Saturday, 11th February

Originally written two weeks ago… :)

So it’s February 11^th.  It’s just a normal, ordinary, lazy Saturday in chilly ole’ England, right?

 Wrong.

 It’s the Saturday after my mom left the UK after a wonderful 8 day visit.   It’s the Saturday that I just don’t want to be on this graduate wife journey anymore.  It’s the Saturday that two of my most treasured friends in the entire world are getting married.  To each other.  They are getting married in my beloved DC…with loads upon loads of my other dearest friends getting to stand witness to their beautiful vows.  It’s definitely the Saturday that I don’t want to be living in Oxford, England.

 Even if you aren’t living overseas on your grad wife adventure, you might be living across the country and you might just not be able to afford flights to see family all that often….or even to experience the joy of watching two precious friends join their lives together.

 Sigh…

 I’m so thankful that we have a ‘celebrate’ category on here.  It’s absolutely vital to celebrate the joys in life, especially the joys on this grad school journey, such as passing exams, getting scholarships, etc.  But, it’s also sometimes hard to celebrate, isn’t it?  I don’t at all want to wallow in self-pity here…but at the same time I just wanted to voice the reality that: sometimes it is really difficult being on this journey.

 Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to have my friend Molly skpye me into a wedding ceremony via her iphone.

 Sometimes I wish I had a car.

 Sometimes I wish my husband worked from 9-5 and could come home at the end of the day and ‘forget’ about his work.

 Sometimes I wish I  knew our ‘5 year plan’ and could be fully at peace with it.

 Ahh…I could go on, and I am sure you could add many of your own.

I guess it’s only fair to share not only the wonderful ups, but also the downs with each of you.  Many of you have done the same and shared deeply personal successes and failures and I want to be true that as well.  So, yeah I don’t want to complain, but just voice …today is a stinky day to be a graduate wife in my book.

But alas…I am thanking God for family visits (even if they are just visits) and for the amazing gift of skype (even if it involves decoding a muffled wedding ceremony while it is streaming from my friend’s pocket).  Deep breath. Tomorrow is a new day.

 -M.C.