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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I just signed for a new house! I’m so excited! We’ll be moving to a bigger city, with lots of character and lots of small shops, restaurants and cafes. This has been in the making for a couple of years, and finally we’ve been able to time it right for the kids to switch schools. In September we’ll close and get to move. Can’t wait to move in!
Congratulations! Hope it's not haunted (unless you want it to be haunted)!
Just a little haunted is fine, I don’t mind sharing the space.
This week has been so tough! I accepted a "summer camp" class - five consecutive days of teaching 3 hour classes. Normally this would be a great thing. More hours, more money, and I need money. And then I took another one hour class that had also been set to happen immediately after four of those days with no break in between. But this also happened right in the middle of the second week of extremely difficult math classes I'm taking for university which had left me with so much work that I have basically been working non-stop all week!
I know the wording on that last sentence was a bit confusing; the university week starts on Thursdays, so the Monday my teaching classes started was in the middle of that workweek.
It took so much out of me. I had to give up going to Disneyland with my husband and a friend to work on my studies, and I only finished the last assignment within hours of the deadline and actually missed out on the chance to do a practice quiz. I also had to give up going to the gym because I just plain didn't have the time for it. The classes I taught this week were so close together I didn't have time to cook anything good, and I didn't have enough time to do real grocery shopping so some meals just ended up being instant ramen - stuff that I have worked really hard to stop eating! I even got my husband to bring me taco bell at one point. I also bought $33 of chocolate.
And to make things worse, one of my students in that long class was an absolute mess of a kid. You probably know the type; he's very upbeat, lots of energy, and loud. It was the first time I had to send a kid outside of the class because of how much he bothered me with his behavior.
But it's not been all bad. I wouldn't even really call it bad, honestly; just busy. It was stressful, but I feel good about it. That annoying kid? He's also amazingly wholesome and I think I'll kind of miss him now. And that second class? The student actually asked for me specifically after we had a trial class, so I had to take him in, and I really think he's special; he understands the things I explain, he asks questions; he's the kind of student that makes teaching a worthwhile pursuit. It makes me think of how stressful and toxic my old job was, and how even though I was spending my reserves much faster this week than I would have in the past, It actually feels like it's been worth the effort. I feel needed, and validated, and useful.
Coincidentally my old boss somewhat randomly decided to text me to wish me a happy 4th of July. I'm choosing to believe it was a friendly gesture but there's part of me that's kind of hoping that he was trying to fish if I wanted to go back so that I could tell him to fuck off.
My studies still have me stressed, but I have come to the realization that I'm learning wrong, if that makes any sense. Because it's been so long since I've studied algebra and math, I'm not realizing that I'm trying to relearn stuff that I already know, and after I started to connect the dots things have become easier. I'm also shooting myself in the foot by putting too much effort into reading the textbooks, which are written in ways that alternate between obtuse and vague. Right now the hard part is getting the energy to actually study. I haven't even looked at my Statistics work for this week yet....