Motivation and Determination

What a week! It’s been pretty stressful and it seems everyone I’m talking to is mentioning how busy they are as well. I certainly won’t object to being busy as I prefer that over being bored. I like to be productive, and some stress can be healthy. But, goodness, right now, I’d just like to take a long nap and have some cuddle time with the dogs. Unfortunately, the week isn’t done and I need to learn the entire Glycolysis cycle for my Biochemistry quiz tomorrow. I’m slowly getting there but it certainly won’t be a short evening. Perhaps some Starbucks will help. I actually got 3 different Starbucks gift cards as birthday presents this year. I’m set with my addiction. What does it say about me when people just give me gift cards for coffee? Anyway, I don’t really want to ramble, especially since I have things to do, but I need to motivate myself to finish this week strong.

How do YOU motivate yourself to keep going?

Who Are You?

Today’s question is going to be a bit more scientific because it relates to my genetics lab I’m currently doing. I was sitting and thinking about genetics and all the crazy traits we have, as people. Proteins code for so many different things and we all look so different. From the color of our eyes, our hair color, the pigment of our skin, our height and weight as well as how we speak, gesture and act are all part of what makes us unique. If you think about the differences out there in life that make us all so special and how we each have something different about us that we can share, I’d like to ask you guys this…

What is one unique thing about you that you would like to share with the world?

Preparing

Wow. I’ve been so busy all day and still am. Today is my first blog post from my phone. It isn’t as easy but I’m still determined to post once a day and want to get this one in before bed. Today we headed back to College Station to start back up with school. While I’m not entirely looking forward to being back to my ridiculously busy schedule, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to see my friends again and get back to the old grind. I’ve got a genetics test on Thursday but luckily nothing else crazy going on. I am trying to pump myself up in order to do well and get back into the swing of things. So…

How do you use self talk and get yourself ready for every day trials?

Very Lucky

I consider myself quite lucky this semester. Sure, classes are difficult and there are piles of homework. But, it could always be much worse. I’m at one of the best universities in the world, getting a quality education and I’m surrounded by wonderful people. I am learning life lessons and my eyes are being opened to a variety of new things I never would have thought about before. I am being taught by some the most accomplished people who have dedicated their hard work and time to share what they know with me. Today, I want to talk about my inspirational genetics professor. He is a truly fantastic person. One can easily tell that he is absolutely enthralled with the subject, passionate about sharing the knowledge and wants to see his students succeed.

I talked about good instruction yesterday, but I am going to emphasize it here, as I truly believe that a great teacher can make the process more enjoyable. When you have trouble you want to be able to ask questions. When you are curious or have a question you want answers. When you don’t do well, you want to be reminded that all you can do is your best and that life can be tough but you can persevere. When you do well, you want to celebrate and enjoy the success and feel good moments. Dr.Ellison is genuinely a wonderful process and I am so thankful that I signed up for his course. It is a subject, I myself, have always been curious about and the things I am learning are things that will impact me in the future. I am a firm believer that we take back something out of everything we learn. We just may not know it yet. So, yes, I am very lucky. I am lucky to attend Texas A&M University. I am lucky to have the ability to get a quality education. And I am very lucky to have a wonderful professor to support me along the way!

Always Keep Going

Wow! It’s been a crazy week already and I had to come on to give myself a few minutes to blog and relax my mind. I had a test on Monday and have had mountains of homework. Tonight, I have genetics review, tomorrow a genetics quiz, genetics lab and a physics exam that is scaring me senseless. Physics has never been my strong suit but I’ve been trying incredibly hard lately to work on doing well and understanding the concepts. I’m hoping my hard work will be rewarded with a decent grade. Along with that, after tomorrow, I have to study for my biochemistry exam on Friday. Needless to say I’m ready for it to be Friday, but I’m not ready to give up yet. That’s why today’s inspirational person that popped into my mind is Winston Churchill. My absolute favorite quote of his is “Never, never, never give up.” It may seem rough, it may seem busy, I may be swamped and tired, but I’m working towards a goal and I will accomplish that goal. Hard work pays off and no one ever gained anything from simply giving up. And whether or not I do extremely well or need a little extra study time for the next round of tests, I need to remember this.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill

Continuously working hard, keeping your eye on the goal, striving to learn and accepting the help you may need are the keys to much success. And sometimes, we fail. There is nothing wrong with that. If you are trying, you are getting somewhere and you should be proud of that. Clearly, Churchill understood this.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” -Winston Churchill

Remember that it is all about PERSPECTIVE.

Perseverance

I feel I need to write about perseverance because today has been a long and draining day. Despite the freezing temps, sleet and freezing rain, Texas A&M still made us go to class earlier this am which I wasn’t too excited about. Mainly this was because freezing my butt off is something I don’t particularly enjoy and I didn’t want to risk getting hurt. Luckily I made it to class and back home safely. A good nap followed but then it was to the arch-nemesis, Physics.

I’m not sure what it is about Physics. I hate it. It has never been my subject. Unfortunately no matter how much I seem to try and grasp the concepts, it just doesn’t click. Despite that, I’ll continue to do my best and persevere to get through it. If anyone magically knows how to do Physics and is a genius at the subject, would you care to be my new best friend? Perhaps I just need to grow some extra brain cells…

Throughout the busy and frigid day, the dogs have been absolutely fantastic as always. They napped and cuddled with me earlier and tonight they are happily chewing on cow horns while I relax, watch TV and unwind. How did I get so lucky? They always seem to remind me that even after a long day, I have something great to come home to and two dogs that take each day for what it is and always wag their tails.

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” -Marie Curie

Brrr!!!

The weather has been crazy here in College Station. We got  a wintry mix of sleet, ice and snow last night. This was Vengeance’s first experience with weather like this so we had a blast and played outside for a while. Shimmer has seen weather like this but it always makes her frisky and happy so she was doing a lot of bouncing and zooming around.

Classes are still on as far as I know though luckily I don’t have to be out until almost noon. Hopefully it’ll be a safe, uneventful day with no hazards to speak of. Texans are just not used to dealing with this type of weather. My sincerest hope is that everyone just stays safe. The temperatures are supposed to be back up to 60s-70s tomorrow, and back down to about 20s-30s on Tuesday. Yes, this is Texas. Special doesn’t even begin to cover it.

“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.” -Helen Keller

Answers

I asked about some input yesterday, and I received a comment that I wanted to expand on. The comment was this…

 

“I was wondering if you might be willing to reflect on the processes that someone who requires the services of a service dog might go through if/when they outlive the span of their companion? I know it is a painful thought to consider, and therefore infrequently discussed… but it’s for this very reason that I’ve been so unable to find answers! Because I’m attached to my service dog… can another dog really help me the way she does, when she’s gone? Will I be too hurt to ever let in that love again, and therefore be cut off from help forever??

 

If you could talk about this… I’d be very grateful…” –    Commenter Abby

 

I’m not really sure where I would start as this is something I myself am questioning. Shimmer is my first service dog and as she approaches 8 1/2 years, I consider when to retire her and allow my younger dog to take over. Questions that go through my mind are, how will Shimmer feel? Will I expect too much of Vengeance? How will Vengeance take to the job? Will I cause Shimmer to become depressed or sad? Will I cause her worry? Will I cause myself worry? None of these questions can unfortunately be answered definitely, just figuratively. I do believe that another dog can help us the way our current service animals do, we just have to be willing to be open to the idea of it. Often we are so rigid in our thought process that we don’t always allow ourselves the change that we NEED. So, to answer the question in the end, I do no believe you will be too hurt. We are all different but at the same time, we have to take the chance and hope that we will get what we need and what we are deserving of. We all deserve help and happiness. That is the point of this blog.

 

I’d also like to share that today was a fun day. Class went by quickly and afterwards we came home and went to the park with a good friend of ours. The dogs had a wonderful time and the service dog in training that she is sitting for the weekend came along too. Shimmer, Vengeance and Buddy always have a great time and I have two very pleased and tired dogs laying at my feet as I type this. What a wonderful day. This was exactly what I needed to refresh and regroup. And what’s even more wonderful, tomorrow we will be going again! Today, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things and it feels great!

“Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed, and rearranged to relocate us to the place we’re meant to be.” -Unknown

Exhausted

Today was a bit of a roller coaster of a day though it was pretty fantastic. The early get up is never pleasing but I discovered another friend and her service dog in training in my genetics class. My genetics professor also wanted to meet my service dog and even brought her a treat. How sweet! It’s nice to know she brings smiles to other people when they see her. I know, even for me, having a service animal, seeing other teams around campus or running into other service dogs always makes my day brighter. The lab was fairly easy and I had time to go home to relax for about an hour and then got through physics despite my high desire to pass out and nap.

I was going to put off blogging until later tonight but thought about it and figured, I’m still awake and things are fresh in my mind, so why not? Isn’t ironic how even when we are exhausted or tired we can still keep going or pushing through? It’s not really exhaustion or sleepiness that stops me in my tracks but sadness. At least this is how I see it for myself.

I know I have a few people following the blog and am curious to know, what would you like to see being blogged about? I feel like with school keeping me busy that I haven’t really been able to blog a quality post for a while and I figured I might as well see if anyone has a particular suggestion. Perhaps it’s a specific quote that touched you or something you’ve been thinking about for a while. And today, I’m picking a quote that simple spoke to me as I was looking for one to share. I think this one is short, simple, but has a lot of meaning behind it.

“Where there is love there is life.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Keeping Up

I feel like I’m blogging so late. It’s been a busy day and I needed a break so that’s why I’m just now blogging. Today’s blog likely won’t be long as I’m trying to stay ahead of things. It was an early get up today which I did not appreciate as I am definitely not a fan of early wake ups. Ironically, I’ve discovered that it isn’t how long I sleep but how early I get up that matters. I can sleep hours and still be grumpy if I have an early wake up but can have five hours of sleep and get up around 9am and feel fine. Strange how that works out. But, such is life and I’ll be putting on my big girl panties and dealing with it. Tomorrow, I get to sleep in so I’m definitely going to look forward to that.

The dogs are getting a good bit of praise again since the past two days have been ridiculously busy and they haven’t gotten much stimulation. Have I mentioned I have the best dogs on the planet? I think I did. They’re absolutely fantastic and good. I think tonight we may just cuddle up on the bed and watch a movie. That is, after I finish my Genetics pre-lab assignment. I don’t have the lab until Thursday morning, but hey, might as well get ahead while I can, right? I’m pretty thrilled, I’ve already motivated myself and did some Biochemistry flash cards yesterday. Motivation for the win. Perhaps the title of this blog post is a bit misleading? I’m not sure as I do feel I’m scrambling to keep up but that could be the lack of sleep more than anything else.

I am proud of myself for keeping up with my healthy habits with school starting back up again. It can be quite difficult to try and figure out how and when to eat what when you’re constantly on the go. I’ve been pretty pleased with my ability to incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables and balanced meals the last few days. Hopefully this will continue and I can get on the right track. For now, I’m doing everything I can and that’s good enough! I’m happy with myself. Why? Just because. What a great feeling that is…

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.” -Audrey Hepburn