Life Adventures: Time Management

If my roommate found ways to improve herself through self-help books, then I discovered my own way to improve myself:  screwing up over and over again.  I continued to touch the hot stove, constantly lost my winter gloves, and repeatedly turned the wrong corner again and again.  I was hopeless. 

Now, I would like to think I'm not AS hopeless as before, but I'm definitely in the hopeless --- situated range.  It isn't that I take on too many projects at once; I like to stay busy and I like to be involved in everything.  I never wanted to be that person who never researched big purchases, never knew the book value of her car, never understood the ins and outs of renting an apartment, never turned down a chance to learn from another person, and (especially) never went to the next step because "it's too hard."  So I became involved.  And loved it.   As a result, college became the most important life-changing event of my life.

But then college ended. I found a "grown-up" job and everything seemed to be at a steady pace.  Except...I hated that "grown-up" job.  It didn't appeal to anything I enjoyed and I felt cheated.  What had I worked so hard for?  My boss hated how involved I wanted to be in everything, and she especially did not enjoy the way I treated my clients (making room for all, regardless of how much they were paying).  She didn't get me, and I didn't get her.  It was at the moment she was lecturing me on "how money made the world go round" that I went back to my desk and wrote my resignation.  I didn't hand it in that day, but I did send something else:  my application to graduate school.

So I quit that job and went back to graduate school.  I think my first mistake was it would be just like college.  Well....not quite.  I had to work six jobs and support my household all on my own.  No one - not my bosses or my family - understood the pressure I was under to write an "A" paper or complete an assignment that needed eight hours to do.  I became very stressed out and my "meltdowns" were of epic (and frightening) proportions.  I lost myself and my voice...and gained about 45 pounds.

See?  Told ya I'm a slow learner.