So as you might have been able to tell from the lack of the posts the last few days, I’m back in school and back “at it.” There is lots to do! Between all the assignments (which always take longer than I think they will), and home life (cooking meals, cleaning up, spending down time with Adam), suddenly my schedule has filled to the brim like a Tetris game that got out of control.
Here are some photos from the past few days to show you a bit of what I see every day now.
My morning drive from North Sydney to Sydney.
My assortment of stuff at my desk area.
This case holds a project my class did last year. The assignment was based on this poster publication by American designer Paul Rand. For our individual posters, we had to make a shape to represent one of the courses offered by NSCC, then put the letters “N S C C” in the white space, in the same font and style as the school uses. The solid colour of each oster corresponds to the colour of the “school” that that particular course is categorized in, i.e. School of Applied Arts, School of Business, etc. The one I made is the green one on the top row, fourth from left. Can you guess which course it’s representing?
My classroom is through the glass on the left, in the background. The foreground is a little “waiting area” room for client meetings or for hanging out.
Exterior of NSCC, seen from the back. This is the entrance I use because it’s closest to the parking lot I end up parking in. (I arrive in time for a 9:30 class, where a lot of the student body start class at 8:30, so the front lot is usually full.)
I feel like such a kid when I’m wearing a backpack. “No really! I’m almost thirty! I swear!”
The rest of the “schmear” that I haul into school every day: purse and lunch bag.
For some reason this year there are way more cars needing parking spots. So they are putting in a new lot.
And this is the front of the school! They love their Helvetica, as you can see.
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In some ways, going back to school, I feel like a new mom. I mean, it’s not as overwhelming, for sure, as caring for a newborn. I get that. But it is taking me some time to get my feet back under me. (And this post by Elise today about how she adjusted to the birth of her firstborn, and how long it took her to feel like ‘herself’ again, was interesting for comparison.)
For example, my office is a mess (well, mostly – I had to clear some stuff to make room to work on schoolwork!). My house isn’t getting the kind of deep cleaning I want to give it. (A random sweep here and a toilet scrub there is just going to have to do.) I haven’t worked on my scrapbook or the yard, both of which I’m just itching to get back into. There are lots of friends I want to be having tea or dinner with. But I find that after I get all my schoolwork done, make a meal for me and Adam (with his help!), clean the kitchen, and watch some TV at night, there is just no more available time. I’m proud that I’m getting a little exercise in the mix almost-daily. But it hasn’t been every day, that’s for sure.
Anyway. It’s all good. But it’s interesting – I can definitely feel that second year is different. It’s more serious. I both love that, and am scared by it. I feel more committed to the course, to my “career,” and to the unavoidable fact that good work takes time. And I feel more comfortable saying “no” to anything that cuts into the time I need for those essential things.
Another post by a blogger I follow that I found really made me go “huh!” this week, and made me rethink how I act moment-by-moment, was this one by the girls at A Beautiful Mess. In it they talk about how they don’t often mention just how busy they get and how stressful it can be. They love their jobs, for sure, but they have hard days too. They say, “Happiness is a choice.” And it reminded me, that even when it feels like things are piling up, and that I’ll ‘never get through it all!’, that that’s no excuse to be grumpy or not to smile at those around me, and say ‘hello’ and ask how they are doing.
Anyway! Lots of thoughts on the brain lately and I’m jotting them down for future posts, as I work my way through the assignment list.
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If you’re curious about the whole ‘going back to community college in your late twenties’ thing, here are some posts from last year, that I wrote, about attending college:
