The End Is Near

Right now people are starting to wonder.  I have an apocalyptic title to this entry, and then above my banner seems Biblical.

No worries.  I'm jamming out to Kei$a, drinking my second cup of coffee at 5:23 am, and was just chasing my cat, Avi, to see him run up the wall.  Life is good.

So what's the scoop?  I have a month left of the intense life I've been living for the past year of graduate classes.  I decided last February to dive into completing a Master's +30 program to move up the teacher's ladder at my school.  Most people do this over a period of years.

I decided to do it in about a year.

Far be it for MausiGal to do anything half way, right?  I began last February with a course in dealing with difficult parents.  Right away I loved being back in the classroom as a student.  But I discovered one thing about myself.  As an adult learner I strive for perfection.  I need that 4.0.  I was the same in graduate school when I finished my master's degree five years ago.

I am currently in two graduate classes - a Spanish one at Merrimack College and a poetry workshop at Rivier University.  Both places have amazing professors whom I enjoy.  In one class at Rivier I did not score my blessed 4.0.  And that killed me.  That class - Contemporary Drama -  was probably the toughest class I've taken in my academic career.  My final project involved a Finnish play in which a psychologist dressed up like a dog and gave therapeutic sessions.  Hmmm...  And then he walked around naked.

Last summer I took three courses, during which I had one intensive week that I had to finish two major projects.  Luckily my boys were with their dad, as they didn't have to witness that madness that ensued when my neighbors were playing music and I was trying to write about a Midsummer Night's Dream at 7am on a Sunday.

Yes, and then autumn came.  I had a therapist tell me not to do this, but I didn't listen.  I worked full time.  I was a single mom.  I took three classes.  And a part-time class on being a mentor in school.  I was assigned to Mentee.  I ran two clubs at school.  I kept dating.

Oh my gawd.

Is it any wonder I'm addicted to caffeine?  The only life I've known for the past year is getting up at 4am, studying, coming home, doing more work on either school or grad school, taking little breaks here and there to either blog or send out a few postcards.  My weekends tend to be like this, unless I escape.  Escaping is good for me; it allows me to become the person I am and get a reality check when I'm not working on all this stuff.  I do need to step away from it all to gain perspective, even if it's just watching a movie or going out for Pelligrino with a friend (thank you, Preppy Girl, for the night we had a few weeks ago - you were just what the doctor ordered).

But on April 30th it's over.  My classes have a royal send off with a poetry reading at Rivier.  I'm a bit nervous, as I feel my poetry this semester is so adolescent.  It's as if I'm channeling Taylor Swift in rhyme.

So why the banner?  It's been my motto that I've kept with me all these months, all these years.  The words are from my dad - "Keep the faith."  I don't think he has any idea how strong these words are to me.  And "Just know?"  My own addition, for everyone else.  Just know it all comes together in the end.