Personal

=My Personal Journey =

When I look back at the last five years it seems to have blown by in a hurry. Only when I sit and look at pictures of my children five years ago, do I really grasp how long this Masters journey has really taken. I slowly picked away at it, one (sometimes two) class at time. My daughter Quinlan was three years old, and my son Jaxon just had his first birthday when I enrolled at Brandon University. I just came back to school from maternity leave the fall of 2007, and started my first class in January of 2008. I knew that I would be busy, but it felt like the right time to start. Sometimes I don't realize just how busy life is until I have a moment to sit and list everything I do in a week. How busy you feel you are is all perspective. When I was done my first year of teaching, and didn't have children, what did I do with my time all summer long? I probably thought I was busy. Perspective is a funny thing. I am very glad I started my grad classes when I did. My children were busy, but we could still easily be homebodies. I like to think that their ability to be independent somewhat grew from my need to study and do homework! At the beginning, they were going to sleep very early in the evening, which gave me a chance to do some work before being too tired to do so. Many a Saturday and Sunday morning were spent having "movie mornings" in our pajamas so some work could get done. My husband also works shift work, so homework had to be done around his schedule as well. Night shifts actually worked well for homework, because I didn't feel any guilt about working in the evenings - it's much harder to get work done when you want to spend time with family. I owe a lot to my husband for all the patience he's had while seeing me through this process and helping me reach my goal. It couldn't have been done without him :)

The biggest lesson I've learned, and am still learning, is balance. At times, life gets very unbalanced, and it sometimes takes a wake-up call to realize it. When I take something on, I put 110% of my effort into it, sometimes to my detriment. I am learning to let some things go, even if they are not exactly they way I want them to be, so that I don't sacrifice the other great things in my life - namely my family. I believe that, even though my children and husband missed having their mom and wife be as present as possible every minute while at home, they see the fulfillment my work and life brings me, and know that there definitely is a gorgeous view at the end of this long, winding journey.

 As this journey continued on, and life just seemed to get busier by the minute (throw in two hockey players, a move and a new job), craziness was found at every turn. Now that I have come to the completion of my graduate work (maybe only for now.....) I really do wonder what I will do with my time - maybe for now just grab a glass of wine, sit on the dock, and watch my kids splash and laugh till the sun goes down..........