Whew!

Today, I took a hard-earned and well-deserved break, and I realized:

Just because I didn't go running today doesn't mean I'm a lazy bum who's going to gain fifty pounds overnight.
Just because I didn't work in the schools today doesn't mean I'm a bad worker who will be fired.
Just because I eased my way through homework today doesn't mean I'm a poor student, and it doesn't mean I will fail.

It just means I didn't go running, or working, or crazy over homework today. That's all. It's just what happened today.

For most people, this might not be much of a revelation...for me, the three-point-ridiculous college senior, stubborn athlete, and lifelong perfectionist, this is huge! A. was ecstatic earlier today when I admitted that "I just might not be that interesting right now; I'm in the dull part of the day."

"Good! That's great, hon!" he laughed back over the phone. "It's so good to hear those words from you--you can have dull days! There should be days you don't do anything interesting at all and relax."

Today was that day. I did do a teeny bit of reading for class and video editing for the internship, and attended my evening class, but other than that, I slept in, relaxed, played video games, cooked for the fun of cooking, and eased my way into the week. I feel fantastic, miles away from the very tired and very stressed place I was in just last night.

Now, if I can only hold onto that sense of relaxation--and my directions to get it--for the rest of the school year, I should be in good shape.