Inspiring Thought of the Day

I know, I said I wouldn't update for a couple of weeks, but I'll be stuck in the office working tonight anyways, so I consider this a study break.

This morning, one of my friends asked me if I was happy (I am), and how I was able to stay happy. That may sound like an odd question, but not if you know the circumstances. The friend is in her first year of grad school, and is very far away from home. In addition to that, most people here get very angry, bitter, and /or depressed. I don't know if that's because of New England weather (it Finally hit the 50s today, and April is half over!), the fact that our office is a dungeon (no windows) in a giant, ill-conceived bomb shelter (oh if you could only see the building in which I work...), or if it's just that juggling all the committments of grad school can be challenging and frustrating (I'm a student! A teacher! And a researcher! And you people expect me to live on how much a year?!).

I was often depressed and bitter my first year at URI. I'm pretty sure I called home at least once a month near tears, thinking about quitting. And those are the times when I really needed to hear my Mom's voice. There were many other days when I was equally depressed but refused to let anybody see it. There was even a point last April when I told my mom that maybe the whole reason I came to grad school at URI was to discover that grad school was not at all what i wanted to do. I'm a firm believer in the whole "there's a reason for everything / what doesn't kill you makes you stronger / don't have regrets because all the decisions and events in your life affect others and you never know which ones led you to happiness" school of thought (actually, I rambled a lot in that sentence. I doubt such a school exists. But if it did, I'd be enrolled in it). After the disaster that was my first year of grad school I realized I had to make some changes. And I reminded myself of a realization I came to in undergrad, when I was away from home for the first time : you have to make your own happiness. Don't count on other people to make you happy, you have to do it yourself. And I've made changes this year. I make sure I'm always reading a book for fun, so that all the science I shove in my brain doesn't completely overwhelm me. I rent classic movies from the URI library (TCM, how I miss you!), bought season tickets to performances of various musical groups (jazz, celtic, classical) in the URI fine arts center, and I've made a lot of cross-stitch stuff. I've also really made an effort to keep in better touch with friends. I really suck at keeping in touch in general, but thanks to facebook I've been able to bug people more often. Once summer starts I'll have time to go running and join my church choir too. Basically, I have to be busy to be happy, otherwise I just start thinking about all the problems with my research, the uncertain job future in the real world, and a million other things that I don't need to worry about yet, because I can't control them.

Anyways, the whole reason I posted this is because I was looking at my planner and noticed a quote (there's a quote for every week at the top of the page). This week's quote is "Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy." That seems like good advice for everybody to take. Most people I know are currently in a state of transition, be it moving their residence, bouncing around in the job market, or just trying to figure out what the hell to do next. So I thought I'd put this out there, in case it makes someone feel better. Oh, by the way, the quote is by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I have no idea who she is, maybe a famous writer I've never heard of? If anyone knows, post it, I'm curious. :)