Our English class has been assigned the task of writing a lengthy research paper, and for me personally, a responsibility like this could not have come at a worse time. The first draft is due on Sunday, and I am doing my best to get this completed on time. Aside from all of the other general issues that are involved with my life, such as raising four teenagers, I have a total of five classes this semester and the work load is heavy on all of them. I am extremely happy that Jennifer Gross, our instructor for this course, has graciously lightened some of the other assignments that would normally be due in order to give us time to work on this research project. Even with that said, this research paper is a major balancing act for me. However, school overall is a major balancing act, as is life in general, so I keep on pushing.
I began writing the outline for this essay a couple of weeks ago, and I have completed a few draft pages over the past weekend and last few days of this week. It is coming along good, but the topic that I am writing about is very detailed, and I do not want to miss anything. I have to have an area to work in where I can concentrate and dedicate completely myself to researching and writing, and with four teenagers this is a big challenge. The phone rings frequently, and even though it is rarely someone calling for me, this is a big distraction. I have to drop them off and pick them up from their schools, which are on different sides of town, which takes up time as well. Also, I have to stop working frequently in order to tell them to clean up their room and finish their chores and homework, etc. This takes up quite a bit of my time, because when I have to stop working on this project to deal with them, I have to use some time in order to refocus and be able to pick up where I left off. Actually my kids are great and are pretty self sustaining, but they do need various things from me from time to time, and this is the balancing act.
I am very critical of, and take personal pride in, all of the work that I do, so I want this to come out correct for reasons that do not involve a grade. Even if I get a good score on an essay, such as, let’s say, 95/100, I always want to know why I didn’t get the additional 5 points so that I can make sure to fix this on future projects. A good example of this is with making sure that I cite all of my sources correctly, which has been challenging on other papers or essay that I have completed for this course. I guess I’ll finish up this blog and get to work on my research project, since no one is home and I can finally concentrate.
Good luck to all my class mates on this research project!
You’re blog title is perfect, it’s all about balance. You are not alone, everyone is feeling somewhat stressed out during these final two weeks of school. I too, have a lot on my hands; it seems everything is happening at the worst possible time -- I’m taking care of four dogs, all of which are strangers to one another and you could only imagine how much attention they need. I constantly correct them, and watch out if they’re fighting, I’m always on alert mode because one of them is a pit-bull (she is known for mauling cats to death). The other dogs are a German-short haired pointer, pug, and a Pomeranian. All of which have different personalities and require different mediums of caring. From all of this nuisances I still manage to focus, I try to be organized, and when my plans do not go as planned -- I found it best not to stress out about actually not having your plans work 100% the way you wanted them to be. I learned to manage stress, and limit stress as much as possible. Balance. Good luck on your grind, and I hope all goes well. Get plenty of sleep and manage stress!
ReplyDeleteLife can be quite a juggling act, especially when you have school and children. I only have three myself, two of which are still at home. The third, a boy of 23 (I guess I should say man of 23),does not live far from home, does not come by that much, but yet it is as if he is still here. That may sound so weird, especially since he's been out of the house for over two years. Guess it's just the mom in me.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like you've pretty much wrapped up your paper. Good for you. I've been pretty distracted as of late myself, trying to complete these last five classes to graduate from Cal State Bakersfield this June. I cannot wait to walk. I've been waiting 45 years to do so.
See you on the other side!