Light at the end of the tunnel

And it doesn't even look like it's an oncoming train.

I'm in the final countdown for #gradSchoolSucks -- 3 weeks left.  It's hard to accept the fact that I'll no longer be a student a month from now.

Well, IF I get my paper done for my Capstone and I don't flake on the rest of my Topics units.

I am imagining all the things I'll get done with all that spare time.  And then laughing at myself, because most of it will assuredly be spent catching up on my reading list and Netflix binging.

But to have a life again!  Woohoo!  5K's, dance lessons, learning languages... I have a list of things I want to start or take up again in 2018.  Whether all of them will happen or not is anyone's guess.  I just won't have the crush of grad school pressing on me.

In a way this feels like a brand new start on life.  Even though I still struggle with chronic illness and everything that goes with it, I'm so much healthier than I was when I started back to school all those years ago.  I even broke another weight plateau this morning, putting me only 5# away from the top of my ultimate weight goal range, and 15# away from the low point of the range.  I had been only marginally watching my intake, and haven't been terribly active with all the migraines, allergies, upper respiratory infections, and such that seem to be my life in October/November each year.  I'd resigned myself to maintaining my weight until after the holidays.  So anything that comes off on its own is a fantastic bonus.

So right now I'm still in the tunnel, but I see the light and all I have to do is keep moving and I'll get there.

If you can't fly then run,
if you can't run then walk,
if you can't walk then crawl,
but whatever you do
you have to keep moving forward.
― Martin Luther King Jr.