It's July and every day is hotter than I expect. We just returned from a road trip up the coast to Virginia. Twelve long hours in the car, maybe thirteen. I chose to drive overnight rather than blanketed by the traffic filled roads and sunlight. It makes it easier on the kids to travel and sleep through much of it, though it is harder on those who have to drive in the wee hours of morning.
I've realized I don't have much work to come home to. My other half has been off for much of the month. The work in his industry is scant through the summer and will pick up again in the fall. I'll have no such luck. My supportive and always helpful mentorish boss-like figure informed me this summer that enrollment was low. There will be no writing class to teach this fall. My cohort at the writing center just informed me there is no position there in the fall for her either. It's as if the need for education has fallen off a very steep cliff.
There is, of course, the question to whether I even continue this quest to get my graduate degree and *gasp* my doctorate. I'm not giving up just yet. My grad school hired me to teach a yoga class once a week. It's a bit of a haul for one class, but I took it graciously. It's getting too lean around here for sure. There is a rather large mortgage on this house that I feel some degree of responsibility to pay. The hoops were tough to jump through to get this lavish homestead and I'm not giving up so easily. I say that, and in the next breath, could tell you that I'm signed up for over three thousand dollars worth of classes for my fall graduate studies, so I must not be that worried. Obviously.
On top of all that, I've made the decision to travel to India this winter. The grad program is sponsoring a pilgrimage with Gandhi's grandson as its lead. I think I might be the first one to have applied for the opportunity. There goes another big chunk of savings (though I did apply for a nominal scholarship today to help lower the costs). I don't think I've made this announcement in any formal fashion to the rest of my loved ones. I turn forty this year; it is simply the gift I plan on giving myself. It is also a great excuse to narrow my thesis/final project for this graduate program. I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities to fuse my love of yoga with this trip to India, and the cultural connections I've found through the curriculum during my studies.... or at least that is what I'm telling myself.
So it may be back to finding regular work for me, if nothing else than to perhaps fund all of my great academic studies for fall and winter. I have my feelers out and I'm open to anything.
