Week In Review: April Showers and Student Tears

Ah, April in college...thou art heartless.  I don't quite understand why professors don't collaborate to stagger the exam schedule, but that's fine.  I'll just be over here...rocking in a corner muttering nonsensically. 

 

This is the thing that keeps me somewhat sane during college around finals.  I named it Obi-Wan because A) the model is cleverly named Fiddlerman OB-1 and 2)...Well, Star Wars.  I picked up the violin in December 2016 after I fell in love with it as I completed a lot of research into the violin for the creation of Walter Larkin for Beautiful Chaos.  I practice nearly daily, which is surprising because I can't play piano well, nor can I read sheet music.  (I play by ear.)  So there's that! 

Currently reading: Nothing this week, aside from textbooks that I don't really want to read in the first place.  Homer, I get that you were famous and all, but....yeesh.  Although I have a couple of comics and a Star Wars book coming in the mail, so I'm eagerly anticipating them.  In the meantime, this is me throwing myself at the mountain of exams I have to deal with next week:

Credit: The Big Bang Theory / CBS

 
 Current projects: I wrote several chapters for My Compass Home this week, so that's going very well.  My goal is to get the first draft written in April, but with so many other things on my plate I'm not sure if I can swing it.  Additionally, I'm working on formatting a Christmas play I wrote in 2016 so I can self-publish it for anyone to use, read, and produce.  If your church does Christmas plays, please spread the word about it!  It's called A Town Nativity. I also wrote some opinion articles ahead of time so I don't have to worry about that for the rest of the semester, so that was a relief.  I probably wrote ~9,000 words this week thus far.

Current Bible verse:  Is anyone among you in trouble?  Let them pray.  Is anyone happy?  Let them sing songs of praise...therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  James 5:13, 16 NIV.  As far as leaning on a group or network of others for your worldly troubles, just read on...

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes well?  It's not even like the day is totally devastating or has life-changing consequences, but it's more like the universe has decided "Hey, let's throw in as many minor annoyances together on one day as is possible and see if she cracks like a walnut!"

That was Wednesday.  The Mondayest of all Wednesdays I've ever seen.  Crack like a walnut I did.
Between trying to figure out the tiniest of issues preventing me from sending my last quarterly tax report in (seriously, if they truly want my money, why do they make it so hard to send this stuff in?!)  to coding software that refused to work properly for my psychology statistics course, to finding a whole bale of moldy hay (for those who don't have livestock, that involved me shaking each individual section out to see if anything wasn't moldy, choking over the mold spores, fighting with the dismantled 50lb bale and wrestling it back into baling twine so I could throw it out later)...The day was just one big question....

Credit: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D / Buzzfeed

Folks, this week I was reminded yet again of the importance of asking for help when you need it.  I'm the type to just push through and figure things out for myself, whether it's ignoring a video game manual and mashing buttons 'til I make it through the level, issues with school assignments, or trying to work on job training, so on and so forth.  I've always been this way.  It's just a lot easier for me to figure it out for myself.  However, sometimes you just can't do that. 
Honest to goodness, Wednesday would have been a bit (only a bit) easier to deal with had I started sending emails and asking questions earlier in the day.  By Thursday, everything was resolved.

Sometimes, I think (and this is just me rambling; I am not a theologian, so take this with a grain of salt) God allows us to encounter little stumbling-blocks so we can build our character and improve who we are as a person.  The Bible tells us on numerous occasions that life is just easier if we lean on others for help and support, and I can't help but wonder if this was a God-thing suggesting that I need to be just a little more trusting of other people to help me out.

(On another note, isn't the stumbling-blocks-to-build-character a great tool that authors use for character arcs in books, movies, etc.?)

Anyway...rant over.  How was your first week in April?  Any plans for Camp NaNoWriMo?