Cramming

Most of my life I have excelled at cramming. In high school and in college my idea of prepping for a hard exam up until junior year was a 4 hour study session the night before. Junior and Senior year studying was cramming what I could learn into a week long study session. Normally I am all for cramming but I am learning the drawbacks. Not for studying but for living.

I spend 4 out of every 6 - 7 weeks on the road. For those of you that aren't mathematically inclined (cough cough Katie cough cough) that means I spend around only 3 - 4 months actually in my house and in my city. Take into consideration that during this time I am also making trips to see family and go on vacation and we can safely cut that down to three months out of the year. In those three months I have to cram a life normally lived in a year. Dates, dinner with friends, movie nights, moving - all of these have to be jam packed into 2-3 week intervals in between audits. What use to be easy to prioritize suddenly isn't so easy. Do you paint your new house with your best friends and future roommates or do you go to dinner with someone you haven't seen in almost a month? Solution: Go to dinner paint splattered and hope that your friend loves you enough to ignore the enormous glob of primer you didn't realize you had on your elbow.

In those three weeks I soak up time with people and, if I am not studying for my next CPA exam, revel in alone time spent in a room that has my own decorations in it. In two days I will be on a plane to Argentina. I can't even begin to express how blessed I feel that I get to go there and get paid to do it. In this down economy with jobs being scarce, I have a well paying job that satisfies my need to travel and see the wonders that God has created.

But...


But......


Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on the small wonders at home.

I won't be here when my parents come back for a short visit. For the first time in many years my face won't worship with thousands others underneath the stars at Creation East. I miss birthdays and celebrations. I don't get to play softball on a local team with the ridiculous name of "That's what she said" who had a rocky first round but had some great time showing the other teams what we were made of in following seasons.

My dad has been a great help and I have really come to understand what he did for our family in the years that he was VP at ABB. When I call him upset about how I am not at home he always asks me about what adventure I had been on that weekend, focusing me on the fun instead of the dreary. When that doesn't work he lends an understanding ear.

So for now, in the two days before I leave, I will focus on the adventures to be had and the adventures to come. Painting rooms with friends, celebrating a friend's pregnancy, packing up all my stuff to move as soon as I get back, and live the life that God has for me now. Cram it all in and work out the rest later.