The Thomas'

    I am currently in my last semester of graduate school, which means that this is my 6th year of college. I am feeling so incredibly tired and burned out that things that used to be easy are not incredibly difficult to even fathom. I used to be able to whip out a paper in 30 minutes and now it seems to take me 3 hours to create an outline and brainstorm my points. Midterms just ended this week and I am surprised that I survived the way that I did. To be honest I have kind of been spiraling down into a bit of a "poor me" thinking style, which is obviously not helpful in my current situation. I remember when I started grad school and I would devour every word from every text book that I was required to read. I love to read and I loved reading things about my profession. My motivation has steadily diminished and now I am struggling. Things were very hard right before Christmas break and my sweet friend sent me home for vacation with her favorite book that she said I "had to read." So I went home for two weeks and started to read it. I read it in two days and was dying for more. I entered the world that the author created and began to soak up the words like water. The book is a series and there were currently 4 more books out. So I would go to Barns and Nobel every other day to get each book, which can get pricey for a poor college student. 

     When I was growing up I noticed a pattern in my mom's behavior. Although money was tight there were two things that she would always buy if we asked, one was books and the other was sports or exercising opportunites. Every time I asked for a book growing up my mom would always make sure that I got it. Her willingness to buy me books reinforced the importance of their presence in my life. So by the end of the two weeks I had read 5 books, which ended up being 2, 437 pages all together. I once again had been able feel free in another world, while still staying grounded in my own. I read a quote by Benedict Cumberbatch last week and he said, "I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book." His words really resonated with me and made me realize that there is so much entertainment that is not necessarily captured in the social networking world, but in old books that somehow remain timeless.