rambles of last semester

*a nervous Chloe scuttles out from hiding*

Hi, my friends!

See, not totally gone.

I have a rare day off from work in the middle of the week.

I got my life signed away for next semester. Looks like it won’t be quite as intense as the last two semesters, and for that I am very grateful! It will still be full time though, so I’ll still be able to compete, however I should still be able to work during the weekends, and possibly a little during the school week as well.

I’m curious, what are y’all majoring in? What are some things you like to do to keep your stress levels down during the semester?

For me, I ate a lot of ice cream. I’d have an afternoon, or two, where I had enough of a gap between classes that I could run out to Walmart (five minutes away from campus) and grab a pint, then go back to campus and eat it before my next class.

Coffee was my best friend. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through without it.

Also, since hulu is included with my spotify, I would sometimes watch a show called MASH during my gaps when I wasn’t working on homework in the library or grooming horses for my show team responsibilities.

Of course, it helped a lot that most of my classes were fun and I had friends that I’d gotten close to over the past few semesters (most of them have graduated now though).

Although I enjoyed last semester very much, I’m relieved that it is over so I can get into working mode for the summer. Also so that I can actually get some sleep.

It’s funny. Every time I look back on any of the last three semesters I ask myself “how did we survive and not die from all that.” Then turn around and make the next one more challenging.

My first semester I was taking full time classes for the first time, was on the judging team, and was working Monday, Friday, and Saturday nights not getting home until sometimes after 10pm and more often than not, closer to midnight, in addition to having one of my classes end at 9pm in the middle of the school week, then have to drive almost an hour to get home.

My second semester instead of just taking four classes, I took five, had two nights a week where I wasn’t home until 9pm or later, was working weekends and two mornings during the school week. Went to five or six judging competitions, all multiple day events. Changed jobs in the middle of the semester, and missed our family beach vacation.

This past semester, I took full time classes. Was on both the judging and show teams. Working weekends split between two jobs. Picked up a side stint for my boss’ landlord and his wife, did an internship at a breeding barn, and dropped one of my weekend jobs. Was the TA for two classes. Had show team responsibilities during the week to complete. Was out of the house on Mondays and Wednesdays from before 7am to almost 10pm then turned around on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was out from about 8:30am to a little after 8pm. And also the first two-three weeks of classes I couldn’t hear very well because my left ear went practically deaf because I had an ear infection. I competed twice for the show team and once for the judging team. I missed the bus for one of our shows and drove solo for five hours, made up the hour I missed and arrived about two minutes after everyone else did.

Good times, I tell you. XD

What are some of y’all’s favorite school memories? It can be from high school, college, grade school, whatever. Something you look back on and have to smile as you shake your head.

i’ve been gone.

And I don’t know if I’ll be back for long.

Truth is at first I just wanted a break, then I realized how much I didn’t miss it. I even stopped reading y’all’s posts. It’s actually been nice- not worrying about losing views, or not responding fast enough to comments, or getting enough posts out.

Then between the past six months I’ve been put thrown way more curveballs than I expected. I had no desire to spend time writing it down because I didn’t feel like I had the energy.

Gosh, there’s so much to catch up on.

Lots of good. Some not so good. Some sad.

In one of my last posts I said I had switched jobs again. And I did again at some point in February. I’m back working with arabs again, at the same barn I worked at over a year ago. The place hasn’t changed much at all. Most of the horses are new, but there are a couple of the same ones. There are a few new people as well. The familiarity is nice though, and I am very happy to be back.

I was in full time classes again, but one of my ‘classes’ was being the TA for two other classes, so it felt more like five classes instead of just four. I stayed on the judging team again, and got through the spring contest in OKC giving four sets of reasons. I also was on our college show team (so had extra responsibilities there as well), and went and showed at two collegiate horse shows (I got 3rd of 6 my first time out of the gate, before evening out at consistent 5th place of 7 and 8 at the next show).

I did another training class this semester, and got to work on one of our younger school horses who had no jog and a too fast for lessons lope. We rode every class day when the weather permitted. I got pretty close to that horse, I already miss our rides.

One of my classes also had part of the semester doing an internship at a repro barn, which was very educational, but not really my thing.

I also had Equine Science II. The ONLY reason why I didn’t get the homework mixed up with the repro class homework was because one was Monday/Wednesday and the other was Tuesday/Thursday. They both had the same professor, and most everyone from repro was in science.

I was working weekends at the barn, and also back in the same area two days during the school week to take care of my boss’ landlord’s cats that his wife breeds and sells.

Guys. I was pulling 12 and 14 hour days away from home, driving 80 miles or more roundtrip, and that’s not counting the amount of time I was awake before leaving in the morning or the time I was awake after coming home. Looking back, I’m surprised I only had one real meltdown. The stress was very real.

I do have a lot of good memories from it though (but not of sleep). I got closer to the friends I had, and made a few new ones. I’ll miss the ones that have graduated and are moving on now though.



How are y’all doing?