Papers and Passions

Have you ever experienced one of those situations where you knew you had to get something done, so you did everything in your power to complete it? For instance, you knew you had to clean your entire apartment in less than 2 hours because you knew your mom was coming to visit, so you worked your tail-end off making sure the apartment was spotless. Not that I have ever had that happen, but I have heard people talk about that before. ;)

Anyway, I really haven't felt accomplished in the last couple of weeks. In my third round of tests, my scores were all lower than the previous tests, though I put more hours in studying for these tests. I have been down for awhile about my gpa, because I know it isn't as great as Eryn's. I realize wer aren't the same person, but she is always an inspiration to me. If she can graduate with a 4.0 (which is very possible), I can at least graduate with a 3.95.

Anyway, I decided to start writing my 10-15 page paper over a psychological measurement on Wednesday, knowing the paper is due tomorrow. So I took my time researching articles (which has a minimum requirement of 15) and slowly began taking notes on the articles. By the time Saturday morning came around, I had found only 8 articles total and had not even begun on the paper. Oh boy.

So I worked on the paper from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, with a total of about 3 hours of free time to eat, shower, and talk with Eryn for awhile. If my math is correct, that is a total of 12 hours spent on the paper. By the time I woke up on Sunday, I had 13 pages complete, with only a conclusion and references left to modify. Now that is called productivity.

I am not writing this to show you how awesome I am at writing papers or even how self-disciplined I was that day. I am writing this to give an explain how we are all willing to work hard at things that mean a lot to us. For me, grades have ALWAYS been important, so it came as no surprise to me that I am finally finished with the paper. What surprised me is that I was willing to spend an entire Saturday working on this paper, when I could have been hanging out with Matt or spending time with Eryn. Instead, I directed my focus to writing a quality paper.

While sitting in church this morning, I realize we all have many passions. We can love to go bowling and we can also be huge fans of knitting. We can be huge political junkies and we can also be amazing with kids. The important thing is that we spend time molding our passions to please God and His Kingdom.

This may be a stretch, but I feel as though working hard in school will give me the opportunity to choose a stellar graduate school for counseling psychology. Then, once I am finished with school, I hope to work in a church or Christian setting counseling those who could use the guidance. I feel led to this field and until I feel a strong tug in another direction, this is where I'm headed. :)