Slow Down

Before I got pregnant, I was a workaholic. I was not only a workaholic, but I had to fill all of the hours in my day, whether it was classes at the gym, a running group, a kickball league, work softball, it didn't matter as long as I had a jam packed day. All of my vacations were planned down to the day, and I was not very good at rolling with the punches. Forget that I could go the next day, I HAVE to go today because tomorrow I'm going to see A, B, C, & D! Then I got pregnant.

When I was pregnant, I was working at a college in one of the premiere athletic conferences. Days off are rare, and 50 hour work weeks were the norm. I was also going to grad school at night on top of working extremely full days. Nobody can really tell you how much that little person in side of you can wear you down. Walking the 2-3 blocks from my parking lot to the office began to get rough, not in a heavy breathing way, but in a "holy crap I'm going to pee on myself RIGHT NOW!" I watered many a tree in that parking lot, and wore mainly maternity dresses once my bladder decided to give in. I was still keeping my days pretty jam packed, and only dialing it down a notch. Then I had the kid.

After having kiddo, I took a job closer to my family at a smaller school. The one thing this school doesn't tell you is that you get 2 weeks off at Christmas. At the school I was at before, that would be unheard of! While the work is still the same, the workload is lighter, so taking time off is actually doable. (Once you get out of those pesky sports seasons!) This has been a tremendous plus for this job. I may go back to a job at a larger conference once kiddo is older, but while she's little this works for us.

Kiddo is very much a live in the moment little person. I'm not sure if kids in general are born this way, or if she is just a free spirit, but either way, her attitude has rubbed off on me. I have to slow down, generally speaking, because she's little and can't keep up. I really have to slow down because she has to stop for dance breaks while we are walking places. If there's music playing, there is a solid chance that we may never leave where we are.

Learning to live life with a limited agenda is a challenge for me. Some days I handle this better than others. When kiddo looks at me and wants to play her Sesame Street games on my laptop, how can I tell her me scouring the internet is more important? When kiddo wants to watch the videos on my phone of her dancing and singing, how can I say no? So this cup of coffee is to all of us who have realized that living in the moment is the best way to live (as long as we can have some sense of structure in there too).