Living the Life You Want

There's a book review at the end of this. If you prefer to skip the personal philosophy, then scroll to the bottom. :)

This is an extremely stressful time for us (<-- which is quite the understatement if this Type A can say so herself) because we're trying to sell the house. I've also dusted off my class syllabus and have started to revise and tweak it, along with my assignments and lessons. And, my responsibilities at the writing job have really increased! I'm excited about it now even though I know full well I'll be complaining non-stop in under two months. Mark. My. Words. I've been put in charge of some projects and have been assigned to work in multiple colleges/disciplines, so this is like the poor person's equivalent of a pay raise! Ahhhh, I remember with fondness those days. When a promotion actually came with money attached.

That's to say we have a cocktail of good and bad stress right now. We're like, drunk on it. That's not good.

And, I'm not going to lie, I've been a sloppy drunk (<-- metaphorically speaking). A more mentally stable person might kindly point out that I'm letting the stress get to me. As if I have a choice. But the thing is, I do have a choice.

As I try to form better habits with diet and exercise over the summer, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that once school starts and my schedule gets out of control, I will want to lapse back into survival mode. Introvert Survival Mode. This mode consists of working as hard as possible so that I can then sleep. This mode does not have room for a "life." I want to hike and socialize and read for fun and meet regularly with friends...and I feel strangled by a busy schedule that consumes not only my time physically at work, but my time away from it as well (grading/planning/giving feedback/doing homework/writing papers). The days off (read: weekend) aren't actually days off. So, my unfortunate default mode during busy times is to choke off all the fun stuff, keep my head down, and try, try to keep up.

Remember several months ago when I was on a goal kick? Actually, I'm always on a goal kick, I just don't mention it here on the blog. Anyhoo, my main goal for the fall is to make my personal life as much a priority as my professional life. I don't want to sacrifice hanging out with friends or hiking on the weekends (let's be honest: watching Razorback football on the weekends) because I feel tethered to papers and work. This has been on my mind because I'm just not sure how realistic this goal is.

Any thoughts?

Related to living the kind of life you want is our latest Lit Society book:

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

If you've never read anything by historian David McCullough, then chop chop! Get to it! Start with 1776.

This book is so good for so many reasons. It gives the history and family life details of Wilbur and Orville (they had a sister who was incredibly influential). It relies on a variety of primary sources that allow the author to realistically paint their personalities. The author takes a story that everyone thinks they already know, and opens up a whole new world. The brothers really and truly cracked the code of how to fly. They tried and failed and tried again over and over and overcame serious obstacles in order to achieve what they knew they could achieve, not only for themselves but for their country (which is ironic. This will make sense when you read it.) and for anyone who wanted to learn how to manipulate the wind like a bird. Learning about the Wright brothers renewed a bit of my faith in humanity and fanned the flames of my motivation to work hard to pursue the things I believe in.

Now if that &*&^%$^* house would just sell.