Ahhhhh…I have #survived my first semester of graduate school. I have survived 8,000 pages of readings, tons of writing, long days and longer nights. And patient folks like my friends and family have #survived my crankiness, exhaustion, whining, complaining, and statements such as “I should just quit grad school.”

I am going to act like I am accepting an Academy Award and thank God for sustaining me! I also thank my family, especially my parents for putting up with me. I thank my friends for being patient. I know that I have been M.I.A, and I would love to make the most of my two week break to hang out. I did say two week break as I have to take a Statistics class during the Intersession. Ugh…I’m just going to act like the class is not coming up soon. I am going to act like these two weeks are the most precious weeks of my life.

Okay, I am being melodramatic, but I felt like I was going to work, then going to school, working on papers, and going to church all semester. I found it hard to fit in hang out time with folks because:

A: I was so exhausted all the time.

B. I was writing papers every week.

C. I was so exhausted all the time.

D. I did not want to fall behind with my work.

I  think I need to find a better balance. I kinda felt like a robot, stomping from work to school and from school to home. Despite this robotic lifestyle, I have #survived. I had 3 final papers (10 pages each) that I had to write, and I completed them all. By the third paper, I was ready to give up, but I kept moving. And how did it I keep it moving? I didn’t get that much sleep.

But I can make up for the lost sleep. Yes, I will definitely be sleeping on Saturdays. I will be catching up on food too. I will attempt to maintain my hair again. You know, I will do all those things that human beings do.

Seriously, I am thankful to God that He allowed me to #survive the stress of working and going to grad school. I am excited that I do not have to write a paper for a while. I am geared up to watch tv on Sundays after church instead of having to to do school work. I will be reunited with my good ole Sidney Poitier movies.

I am also proud that I #survived! There were several moments that I thought the normal grad student thoughts:

1. What have I gotten myself into?

Response: A MSW Program

2. Can I do this?

Response: Yes! God’s got you!

3. Do I want to do this?

Response: Yes! You want to do this!

It’s relieving to accomplish a goal that you felt was quite challenging. I believe it is so important to acknowledge such accomplishments. It is the little accomplishments that will lead to the big accomplishment of graduating from this MSW program.

-Blessings y’all