

It is funny but summers are always life-changing for me. Each year in a unique way summers seem to grow me, refine me, make me see life in a new way. They bring me closer to authentically me. Summer reminds me more of who I am and of who I hope to be. It is not always the things I do, or the incredible places I see that influence this process, usually it's the people I meet, the friends or family by my side that seem to change it all.

This summer the adventure was traveling the Mediterranean with my family. We explored Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. 6 countries in 15 days. Life-changing in every way this experience was truly one for the record books. Never have I seen so much beauty! The people, the way of life, the food, the culture, the epic landscape. Here is just a taste of the many wonders we experienced:

Summer holds a promise. A hope that right around the corner just might be the next great adventure. More than anything this summer's adventure is joy. Summer's unexpected guest truly is joy. Joy from exploration and journeying to places I've dreamed of going. Joy from being with friends and family. More than anything, joy at finding peace within myself. 

What has this summer brought you? What unexpected adventure did you take this summer? I hope more than anything that it brought you closer to who you authentically are. 

-Authentically Me