Welcome to Ohio. I thought Michigan weather was crazy…. Ohio is crazy. Yesterday it was 50 degrees, I hardly needed a fleece. Today we are covered in 2-3 inches of snow. It’s cold. Real cold.
It still boggles my mind at how people here can brush off their cars, but fail to brush off their lights…. at night.
It’s my 2nd semester here and it brings it’s own new sets of challenges. Being 6 hours from family, 3.5 from love, an online class, an internship, and volunteer hours, study tables, class observation and a new workout regiment. It is just so crazy to think how fast things can change. At the completion of this semester I will be half way through grad school which is crazy. A year from now I will be job searching. In Michigan of course. And I’ll be a real person. Or at least I’m expected to be.
I know this is a change that is expected to happen, but sometimes I still wonder if this is the place I’m supposed to do it. There are 3 things in life we are expcected to have: love, work and friends. Argubally a 4th is spirituality. When one of those elements is lacking individuals can throw themselves into the two that still remain. When one remains it is the breath and heart beat of that life. It’s an adjustment. It’s not stable. When things are not balanced we adjust. It’s called adaptation, but what do we do when there is nothing to adjust to? The adjustment is a transition, but when there is no transition to be, then what is? I’m not adjusting, I’m dealing.
I have all of the 3 (and the arguable 4th) but I can only have one here with me. It’s not a good feeling. I have work. Woo-Hoo. What keeps me going is the fact that when I’m done with school I am done being here. When you have all of the 3 posessions but they are not actually within your reach is kind of like having nothing right? Not for me. It’s hope.
It is the strength to keep me pushing through. It’s like the transition theory by Schlossberg: Move in, move through, move out. I’m moving through. Those weekends I can get home to see my family, friends and love are some of the best weekends I know right now. I am kind of lucky because I have motivation to return. I am apart from the most important of the 3 expectations: friends and love. And for me having the motivation to see those things because they are not conveniently with me is what keeps me pushing through this chapter of my life. It’s like the phrase “you never know what you have until it’s gone”. I don’t think I ever took love, family or friends for granted before but they have only gotten more important to me. So right now, I’m in this comfortable and functional life with only 1 of the expectations being here, because I can invest my time in work with the realization and motivation that when I am done or can take a break I get to see my friends, family and love.
Some people would call this backwards, but for me it’s the only way I would ever be doing this. I know getting my masters is the right thing to do. But if it wasn’t for my friends, family and love I could have tossed in the towel a long time ago. Forcing myself to do the uncomfortable with the motivation of seeing the comfortable!!! 
I’m ok. I have family, I have friends, I have love, and I have work (and the arguable 4th). What is there to complain about?
