This weekend I graduated from Illinois State University with a Master’s in Business Administration and a Certificate in Organizational Leadership. I completed eight prerequisites and 12 degree-seeking courses in three and a half years, all while working full-time, continuing to volunteer in my community, and being a wife, mother, and friend. Here’s what I learned.
My little Magpie frequently begs to go through the boxes at the top of her closet. When curiosity gets the best of us, I drag them down and open each box’s lid. Memories flood the room as old cards, work papers, ticket stubs, and bent-cornered photos come tumbling out.
My anxiety has been a constant for most of my adult life. Some days it’s a low hum in my body, just some static on the radio before switching the dial. Other days it’s a loud incessant barking, the rabid sound my next door neighbor’s dog Buddy makes whenever I’m out in my yard. “I live here too, you know!” I want to shout back. But like Buddy, my anxiety never listens.
Mike and I are very different, a fact that would become immediately obvious to anyone looking in on our morning routines…
I used to worship at the altar of busy. I would flit from one thing to the next, arriving late to each function and meeting, guzzling down so much Diet Coke my body would be humming, my heart skipping every other beat.
I passed on a job today—a fairly lucrative, interior design project. It was unbelievably hard to say no. But as soon as I sent the email, I felt a weight lift off of my chest.
I have a theory about writing.
There are days when I wish for adventure, for far away places and people I’ve yet to meet, times when I long to be anywhere but here and now: a different person in a different body in a different town. But then there are times I crave the comfort of what’s known to me, when I can embrace who I am in the now.
We’re far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the holidays that I’ve been able to think about my goals and intentions for 2019. This year, I’m cutting myself some slack.
I recently read an article in September’s O magazine by Martha Beck, life coach extraordinaire. The article, “How to Tune In to the Voice Within”…