Doctor vs. Awesome

Actual conversation with my brother last night: 

Mitch: ...I have so much going on...I have to get my party planned, get in shape, get a tan, get some new clothes...
Me: Yeah, pretty much all I've thought about lately is getting work done and school work done...
Mitch: Haha.
Me: My life is lame, but hey, I'm going to be a doctor, so I can't complain too much.

Mitch: Lol and I'm just going to be awesome.

Life is nothing short of frantic these days between long days at work and long nights at the homework. But somehow, I don't hate it. In fact, I can't say I could really imagine life any other way. What would I be doing if not all this stuff? Would I be socializing with friends more? Maybe. Would I be married with kiddos? Hard to say. Would I most likely just find another project to keep me equally busy? That sounds about right.

I do every now and then long for the days that I could just curl up on a Sunday afternoon and take a good long nap. Heck, I even find myself longing for the days that I could get enough laundry done to wear clean clothes to work. But all in all, this whole work/school=busy/life combo isn't just all that bad. 

And as for the doctor versus awesome debate, I'll let it go for now, but I'm secretly hoping that it is possible to be both doctor and awesome in the same lifetime, however if I had to choose just one, Mitch can have awesome all to himself.

Oh, and I miss you, blog friends. It has been quite some time since I've written much of anything (outside of academic writing, of course), and I've had about 400 random reflection moments that I wish I could have taken time to share with you. My guess is that many of them will come around again; they usually do, and when I get a short break from my studies (Christmas to mid-January), perhaps I'll spend some time catching up.

Stuff to Memory Ratio

Over the past few weeks/months, I have determined that there is a direct inverse relationship between the amount of stuff one deals with in life and ones ability to keep it all straight. This seems obvious, does it not? Yeah, well, it's only apparently obvious when you don't have a lot of stuff to keep track of.

Today, I missed a meeting on campus that I was supposed to be at. A three hour meeting. A three hour meeting that I had to sit through three other meetings in preparation for. A three hour meeting that I had to sit through three other meetings in preparation for that I had a fairly crucial role in.

It was on my calendar. It was in my email. It was in my paper planner. One of the preparation meetings was this past week.

And somehow, I blew it off. My excuse? I didn't have one. In fact, while I was missing the meeting, I was doing all sorts of great and relaxing things that were not work. I went for a run before the sun went down. I took a little nap to recover from the tough run. I ate some dinner, starting working on some homework, watched some TV...

I really do not like the relationship between stuff and memory. It is pretty adverse to my current situation. I've got some stuff going on. Work, school, church, friends, family... but is there a tipping point in this relationship? Is there a point where the stuff is too great and the memory too poor to be effective? And if I'm at that tipping point, how do I crawl back to the less stuff/more memory side of the teeter totter? I suppose the only logical thing to do would be to reduce the stuff. So...what to reduce? It can't really be work. It most definitely can't be school if I intend to graduate. That leaves church, friends, and family. I'm not sure I really like the sounds of reducing my commitments to any of those things. So, I suppose I will have to accept the fact that with stuff comes memory issues. And with memory issues comes mistakes like my missed meeting tonight.

God, grant me clarity, a straight brain, and the ability to deal with all the stuff. Help me reduce the stuff to be reliable, useful, and effective in all areas of my life. I want to do well to please You. I want to honor you with all the stuff rather than just doing stuff for stuff's sake. Guide me in obedience and faithfulness in everything I do.