School Daze

My first day back at school was filled with emotions common to students everywhere: dread and terror. I kept asking myself all day long how will I survive this quarter? Not just figuratively, but technically, how will I survive? I'm taking five classes, all with homework, requisite volunteer hours and assignments requiring extreme organizational skills. Not to mention applying for internships in nutrition that pit my skills and abilities against hundreds of other, probably more qualified candidates? Any wonder why the thought of spending 10 weeks in the final stages of childbirth sounds so much more comforting than this?

But that's not all. So many of my classmates are struggling with how to graduate without completing the required coursework. The answer: they can't. Because the state of California is experiencing a budget crisis (read: bankruptcy) and the university I attend is state funded. Or was. Add to my own dread and terror the frustration of so many dear friends who find their fate is literally beyond their control. After working so hard for so long, they may not achieve their goal of graduating this Spring.

It took another classmate, in the midst of this storm, to look me in the eyes and say: "do the best you can and let G-d." Thank you, dear A, for saying what needed to be said. All I can add is, Amen.