foundation in education

So I've been looking for signs in the universe to give me a hint about what I should be doing and how much I should be worrying about academics. Yesterday, I found one. In the middle of the night, I went over to someone's room to have midnight coffee cake, and on my way back, I found a quarter on the hallway floor. It is a 2004 Iowa quarter, and the slogan on the back is "Foundation in Education" and it has a picture of a little schoolhouse on it. It reminded me that once upon a time, I was excellent. I knew it because the Iowa Tests told me so. Now, I am not so excellent. But the Iowa quarter reminded me that I have a foundation in education--I used to know something once upon a time. Somehow this made me feel peaceful. Like, even though my midterms won't say that I'm excellent, I used to be, and that is enough. These days, I just want to learn as much as I can without losing all dignity through complete academic failure.

I could count the number of us on one hand who dressed up for Halloween today. I guess most everyone else had already partied over the weekend and gotten it out of their system. Me, I like to celebrate the day itself regardless of what happens before: raid my closet and slap together whatever I can find. This year, I took a few branches off of the faux tree in the dark corner in the family room, put on my nightgown, and called myself a woodland nymph. The downside of homemade costumes is that they can very open to interpretation since the low/no budget prevents absolute clarity of form. So I was assumed to be a muse or healing goddess. Eh, close enough. Much closer than the year I dressed as a pimp, and was assumed to be a rice farmer or that dude Raiden from Mortal Combat. One year, K and I dressed up as shadows of our former selves. Most folks thought we were just depressed.

I am not able to be home to pass out candy this year. But L is passing out chewy granola bars on our behalf. Just like candy in terms of nutrition, but with fiber, too, so they're slightly better than pure sugar.

So, two midterms are out of the way, and I have two more to go: one in the morning, one on Wednesday morning, plus one final for a half quarter course on Wednesday. Then I'm done for the moment and free to figure out how to get it all done for the rest of the term.

Meanwhile, I am working to stick to my guns and not get caught up in activities that don't fit the bill of what I'm really interested in. It's tough, and sometimes I just want to hop on the next bandwagon I see. The last bandwagon was the opportunity to enhance my MBA with a joint Master in Education degree--it only takes a few more classes. The application was due today, and I resisted the urge to hop in with two feet. I made a list of priorities at the BBSA retreat, and since I committed to a handful of activities (both school and other) up front, I've been trying to keep my eye on what's most important to me, and then just promise myself I'll keep an open mind about the rest.