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| Sonya Langeford via Unsplash, used under CC0 license |
When I graduated from college, I thought my free time would grow exponentially. After all, studying was what took up all of my time, but if you took that away, then it follows that I would naturally have more free time for whatever pursuits my heart desires, right? Wrong.
Even over that first summer, I noticed that I didn't feel much change in the amount of free time I had/wanted to do things like reading, painting, and dancing. It was filled up with other things--soccer (plus practices), meeting up with friends and mentors, and of course spending time with Jake. As fall approached and my career path gained more definition, my time was even more consumed by my work. Believe it or not, lesson planning can take a long time!
These days, my week looks like this
M: Work for CP, Teach for VA, chores, art class
T: Babysitting for women's Bible study (a commitment I will not be renewing next semester despite the "easy thirty bucks"), work for CP, prepare youth group lesson, grading etc. Running with Dad
W: Work for CP, lesson-plan, youth group
Th: Teach for VA, work for CP,
F: Lesson-plan, lesson-plan, lesson-plan. Running.
Obviously, there is not a lot of time for Jake in all this, especially when he works all the nights that I'm free. Because it's so frenzied during the week, I tend to place my weekends on a pedestal as my only days to hang out and have fun (with Jake and others). But this weekend, I overdid it.
On Friday, I facilitated the youth group girl's retreat up on Mt. Lemmon with a team of other leaders. We decorated the cabin, cooked up some lasagna, decorated journals, sang worship songs, learned about God.... etc. etc. It was all a really wonderful time and I got to know a girl from our small group a lot better. But I stayed up til 1 in the morning and was up again the next, ready to serve these girls. It was fun! But hardly relaxing. I got home in the late afternoon and spent the rest of the evening trying to solidify my lessons for this week, calling it quits when my eyes watered from staring at my computer screen too intensely.
Sunday morning I went to early service, worked in Sunday school, and jetted over to me and Jake's small group with two newly purchased loaves of epi bread from the local bakery. After small group, I left for another dinner engagement with some friends on the Northwest side of town--which required a frenzied drive on the freeway taking the I-10
east instead of west, turning around, finding the right neighborhood, but walking into the wrong house, before I finally made it to Farzana's house where we enjoyed good company and much laughter together. It was very pleasant time together and I don't regret it. I rushed home so I could go running with Dad before Jake arrived for a late-night catch-up before the week started again.
So here we are at Monday morning, the day I'm writing this post, and I'd intended on going to a breakfast hosted by the Tucson Missions Network. Having been two times already, the people there capitalized on my youthful energy and asked me if I could come early to help set up and bring some fruit for the breakfast. Despite the early arrival time (6:30 am, which meant leaving my house at 6am, which meant waking up at 5:55), I agreed and had bought the fruit and everything... but 7:40am rolls around and I wake up to my dad in the doorway saying, "So much for getting up at 6." I jumped out of bed, "Holy crap what time is it?" and in my feverish half sleep tried to calculate the math of how long it would take to arrive if I left in 2 minutes exactly. It was not enough. I'd set an alarm, but it didn't go off and now I'd let my friends down.
Perhaps I needed the extra two hours of sleep, but I didn't want it at the expense of disappointing my friends. I wrote an apology note and will see them in person soon. But I think I bit off more than I can chew. Maybe next time, I'll take smaller bites.
