Work/ School Balance

This week was a bad, bad week. It started with my car being in the shop and hoping it was nothing too expensive. Then it went to staffing issues at work due to illness and not knowing what was going to happen. Then we had to close for one day due to staffing issues. That day, I had a meeting to go to and ended up sick as a dog vomiting before driving the 45 minutes to the meeting. Going to the meeting was my decision. I needed the information that was being discussed and I knew I could manage to sit and not move for a few hours. I was told I could leave at any time. Instead of filling in at another store after the meeting as planned, I went home and climbed into bed. I did go to work the next day with medication being the only thing keeping me from throwing up everywhere because we were open and I knew it was going to be horrible, even worse if I wasn’t there. We then spent two days playing catch-up.

I did get my car back on Tuesday, and everything was fixed. Or so we thought. Then, on Thursday, my check engine light went on again. I did check to see what the issue was, and it is safe to drive for my mammogram scheduled for tomorrow. It’ll return to the shop on Tuesday, and hopefully, it’ll be an easy fix. I was happy to see that the code popping up was one I was familiar with and it’s safe to drive temporarily.

Here’s my small light that came in. As you know, I’ve adopted the hobby of aquariums. I ordered some shrimp online from Amazon and I was concerned due to shipping delays that they would all be dead when they showed up. They weren’t. They looked amazing and showed up on Tuesday. I was able to acclimate them to my tank and put them in. While I have lost some (unfortunately it happens), I still have some beautiful shrimp and have found some molt, which means they’re doing well.

I also have more snail babies. My 10 gallon tank has little brown dots all over the sides showing the snail babies. Once they’re big enough I’ll figure out where they’re going. I probably have around 100 babies with more coming. Some are now the size of gravel in the tank so they’re getting bigger.

Friday, I was stressed beyond belief. I was still feeling sick, still getting yelled at from being behind by customers, and still trying to keep my head above water. My watch chimed letting me know I had an email. Normally I ignore them, but I looked at my watch and saw it was from SU (Salisbury University). I tapped on it and read that I was provisionally accepted into their master’s program for the fall! They had to do an audit of my credits to make sure everything was fine. In that moment, I wanted to cry. I had spent hours upon hours researching colleges for my master’s program. I would pick my dream school, then it would change. I had this idea to look closer to home and found a great program just 45 minutes away. That became my dream school. It was also the only one I applied to (I still had time if I didn’t get in). SU also has a program for teaching with the creative writing track. I do have to go in for an interview for the teaching program, which includes a tuition waiver. So there I was looking at this email and all I wanted to do was cry. I have worked so hard to get my BA and now another dream is coming true, I’m going to my dream school for my master’s degree! The crying was happy crying, I didn’t because I was at work and it was such a bad week that someone would probably think I was having a nervous breakdown. I’ve only had the urge for happy tears a few times in my life and every single one of them, shed or not, were earned with a lot of hard work.

Here’s a little background on all of this. I was originally happy with my career path of being a pharmacy tech for the rest of my working life. Then, I realized I’d been stuck in my life. I had been working day in and day out, not doing what I really dreamed of doing. I was just plain stuck. I wanted so much more. I had dreamed of being a writer and I love teaching. So why am I a pharmacy tech? I didn’t want to spend my life getting by. Originally the degree was just for me, but why not be more? So, here I am at 40 getting ready for grad school.

I have worked with people who work hard and love their jobs as pharmacy technicians, store managers, etc. I have a lot of respect for those people, so I am not saying there’s something wrong with it. I do like my job for the most part. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing it. I want more, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with those who are happy with what they have.

So, that’s my update to my boring life of fish, work, my crazy dog, and school. There wasn’t an update on my crazy dog because she’s been uneventful. Unless you count the cute face and snuggle requests.