And the Waves Coming Crashing Down

It all hit me today--the realization of the ammount of work...not only ahead of me this year, but in the next two weeks. I have been trying to do a little bit every night: update my blog, keep up on my reading, work on my choice projects, begin finding articles for the 3 article reviews, and research my literature review, but today in class it really hit me how much I have left to do over the next two weeks and it was a little overwhelming. The closest thing I can relate it to is the ocean. When you first see the ocean it looks so peaceful and beautiful. The water rushes over your feet and you feel a sense of purpose and contentment within yourself--kind of like when I was accepted into CADRE. As you begin to wade out you can feel and see the strength of the waves, but you don't fully appreciate their massive power. It isn't until you swim out a little further and the first one crashes down on you that you understand what you have gotten yourself into. At this point you have to make a decision--to go back to the beach or to forge ahead beyond the waves...today the waves crashed down on me with their full force and I felt myself become a little discouraged. I know that these two classes are just the beginning of the waves and that I am going to be swimming into the waves for quite some time, but as long as I keep swimming I know I will get beyond the crashing and into the calm...how long that may take, though....