Time really is my friend!

For the past three years, I have been at constant odds with time. I think I have good time management skills however managing my time has felt like a series of battles in a neverending war.

Work, naturally, takes up your time. If you work full-time, you know that you spend about 25% of each week at work. If you work and have a family, another 30-40% of your time - gone. If you're like me and you work, attempt to attend school full-time, build a family or spend time with family and have a social life - kiss your time goodbye.

Because I felt that I didn't have the luxury of being able to focus on one thing at a time, I became an incessant multi-tasker. Don't get me wrong, multi-tasking is a great skill - to a point - but when you live your life that way, it is exhausting and creates undue pressure that there is ALWAYS something to be done. Is there always something to be done - of course. But do I need to be one doing it? Not so much.

As many of you know, I graduated with my Master's on Friday. For about two weeks up until that point, I would talk to people and they would ask me how I felt. I didn't feel that different and usually responded with something that seemed appropriate to the response they were looking for. "School" had become this overarching force - something to hide behind or a way to describe what I was doing with my life. And it was coming to an end. Where had the time gone?

It was not until Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m. that I truly understood what the wonderful, dynamic, inspirational Kenny Leon meant in his outstanding keynote speech at my graduation. "If you're constantly planning, you're missing opportunities to live in the moment." For that same two week period, I had visions of sitting around, no school to hide behind, feeling restless and not knowing what to do. After three years, the answer was clear - nothing. It was finally time to do nothing. The cleaning was done, the grocery shopping was complete, we had eaten lunch, things were organized and now it was time to do nothing - but enjoy the moment.

Standing on the bridge of my future, I am employing myself and everyone I know to do just that. It's time to slow down. Enjoy - the happy moments in your life because you'll miss them when you're sad. Enjoy - the sunny days because you'll for sure miss them when it's snowing. Enjoy - the positive, supportive, loving people in your life becasue you'll miss them like hell when they're gone.

I've made my list (a small one) of what I must accomplish today and now that it's done - I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day with my new best friend, Time.