Today is the one month anniversary of the start of my postgraduate program. My supervisor who walks like a cat, managed to catch me on Facebook 3 out of the 3 times that I was on it. Hence I’ve developed a habit of looking over my shoulder every few minutes. He probably doesn’t know about Facebook and most probably doesn’t care but they are paying for my tuition here so let’s not take any chances.
My duties with my previous employers are almost over. Now all that’s left is the forecasting and tabulation of all the marks and I can officially hand over my work and receive my August pay. Why am I still working for them you ask? Because my contract stipulates I have to give 3 months notice, the last day of which has to fall on the last day of the term, i.e. November 18; or I would have to pay the college back for every month without service. Clearly once I got my scholarship I could not wait until November 18, neither could I afford to pay them roughly 4 months pay. Hence as a practical arrangement, my boss and human resources arranged a barter trade of me marking the remaining assessments, to complete forecasting and to be available for online tutorials should the need arise, in return for a waive of the three months pay.
Naturally I leaped at the opportunity and for awhile have been working at the lab during the day and marking at night; a hellish nightmare of which makes me appreciate every working individual who is managing a full time job and full time study. And this is me not having a bunch of children to feed, bathe, spend quality time with and have them manage not to hate me because “mommy is never home”.
This is one of the reasons I’m happy I’m pursuing a postgraduate now, when I’m young enough to run around and survive on 4 hours of sleep and where my commitments are few and superficial. I don’t have young lives whose emotional stability depends on my physical availability or a household who depends on a two income salary. I don’t have it all figured for the rest of my life but I think everyone who has ever had to make a difficult decision has learned several things.
1. To strike while the iron is hot.
2. That sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. The worth of those sacrifices will eventually be outweighed by whatever you are giving it up for.
3. That some decisions have to be made by considering the long term impact.
4. Nobody has all the answers except God. Sometimes leaving Him to answer some questions for us is the best course of action.
And so I am happy. Which is a good place to be.
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