Five months later, I'm sitting in a Starbucks, finishing up my phonetics homework. I'm counting the number of phonemes in words and memorizing the International Phonetic Alphabet, and then moving on to start outlining chapter one of Essentials of Audiology.
I work about four days a week to pay for rent and gas and the occasional margarita, and I've drained my savings account to about half-full (not half empty!...heh) on tuition and books and parking permits. I'm starting to stress about letters of recommendations and observation hours, and I have about 3958284 to-do lists scattered between my planner, my notebooks, and random Excel documents.
In short, I am losing my mind...but I'm exactly where I want to be.
If I think about everything I need to accomplish and everything I want to do between now and the end of the semester, I want to cry a little bit. Okay, I do cry a little bit. It's really overwhelming and stressful and feels damn near impossible.
Once I talk myself out of a mental breakdown, I'm really proud of myself. I don't like to pat myself on the back often, but I like to think what I'm doing is kind of brave. It's like scrolling through all your "inspirational quotes" you've posted on Pinterest over the years and being like, "hey, yeah, I'm doing that. I'm pursuing a dream. I'm taking small steps every day. I'm making goals and plans and doing all the things." And that's a pretty cool feeling. Moments like these, weeks like this, years like this - it's what life is all about.
Has anyone else gone through a major life transition as of late? How are you holding up?
