Do you ever find yourself stressing out about getting that paper turned in on time? Or worried that you didn’t have enough time to study for that exam in between going out with your friends or choosing to spend more time scrolling Instagram? I have the same stress, but mine is a little different. My stress involves trying to fit in a timed exam, but having to stop in the middle of it and run to a screaming toddler who needs a diaper change, and then running back to the test in hopes there is still enough time to finish it.
Right after I graduated high school I decided to attend college. I got a few years under my belt, but then life happened and I decided to step away from school for a little bit. Fast forward fifteen years later and here I am with a full-time job, and a beautiful two year old daughter. See, your perspective on everything changes once you have children. You develop a whole new purpose in life because you have someone that fully depends on you in order to get by in life, even to survive. I was fine and content and just living my life with my job and my dog and dating. Once my little girl came into the world everything changed. I decided I wanted more for her, I wanted to give her everything and more that I could. I never want to see her struggle a day in her life or not have anything that she needs or wants. This is why I decided that it would be smart for me to go back to school and finish my degree. Did the thought of working forty hours a week, having a two year old daughter and then adding a full workload of school onto my schedule scare me? Absolutely, it terrified me actually. But I decided to dig in and make the sacrifice for a year. In the end it will all be worth it for my daughter.
It is so funny to me to look back on my life when I had first started college at the age of eighteen and to think I was just so busy and did not have a lot of time for much because school got in the way. If I could tell that girl anything it would be to enjoy the cramming for exams and the late night study sessions with no interruptions and the peace and quiet. But to also look forward to the busy and the chaos of being a single working mom that decided to go ahead and make her life a little more hectic by adding college back into the picture. So the next time you are stressed about having to get homework in, or the class time you have is getting in the way of you going out and having food and drinks with your friends, just remember you could always be busier and life could always be more chaotic. Enjoy all the free time you have now, before you bring on the bottles and diapers and crazy toddlers!
