September 17, 2013 was the last post I made to this blog. I had committed to writing every day in 2013, and sadly writing every day was something that I had to give up. Since that day, the hardest semester of my life commenced. It wasn’t long after September 17 that i came down with a cold, that, although I was able to kick the majority of it by early October, I never really recovered from the cough I had until early December believe it or not. I guess when you’re never really sleeping you don’t have the chance to really get rested enough to heal, but then that was the story of my life this semester.
I got into RC quadcopter flying this semester as a 10 minute distraction from the constant stress I was under… it was a lot of fun and although I didn’t really have the time to invest in it… It kept me distracted so I kind of needed it. – For Fall break I traveled to Texas with our touring drama group I produce and that was even more stressful, so I didn’t really get a break there. The rest of the semester was work, school, death and taxes and all that jazz. At the end of the day though, I finished strong and actually ended up raising my GPA a little, and maintained honors. I also pulled off the first semester of the SNL type show, but not without it’s hitches… but we survived. The things I’m learning about leading a group / organization though… It’s been incredibly educational. Still though…. 40 hours a week between 3 jobs, 2 separate groups I’m a part of, one which I’m producing and 1 I’m actually leading, plus 14 credits, a writing class…. it was draining on my health. – The scary part? Next semester I have the same thing except that I have 18 credits: 2 writing classes, 2 history classes, economics… I’m really trying to graduate in May so these are my final classes. I just don’t know if I can pull all that off when the class work will be so much harder than this past semester and I barely survived this and I haven’t even recovered going into next semester…. – On the upside, I learned quite a bit about delegation so I have the SNL show split up quite a bit so I won’t be putting quite so much into that.
Oh also, apparently this Obamacare thing is screwing me over. I make $1500 a month right now and that’s what we live on. It’s barely enough to get us by. – Well because of “The Affordable Care Act”, The university had to set generalized rules for all student workers. Because they want students to be able to work 40 hours a week over the summer, they set a 24 hour a week limit on all students during the school year starting January 1. That comes out to about a $600 a month hit for me! I can NOT afford that so that has been a shit ton of added stress to next semester. There’s ways around it (since I won’t be working past May and could thus work 40 hours a week between now and May and still be under a 30 hour average from January-September which is how the law is worded), so I have to deal with that and see if I can’t get a committee to give me funding since I want to work but can’t. That may be the only way we survive this semester financially.
All in all, looking back at 2013, I don’t remember much of it. I had two INCREDIBLY hard semesters, and a short summer in the middle. I have myself so jacked up on work and stress that 2013 was a blur for me… and the first half of this year isn’t looking much better. This coming semester will be the hardest semester of my life… no doubt, hands down… but I think I can survive it… and when I graduate I’ll be on to employment and 1 job with just 1 set of responsibilities… and after 4 years of 3-5 jobs… I need just one.
It’ll be a good year in that I have the chance to get things on track. I’m going cheeseless for the next 60 days, trying to stay a little healthier. I’m required to take one more class so I have a workout class two days a week so that’ll help a bit, and lastly I am trying Body by Vi shakes so those might even make a difference. Who knows? – At the end of the year though, I hope to look back happier with the year than I was with 2013. – It’s not that 2013 was a bad year, because it wasn’t. It was a good year, I just don’t remember much of it because I’m literally that stressed. I will NOT go through my life like this… so hopefully I can slow down a little in 2014.
On the upside, the best man in my wedding decided he wanted to propose to the girl of his dreams last night, I learned about it yesterday afternoon. – He’s been with this girl off and on for years, and we all knew it was right. – Anyway, one of the other guys in my wedding and I pulled together about $200 worth of fireworks, took them up to a snowy field place, and did a firework show. At midnight, we did one finale box and then he asked while we set off a ton of other fireworks for a few minutes and did confetti around them for new years. Honestly, it was a really awesome proposal and I’m really happy for them.
So yeah, that’s my 2013 summary, and my look forward to 2014. Pray I can survive this… because the light at the end of the tunnel is almost in sight… I just need to make it there ALIVE. – I’ll be sure to write again over spring break, although I doubt I’ll have time to write before then. I wish I had more time to keep up with this blog, but life right now isn’t allotting for that. Still though… I miss ya Tumblr… and I Will be back, if I survive.
Happy 2014~
