Sacrifice

Sacrifice: “to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else.”

It reminds me of the saying “you can’t have your cake, and eat it too,” or more truly: “you can’t eat your cake, and still have it.” In life we all have to make decisions, and each “yes” is also a “no” to something else. This year I have made a couple choices/decisions that have forced me to make different levels of sacrifice.

Due to the cold weather and snow, I needed a distraction from being trapped at home. So in January I invested in a new game “Call of Duty” and renewing my interest in playing Scrabble on facebook. These two things took a large percentage of my usual free time at home. Events, messages, posts, and even people attempting to chat on facebook went unnoticed and out of the loop I fell. Add to that my recurring T-Mobile phone issues, and my communication ability just gets worse. But the distraction didn’t make this that much of an issue.

The second and most “valid” and understandable choice, was starting classes at UMUC. I originally enrolled in the plan to obtain a graduate certificate, which can lead to a graduate degree… if I so choose. The first classes started at the end of January and its taken over a month for me to adjust. It’s an investment/sacrifice of time, thought, energy and money. So it should result in me taking money and time away from other things. Last week, was the first time in which I truly did this. Sunday midnights are the due date for my main class assignments. That last weekend, people had stuff going on… and I allowed that to come first. I also thought I could finish everything on Sunday. Saturday went long and the after effects continued, but after much procrastination I eventually got the assignment done, and was glad I made it work. However, it wasn’t until the next day that I realized I forgot a secondary assignment, and a project for the other class that were due the same time. Oops. So last week, I didn’t watch any TV and spent most of the time reading and doing HW so that I could have time for social activities, later on. It seems that the class will also get worse, before getting better. So we’ll see.


I’ve been attempting to write this blog for a month-ish, and last week it got erased so I just stopped. But a few weekends ago there were a number of planned social activities. 2 Birthdays, a potluck and Rick’s going away party also a couple assignments were due. In my mind, there was little way I could do all and I thought I had to sacrifice some. However, I randomly was able to make most of them and complete my stuff in time. It wasn’t easy, but thanks to public transportation, and less sleep, I managed. But that isn’t sustainable, and I’m going to start making REAL sacrifices and some tough decisions, not because I want to, but because I need to.