Overcommitted
Summer is supposed to be a relaxing time, is it not? I finished off the Semester from Hell with just a scant remnant of my sanity left. It was a trying time, full of both personal and professional aggravations that would cause most people to run screaming to their mommies. However, I endured. Even at the very end, I got through Grading Hell with a smile on my face. Why? It was summer. A time when I can lay back, relax, read a gazillion good books, etc.
But alas, that was not meant to be.
Do you ever get the feeling that you are just over-committed? Suffer from the problem that you can't say no? Or worse yet, challenge yourself to do more and more even though you're already on the verge of a breakdown? If not, welcome to my life.
Unfortunately for us financially challenged, teaching summer school is not an option. Rather, it is a mandatory obligation so that I can pay my bills in August. As my college is over an hour away, teaching only one class a session is rather asinine. Therefore, I'm teaching two classes each session. This means four hours a day of teaching, four days a week for 12 weeks. I do this every summer so this is nothing new. Normally, I would teach only evening classes in the summer. Part of this had to do with the fact that evening students for the most part are more harder-working and caring students. The other part is that I'm just not a morning person. The biggest problem with this was that I would not get home until well after 11pm and thus would not be able to spend much quality time with the Bear.
This summer I went for the early morning classes, thinking that I would be done by lunchtime and would have lots of quality time. Hehe. Ya right. My first class, what I shall call the Crack of Dawn class, is on an area of history I normally despise teaching. I honestly thought this would be my Hell Class this summer. However, they are some of my best students. My other class, the Mid-Morning Coma class, which is one my favorite topics teach is the most painful now because the students are as apathetic as they come. Getting up at 5am is the hardest part but what is worse is that I still work straight through until the evening either doing lesson preps or grading. Still no real quality time with the Bear and on top of that I'm not getting much sleep.
On top of all of this, I'm still going to grad school. Last semester I had to take an incomplete in one of my classes and it looks like I'll be dropping one of the ones I'm taking this summer. After last semester, I've been trying to make more time for myself. As my therapist says to "enjoy the little things in life" like actually having a social life. I quit my job at the library but even that didn't seem like enough. It constantly feels like I'm trying to play catch up. I'm already behind in both of my classes and it's only the fourth week which is a horrendous sign. I'm just waiting to make sure dropping the class won't negatively impact my academic record but it looks like I'll be doing it anyways.
But alas, that was not meant to be.
Do you ever get the feeling that you are just over-committed? Suffer from the problem that you can't say no? Or worse yet, challenge yourself to do more and more even though you're already on the verge of a breakdown? If not, welcome to my life.
Unfortunately for us financially challenged, teaching summer school is not an option. Rather, it is a mandatory obligation so that I can pay my bills in August. As my college is over an hour away, teaching only one class a session is rather asinine. Therefore, I'm teaching two classes each session. This means four hours a day of teaching, four days a week for 12 weeks. I do this every summer so this is nothing new. Normally, I would teach only evening classes in the summer. Part of this had to do with the fact that evening students for the most part are more harder-working and caring students. The other part is that I'm just not a morning person. The biggest problem with this was that I would not get home until well after 11pm and thus would not be able to spend much quality time with the Bear.
This summer I went for the early morning classes, thinking that I would be done by lunchtime and would have lots of quality time. Hehe. Ya right. My first class, what I shall call the Crack of Dawn class, is on an area of history I normally despise teaching. I honestly thought this would be my Hell Class this summer. However, they are some of my best students. My other class, the Mid-Morning Coma class, which is one my favorite topics teach is the most painful now because the students are as apathetic as they come. Getting up at 5am is the hardest part but what is worse is that I still work straight through until the evening either doing lesson preps or grading. Still no real quality time with the Bear and on top of that I'm not getting much sleep.
On top of all of this, I'm still going to grad school. Last semester I had to take an incomplete in one of my classes and it looks like I'll be dropping one of the ones I'm taking this summer. After last semester, I've been trying to make more time for myself. As my therapist says to "enjoy the little things in life" like actually having a social life. I quit my job at the library but even that didn't seem like enough. It constantly feels like I'm trying to play catch up. I'm already behind in both of my classes and it's only the fourth week which is a horrendous sign. I'm just waiting to make sure dropping the class won't negatively impact my academic record but it looks like I'll be doing it anyways.
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