Last month of the year

This year has been insane in a lot of ways. I've grown so much personally and professionally. My circle has thinned and I'm ok with almost all of those changes. Sometimes when you're an intense person like I am you can't stand surface level connection or friendships. I keep people who offer me shallow connection [...]

“Wellness” During Dissertation

I'm starting to believe that there may not be such a thing, that undertaking such a task is in and of itself "crazy" and unhealthy. It certainly feels that way at times, no matter how invested I am in my education and my dissertation topic and no matter how hard a worker I am and [...]

Wellness Wednesday

I'm leaving for Seattle in a few hours to present at a conference. I would have liked to have had more time to prepare, but it is what it is. Dissertation is such a lonely and isolating process, it's unreal. You do receive help from your committee and mentors for sure... but, everything really all [...]

Wellness Wednesday

I certainly haven't been feeling very well. I'm not able to really strike a balance with anything in my life it seems. I feel like in order for me to do a good job at one thing, something else has to suffer--whether that's neglecting personal projects, sleep, exercising, eating correctly... more often than not I [...]

Blogust 7

Wow and how things can change is less than 24 hours. With a lot of different things added on my plate and feeling the time crunch, I'm overwhelmed. Ok, but overwhelmed. Also, I received my first (I think) rejection of conference proposal, which was sort of surprising, but not really given that I didn't have [...]

Wellness Wednesday

I've been trying to make dissertation writing a habit, and it's starting to stick, but I'm going on a mini vacation to visit a friend soon and I'm afraid it'll throw off my groove when I come back. Sigh. It's always hard to have so much writing and work looming because you feel like during [...]

The Clutter

I know I'm not an actual hoarder, but sometimes I feel like it. My clutter can simultaneously give me comfort and anxiety. It's familiar and makes me feel tucked in at my desk with all the stacks of books and strewn papers, but then when I have to do some writing that requires energy, like [...]

Wellness Wednesday: Getting Over Tech Phobia

As I am prepping for class tonight I'm just reflecting on how far I have come with trying new things in teaching and counseling... and trying to allow myself to make mistakes and pick myself back up and just be like: "Whelp... that didn't work, won't do that again." Or, "Okay, this is how I [...]

Wellness Wednesday: Teaching New Courses

For the doctoral student working on their dissertation and teaching at the same time, or the new instructor, this one is for you. My God. I'm teaching a Sexuality class for the first time, some of the most fun and interesting material that I get to teach, but boy is it still a hassle teaching [...]

Wellness Wednesday: “Shoulds”

Late as usual... but it's still Wednesday somewhere... in some universe... right? I think what I've learned most recently by virtue of balancing so many things in graduate school is that the "shoulds" in your mind can really bring you down and I've been trying to counteract that. I often hold myself to impossible standards [...]