Okay so..I've disappeared off the face of the planet for a while. I've not really had time for a personal life..I'm slowly realizing just how badly design majors get hit in college. I thought pulling the usual one or two all nighters before a con was brutal to catch up on sewing..but when you have to spend 2-3 a week or getting a maximum of 4-5 hours sleep every night just to finish homework when you have only four classes at 14 credit hours...well..it's not easy. Apparently all design majors know this pain (from those I've talked to). And it's eating away at my grades and my life. Just means I need to find a better balance before I drive myself insane. I need to make certain assignments a priority and accept that if my work in art is sloper than it should be, oh well! Its mostly my art class that takes up all my time. Our most recent project explains it all:
15 fully finished (shaded) 4x4 still lifes.
I have..not quite 3 days to do this on top of all my other homework. I've spent my entire weekend (minus a few hours of cleaning) on this project..and what does this mean? It means Sunday I realize I still haven't gone to the fabric store to get fabric for my sewing class for pants I need done Monday and a top I'm starting Monday. It's about noon when I realize this so I look up stores near by. I see the closest one is only 5 miles away! I think this is just fantastic because it won't take that long so I can quickly run and grab my fabric before the store closes at 5 and get back home with time to at least start the pants and possibly finish if I decide to sacrifice another night of sleep. So I plug in my address and the store's address into the Metro Transit trip planner..according to this place it's going to take me 2.5 hours to get 5 miles. Yes, 2.5 HOURS for 5 MILES. For two yards of fabric I think not. I wouldn't even get there by the time the store closed with all the walking I have to do between bus stops on top of that 2.5 hour estimate. I'm not one to stock up on novelty cotton prints either so I can't use fabric I already own. So, I somehow need to get a yard of fabric still at least to start the next project on Monday..I decide I'm skipping my morning class on Monday. The day before a test. I probably need that review session (if there is one) since my grade is really dragging on the ground because of my inability to predict what precise bits of information our instructor will ask for on the quizes and because all these French and Italian words are difficult to spell (it's wrong if we can't spell it right) but oh well. I have no choice. I've never felt more helpless. I'll be greatful when I can drive and use the bus only for getting to school and downtown. Until you use public transit in the big city you have no idea how much of your life gets eaten away.
But despite all my frustration and anger at all of this I have to say, if I make it through this semester and eventually the entire year I'll have learned a great deal about time and stress management. Now I just need to figure out how I'm balancing a job into all of this..and finding one within a week..oh well. There are great lessons and life skills to be learned in college! I'll have to use this as best I can as an opportunity to learn more about balance and setting priorities. No time to focus on stress if you have to keep moving forward anyway! You have to find the silver lining somehow ^_^