What Are We "Stressing For"?

As I lay in agony, in the light blue hospital gown with the tiny diamond print for the forth time...I decided that I would stop stressing. I vowed to stop stressing for my job, for my family, and for my education. Over the past two years, my body has been systematically getting rid of non-vital organs and I felt that I would end up right back in the hospital within six months if I didn't get my stress levels under control.

My 9 to 5 recently jumped on the restructuring band wagon and I was immediately afraid of what the future would bring. So far, only a few job cuts were made but the current economic recession still makes me jittery.  

My family is awesome. My husband and kiddo support everything that I do and I can count on one hand how many times we have done things as a family this year. It's sad but true. I've been too busy with work and graduate school to give them the proper time and attention they deserve. The only time I seem to slow down is for the two or three days immediately following surgery. 

As, I mentioned earlier, I am a grad student. When working on a Master's degree, the main requirement is to spend lots and lots of time staying abreast of current events and writing essays and research papers and presenting group assignments. Sometimes, it's not easy to get grown ups to do their homework and to work as a functional group. 

While sipping on chicken broth and counting down the hours to my surgery, I promised myself that I would try to have more fun with my family. I didn't think that it was fair that my husband had to wait to spend time with me on our six year anniversary while I worked on homework for the first eight hours just to spend the final four hours of it in the emergency room. Neither one of us had control over what happened that night but I still felt bad about how the night ended.

Starting today, Thursday, December 9th, 2010, I am on a journey to rediscover how to have fun, and at the same time, to share what I learn along the way with others. 

If you would like to be a part of my journey, just post a comment and we will do our best to respond.