After a hiatus, the Bold E has returned!

As I mentioned before, I decide to return to school for a master’s degree. I thought I would be able to handle the transition gracefully and without too much disruption to my life. But that just goes to show how long I’ve been out of the school game. Needless to say, it took much more of my time and concentration to balance school, work, and life at home. The refocusing paid off: I knocked this semester out of the park. In the process however, I had to make some sacrifices. I had to skip a weekly dinner with extended family that had become an important part of my routine. I had to bow out of some volunteer events I would have enjoyed, but also would have stretched me pretty thin. I had to decline invitations to outings with friends on weekends when papers were due. My favorite time of year came and went while I studied for finals, putting me in a little bit of a funk.

It ended up being a good learning experience though, in more than just the classroom. I learned slowly what I need to do to balance my stress, including: take more frequent small breaks, ask for what you need more often, and jut get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

More frequent small breaks helped break up large chunks of reading, paper writing, and team projects into more manageable doses without burning out. I spent every free moment I had for a week writing a paper, and by the time I turned it in I was so tired that I needed three days to decompress. So for my next paper, I spaced the writing out a little more and gave myself small rewards (like dinner out), and the crash was not as bad!

Asking for what we need is important. I learned it’s ok to set boundaries and make requests to help ourselves succeed instead of stretching ourselves thin for fear of disappointing others, but also possibly setting ourselves up for failure. There were a couple times where I knew I needed to adjust my work schedule to accommodate my classes and homework better, but I was afraid to disappoint my boss. Eventually I just sucked it up and made the request, and it turned out to not be a big deal. In the future, I will much more comfortable saying, “I need this, to set myself up for success.”

I think I’ve talked before about how we are our most creative selves when we work from places outside of our comfort zones. Willingly going into classes whose content I knew nothing about beforehand had me more nervous than I expected I would be, but it also provided a great opportunity to learn to do good work and trust myself under uncertainty. Turns out discomfort doesn’t have to hold us back!

 

Let’s all look at the new year as an opportunity to learn more, expand further, and be bold!