Hi everyone, I am still alive and well!

I have received some emails and texts recently from people who are concerned that I have disappeared from the internet. Thank you guys, that means a lot! It has been a while since I’ve blogged or posted on Facebook. I guess there’s a reason that most people announce that they’re taking a break for a while!

Honestly, though, I didn’t take a break intentionally. I’ve just been really busy and exhausted lately. That’s the thing about grad school, at least in my experience– sometimes you have nothing to do for school and you have a lot of free time, but you can’t fill that up with regular activities because when the workload comes, it drops like an anvil from a cartoon sky scraper.

As some of you know, I have been working to earn a master’s degree in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies from University of London. I am attending classes online, which has been convenient in terms of frequent and short-notice moves but very difficult in terms of getting the full grad school experience, including academic support.

Although it has been very difficult, I’ve managed to pass all my classes and learn a lot about my subject area. This past semester has been pretty intense. I have been working three jobs, and between that at the reading assignments, my life has been pretty busy. And I’ll be honest–after staring at a computer screen for up to 15 hours a day, I don’t really have the motivation to type any more.

We also have had a weird schedule this semester, which makes it hard for us to get out and do stuff. Ben’s doing his surgery rotation for med school right now. He is gone at least 12 hours a day. We get up a 3:45 a.m. so that he will have time to eat breakfast, warm up the car, and drive to the hospital through the ice and snow. I have been taking advantage of the early hours to teach more classes for VIPKID. I’ll be honest, though, I don’t really mind the early hours because I love my job! It’s easy to start the day early when you’re doing it with a smile and a happy kid on the other side of the screen.

Click here to learn how to work for VIPKID

At the beginning of this month, I took the hardest final I’ve ever done. It consisted of two 4,000 word essays on political science topics. Since it was worth 70% of my overall semester grade and I only had ten days to do it, it was pretty intense. It wasn’t fun, but I feel pretty accomplished that I managed it and I think I turned out some of my best work yet. I hope my teachers agree! I jumped from that back into work on my dissertation, which is worth 70% of my overall grade for my degree. As you can imagine, it’s a lot of pressure. I signed up for it, though, and I’m determined to finish strong!

My dissertation is due on March 26, so until then I’ll probably lay low. I am looking forward to the end of March, when Ben’s surgery rotation ends, my dissertation is submitted, and the snow melts! This season of life is good, but I won’t be sad to see it go. March means exploring Detroit and blogging more! I can’t promise I’ll write much until then, and I hope you’ll come back around once this blog comes out of hibernation again.