Today I started reading someone's blog post entitled, "Ignored your Blog for Months? 13 Tips for Getting It Back on Track" by Miranda Hill.
I chuckled, admitted to God, "Yes, I have so ignored my blogs," and resolved to at least let you all know what I've been up to.
What I've been up to is school. I attend Western Governors University and am pursuing a bachelor's degree in Healthcare Management. We also suffered a death in the family in December, along with another family member's ongoing illness, so December was pretty much a mess in terms of personal life and education. I am now back on track with school and am looking to complete the second class of my current term soon--but it's been a struggle. Including my current class, I need to complete 27 more courses to finish.
To do this, I have had to put all of my writing on hold. Every once in a while I will, out of wishful thinking, look at an open submission call and think, Oh, I really want to write a story for that! But I am deluding myself. School really is taking all of my time and attention, and any time or attention I don't devote to school is stealing from it and from my professional future.
It's to the point where I'm thinking of quitting voice lessons for a while so that I can save the money and not have to commit to daily practicing. I already have stopped attending Thursday night choir practices at my church--because I can attend the practices on Sunday mornings, when I wouldn't be studying, anyway. I've stopped visiting Eastern Star chapters that I don't belong to, because attending their meetings takes time away from studying.
Not writing, though, is driving me batty! When I don't write, I don't generate ideas for stories. I feel creatively dead at the moment. I don't know how I ever came up with story ideas; that happened to some other person. Every once in a while, usually on a Saturday, I tell myself, To hell with school! I'm going to write. MUST. WRITE. SOMETHING! And so I do, just to get it out of my system--and it feels wonderful! But I also feel guilty about it.
Sometimes I wish this were a creative writing degree--but I hate those, because I hate trying to come up with ideas and plots on cue. I suspect I would fail miserably if I pursued a degree in creative writing. But sometimes, I am so tempted.
So that is why I've been absent, why you've seen no posts from me on anything. I still have bouts of wishful thinking and self-delusion. One of those might turn into a finished article or two, but I'm not holding my breath at this moment.
Love to you all! I will post here occasionally, to let you know how the studies are going, but for now, I have to make this sacrifice, because the degree is worth it.
