I’m kind of post-happy lately…moving on.
This week has been one of those weeks. It’s interesting how quickly life can shift, like a teeter-totter. This week has been a “down” week. I don’t have them often, but when they come, I am usually knocked right off my feet, landing on my face, or so it feels. A long time ago, my mom nailed it when she told me that I needed to stay on top of my homework because I get depressed otherwise. Well, my mom may have left me all alone in this world, but her wisdom is still with me.
Part of the “down”–I got behind in school and I was miserable…M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E! Now, I know some of you reading this may not hold my beliefs, but that’s okay. I’m going to tell you what happened anyway. I decided that I needed to pray about this stuff. Not that I would suddenly have less homework or anything like that, just that I could organize and prioritize. And the following is what happened:
Monday, our cable goes out…which means I can’t kill time (i.e. procrastinate) by watching t.v. or posting to this thing or emailing people or surfing the web. I am forced to do my homework because there is nothing else I can do. Of course, that made taking my online quiz before midnight a little cumbersome, but with the help of Erika and her internet, I managed to get it done over the phone. So, I was caught up in accounting and fully prepared for my English 251 class on Tuesday evening.
Well, when I say fully prepared, what I mean is, I had everything completed for that day. I was still behind on my poetry explication, but I had started working on it Monday (that’s a big deal) and felt like I might actually be able to get the final draft done in time. So, what happens in English? Penny (our professor) decides that since this is a sophomore level course and the work required to make the explications acceptable would be more junior level (she had read several rough drafts and found them less than stellar…not mine, of course, because I hadn’t turned it in), she is not going to have us finish them or grade them, unless anyone really wanted them graded. I pity the kid who attempted to raise his voice in protest. All he got out was an inhale in preparation to speak before the entire room was glaring at him, daring him to exhale a single sound.
And now we are at today…I somehow missed a deadline for a pre-lecture assignment that was due yesterday in my Accounting 200 (the first deadline I’ve missed in that class). I did it this morning and hope that it will be graded. Upon looking at the syllabus this morning (when I discovered the missed assignment) I also realized that I had two quizzes due by midnight tonight…for neither of which had I begun to prepare. Well, Wednesdays are my volunteer days at the MTC and, as stated in a previous post, I have decided that nothing will get in the way of that because I need it (priorities) and I had also decided that I was going to go to the temple after work as my recommend expires tomorrow and I probably won’t be able to renew it for a week or two. Ahhhh…what to do?
Well, I’ve been trying to keep my priorities straight and so…I went to the MTC and the temple. My big hesitation with the temple was that it would mean leaving campus. The internet still wasn’t working at my house this morning, so if I got home, after the temple, and it wasn’t working, I would have to head back to campus (and it’s freezing here) to take my quizzes. But, as I drove up to the temple to park (still debating whether I was going to stay) the thought occurred to me, “Of course the internet will work at home. I’m at the temple, doing what I should be doing.”
To some of you, this may seem silly, but it’s what I thought and it’s how my mind has always worked. I believe that I am immediately blessed when I do the “right” thing because my life has always worked out that way. And I make deals with God all the time…another story for another day.
So, I went to the temple and then grabbed a bite to go on the way home (I love Cafe Rio salads and Diet Coke), arrived home at 9:15 to find the internet up and running. I watched the lecture (my class is pretty much all on DVD-ROM), took that quiz, then watched the lesson and took that quiz. I didn’t miss a single question, I was done by 11, an hour pre-deadline, and I have no regrets about how I spent my time today.
I feel very blessed. Now, if I could just remember these little life lessons, I wouldn’t have to repeat them so very often.
existential dilemmas 