I was behind and that is all that consumed my mind. We have all been there where our to do list is like five pages and are head is spinning because we do not even know where to begin. Most recently, this was me. One Saturday, I had been at work for a solid five hours without looking up from my computer. My friend was very gracious to take my little boy for the day, so I could catch up on all the assignments with deadlines quickly approaching. My husband would come into the room every now and then just to make sure I was at least drinking water in between the furious typing. I had been working tirelessly on a research paper for the past month and as I was coming to the end of my final draft, my word document became corrupted and the document immediatedly closed.
 
My first reaction, shock. Then my second reaction, anger. Then, shock, anger, shock, anger, tears. There were so many tears.
 
Yes. It makes you want to cry too, I know it does! You do not have to worry, I cried many tears for the both of us that lasted a little over an hour. I had a full, level ten, off the charts breakdown and my husband had no idea what to do because saying “it will be alright” was not exactly working at that moment. Don’t you hate those moments? You are about to go to press the save button and you keep reminding yourself to just press save and then the inevitable happens, it is all gone in a blink of an eye. I am lucky that the entire paper was not lost, only the five hours of work (which you all know is still a lot of work), but after I ate a gallon of ice cream and cried myself to sleep, I woke up the next day and took a deep breath. I was thankful that day was behind me and I could find the courage to move through the next.
 
Graduate school, much like life, kicks us on our butts sometimes and its okay to not be okay. There are days that we have to just take a day to breathe, pull out the yoga mat and just clear our mind. I am here to say, “Hey! Hang in there!”
 
As we approach the end of the semester, there are many deadlines approaching and exams to prepare for. Although we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, there is still much pressure sitting right in front of us in these coming weeks.
 
Know you are not alone and if you have to take a day, do that!
Then wake up tomorrow, take a deep breath and start with a fresh mind and attitude.
 
Oh! And tip of the year: Remember, keep pressing save.

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Jenny Nuccio
Jenny is an Ed.D. student participating in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Doc@Distance Program.