Winter Break Thus Far

Winter Break Thus Far

My winter break started earlier than listed on the university academic calendar, for which I am grateful. All my major assignments were due before Thanksgiving break which gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my visiting father-in-law and brother-in-law instead of homework. It is always great times when my wife and I have family over which is rarely since we moved to Tennessee. Around mid-December, I officially received my final grades, and I am proud to say that I survived my third semester in graduate school. Each semester has its own challenges, this semester it was juggling my time with work, school, and internship. Miraculously, at the end of the semester I was offered a job at my internship and which I accepted. I am thankful, determined, and jaded about the opportunity but the job has been challenging. Luckily, I am on winter break, so I have time to recalibrate my approach over and over to my new job and rejuvenate from the stressors of school. Enjoyable occurrences thus far that I would like to share include, I finished reading Blackouts by Justin Torres and watched A Complete Unknown at the movie theater, (I grew up a big Bob Dylan fan, you wonder how? I’ll tell you, when I was in high school, my uncle moved out of parent’s house, he canceled his cable account but the cable was never cut, so I figured out if you connect the cable to the VCR and TV, you get some additional channels like VH1, and on one particular day, VH1 was counting down the greatest rock and roll songs, number one on their list was Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan, I don’t know if I was more intrigued by the organ or lyrics but I became a fan, Dylan’s lyrics and word play stuck to me which caused a lot of confusion in the future to my English teachers). Other eventful events this break have included my 10^th year wedding anniversary, 40^th birthday, and Christmas (I got more University of Tennessee stuff) thus far. One upcoming event I have is my six-month follow-up with my Primary Care in January which I am dreading because according to the last few check-ups I have been neglecting my health, well-being, self-care, etc... During graduate school. All I can do is keep working on my goals at every present moment, self-care tends to my toughest. I leave you with a George Strait lyric, “there’s a difference in living and living well.”