Tough Love

Tough love has been a mantra lately between our family member being arrested and David and I pushing each other through the rest of this deployment. I had one of my occasional (okay...frequent) breakdowns today due to none other than academic stress. I had 200 pages to read for my 11am class, Hamlet to read and write a paper in between 12pm and 230pm, class from 4 to 5:15pm, and a mock interview session from 7 to 9pm, and then I had to come back and make a preassessment to give to my students tomorrow, which I just finished. I have to wake up in less than six hours for work. Yeah, just a lot going on and not enough hours in the day to do it. It was an overwhelming day and so I complained about it on to the phone to David. Then, he asked me why that's all I talk about. That upset me at first because (1) I thought it was mean and (2) it made me realize I have no life outside of schoolwork, which makes me feel pretty lame. Number 2 was what really hit me. I just can't wait to have my life back after this semester. After I was all upset and mad he said it, we talked about it, and he said that it's more or less "tough love"--that sometimes I just have to hush and stop dwelling on the stress of it and just focus on pushing through. My semester is over in a MONTH! So, don't tell him I said this, but he's right. I'm almost done, and that's something to celebrate, which I did with Mexican and a $1.99 margarita special with my friend, Ashley. In the words of Dorrie, "Just keep swimming!"