Spring Break Check-In

written in April, never posted

I made it! Spring break has arrived and I am still walking among the rest with all limbs and (most) mental capacities intact. All along people have been saying that things will get better as time goes on, and that is true.

Since January, I have had time to catch up with friends from college and meet new people in D.C. In learning about these peoples’ lives and schedules, it seems our situations are all the same. That is, the real world has effectively eaten us up and consumed all of our energies. We work from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed and the tedious tasks in which we engage on a daily basis do not allow us to intellectually challenge ourselves as we once did. An exciting moment in a day is a beer with dinner or a 30-minute prime time show before bed. Wednesday is no longer Wednesday; rather, it is hump day. Thursday is no longer Thursday; rather, it is Friday eve. Starting with Sunday’s stomach-churning anxiety and carrying on until Thursday’s cabin fever, we have Friday on the mind all week long.
In college, I was someone who, no matter what, went to bed at night feeling good about relationships, school, work, life. I always believed that I would maintain the positivity that I always seemed to have, no matter what. But somehow, I have turned into someone who does not value each day like I used to. I have turned into someone who I don’t really like. I complain about things that really do not merit complaint. A roommate of mine has coined the phrase “mlish,” an acronym for “My life is so hard.”
This phrase is used frequently in our home. For example, when we arrive at home at 9 PM after being at work and then attending graduate classes at night, whining that we still not having eaten dinner and still having to plan lessons for the next day, another roommate will remind us “MLISH!” That is, “I am so sorry that you have a steady, mediocre- paying job, are working under one of the nation’s most selective alternative teacher certification programs and are currently pursuing your master’s degree basically for free!”