... side effects ...

of spending every afternoon in the child development lab:

- spending hours (literally) writing lesson plan objectives
- exhaustion after spending five hours setting up, engaging 20 children in developmentally appropriate activities, cleaning up
- insomnia caused by a large to do list and interaction re-plays to remember for future reference

It is 2:30 in the morning! Luckily it is Friday night. Unluckily my to-do list for tomorrow doesn't have an end to it...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love school. I was talking to a fellow child development lab teacher day and expressing how grateful I am that I can be a student and for how much I have learned and grown from going to school. That being said, I am so ready to be done!

I'm done with stress induced insomnia. I'm done with hiking up Old Main to go to class. I'm done with tests and studying and busy schedules. I'm not done with learning - I hope that I will never be done with learning, but I am done with school.

I'm ready for a real life. I'm ready to make yummy dinner (mostly every night). I'm ready to have a yard and a garden. I'm ready to have a child to wake me up in the middle of the night and to make me cry with joy. I'm ready for Nate to find a real job that he can love. I'm ready to stop being a student. I'm ready to be an adult.

I have one year left. I am a definite carrier of "Senioritis." I will study hard and work hard and do what I set out to do when I realized that I was in it for the long haul - and when I am done, my real life will be begin.

Until then, I'll find joy in the little things and try to get some sleep!