I’ve been neglecting Slow Southern Style like she’s an old high school friend. You pinky swear you’ll never lose touch but BFFs inevitably drift apart for a variety of reasons: you don’t see each other on the daily after graduation, someone moves across the country, you always liked Mazzy Star more than Courtney Love but were too sheepish to tell her, and of course, boys.
Ever since I went back to college I’ve been treading water. Juggling homework, occasional freelance writing gigs, a part-time job and maintaining a modicum of a social life* has been a challenge. My husband jokes that I don’t iron his underwear anymore (pffft! as if I ever did) but the demands of adulthood, coupled with homework, can be overwhelming.
It’s not that classes are overly demanding- I’m an English and film major, not a neuroscience student- it’s finding time to fit everything in and maintain my mental health. This semester I decided to enroll full-time and accepted the role of Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper. I deeply question wtf am I doing some days. Did I take on too much? Is getting 5 hours of sleep a night wrecking havoc on my sanity? I know my academic efforts aren’t in vain, but I can’t help but wonder if all this will all pay off. That said, being an older student has its advantages: I have perspective and a sense of purpose that I lacked when I was in my early 20s. I’m finally able to forgive myself for dropping out of school in the first place. I was 21 when my dad died, then my paternal grandma died the next year. Working a full-time job, sitting on a full course load and dealing with the most traumatic event of my life wasn’t easy. I look back 13 years later and think “Damn, girl. Give yourself a break.”
Where am I going with this? I’m not abandoning Slow Southern Style, just trying not to spread myself too thin. This blog is really just “small potatoes” so I’m genuinely surprised it still maintains a decent audience despite the sparse updates.I’ll step off the wambulance now. Thanks for listening.
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| Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Asheville, North Carolina |
*And by social life I mean walking the dogs and pushing my cats off my pillow at night.
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