I finished the AFAA study guide and
practice test and used my guest passes at Shapes. Without any
memberships, though, I've been falling into old habits. Not that my
old habits are bad – they still consist of stretching daily, going
for walks / jogs, and doing stuff in my living room. They just don't
consist of actual aerobic or strength training classes or structured
time periods to “work out.” I think it's enough to stay
healthy...I just need to make sure that I can pick things up quickly
if the demands of work in my industry require it. Which they might.
On a sort of related note, I was
thinking about how circumstances in life / mental state can determine
whether or not you exercise. Of course we know that exercising can
also determine how you feel in life, so it's sort of a chicken or egg
thing to me. Do you jump up and down because you're happy or are you
happy because you jump up and down? It can go both ways. But I'm
still fascinated by how emotions can affect what our bodies do. The
reverse is sort of interesting, but it's a saturated field of study
(that I happen to be in). I wonder if I'll ever get to explore more.
What else? I got a couple of job
offers. One was for the campus bookstore and one was for tutor-a-bull
which is a program in the education dept. where we go tutor kids in
middle schools and high schools around the area. The tutoring would
only be 1 day a week for 4 hours but would last the whole semester.
The bookstore would be 15-ish hours a week but wouldn't be guaranteed
to last the semester. Temporary employees are just needed for the
fall rush (through Sept 13) and then it's uncertain after that. So I
could do both. I signed up for a training session Wed. of this week,
in fact. But I also applied to a grad assistantship in the financial
aid office which I haven't heard from yet. That would pay way more
and be pretty cool, but I don't know what will happen. The timing of
knowing these things is a little frustrating, but what can you do?
Other things I have to do that are
coming up: check to see if new tuition rates are posted yet. That
will have an effect on how much of the loan money I decide to accept.
(But so will the job situation because assistantships pay some of the
tuition). I also might have to call unemployment for millionth time
because I'm still not getting anything even though I've been
submitting my job searches. And it's all because I reported that
research study I did as income one week. That was stupid. I wouldn't
have done that if I'd known it would screw everything up. Ugh. But
despite money issues, I'm still managing to make purchases where
needed (dentist, oil change, car registration, parking decal for new
school year) and where wanted (plane ticket to see boyfriend once
more before school starts, maybe an e-reader / tablet which I've been
wanting for a while and which I might shop for this weekend when
they're tax-free and possibly on sale for the back-to-school season).
Oh, and then I'll need to get textbooks for my classes, but I've been
getting those with award money that's been attached to my financial
aid, so that shouldn't be too big a deal (plus if I stay an employee
of the bookstore I get an employee discount).
Sometimes it seems unfathomable that
I'd be affording everything with as little income as I've had lately,
but for one thing, I shouldn't question it. And for another, I still
need to be careful because luck is not everlasting. I'm gonna have
loans to pay after this year, I won't have the safety net of school
anymore, and I'll need to succeed in acquiring what I'm working
toward – a 'real job' that will engage me on a daily basis and that
will pay decently. It's such a simple concept but one that's taken a
long time to carve a path for. Because when you're young, you
sometimes make a wrong guess about what it is you should do / pursue.
And then you have to start over. But there are worse things than
having to start over. And it's never too late to do it. And now I
sound like a hallmark card, so maybe that means I should end the post
here, lol.
