Stressed But Not

These past two weeks have made me face some pretty huge amounts of stress regarding the future of my education and the classes I'm taking next quarter.

My first realization was that all of my remaining requirements are 300-level classes. These involve a lot of reading, homework, time, and effort. It is difficult to successfully complete 2 of them and still have life balance.

I then realized that if I take 2 requirements next quarter, I will have 13 left to complete over the course of 2 years. I take 12 classes per year. I'm fine.

So, I pre-registered for my sociology field research class (very work-intensive) and another sociology class. Later that night, I talked to a friend who encouraged me to take a particular theatre class that would be adequate balance, so I switched to that. Last week: Sociology Field Research and The Art of Storytelling.

My plan was to then register this week for History of the Holocaust (LOTS of reading, but it counts as my last distribution requirement and as an out-of-department elective for my major) and Intro to Music (a fun class). Both of them filled; I am on wait lists. Instead, I registered for Intro to Game Theory and a Global Health class on Maternal and Child Health (my favorite topic). I am still hopeful and will work to get that schedule I initially wanted, particularly the history class, but I can deal with this one. And it is 3 requirements either way, so 12 required classes in 2 years: not bad.

I plan things so exactly that any variation stresses me out, but the scheduling stuff is really all that's been bothering me lately. It's been an all-consuming bother, but pretty much everything else has been going right. I've made a concerted effort to have great workouts, and I feel so healthy. I got on top of my homework for the rest of the quarter by finishing the readings for two of my classes, and all of my classes only have 3 more meetings each.

I will admit that I have been procrastinating like crazy on my remaining readings (darn tumblr!) and that I have a paper and a research report to write up this weekend before going into tech week for Dance Marathon (if you want to donate, go to nudm.org and put my name in; the beneficiary is such an amazing organization). The end is in sight, and I'm quite pleased with how things are wrapping up.

I've also gotten into writing haikus to sum up what's on my mind and how things are going in my life. It's just kind of fun.

Oh, and my birthday is in a week. That's a thing. I'm kind of excited, but I know it's just going to be a chill kind of day because Dance Marathon is the following day. My parents are sending me a cake :)

Today is awesome because it's the weekend!