It seemed like a good idea at the time: take 12 hours of classes this summer because they are short semesters and one of them is online. After my first week of summer session, that’s not such a wise thing after all.

Taking that courseload was going to be a sacrifice, and we knew that, but until you take that sacrifice for a test drive, it’s just not possible to get the full effect of what the next 15 weeks were going to be like. This week went like this:

• Left home at 6:15am Monday, got off at 3:00, got my books, ate dinner, arrived at school, and got home at 9:30pm.
• Left home at 6:15am Tuesday, got off at 3:00, ate dinner, arrived at school, and got home at 9:20pm.
• Left home at 6:30am (pretty tired) Wednesday, got off at 3:00, ate dinner, arrived at school, and got home at 9:20pm.
• Went back to bed to sleep until the last minute and left in a rush at 6:30, got to my desk, logged into the USF website, and dropped my Monday/Wednesday class.

I feel much better now that I’ve done that. I was missing our small group on Mondays, putting in too many hours away from home, spending extra money on gas and eating out, and I could see that for the next 15 weeks I was going to be doing a pretty “average” job at everything and leaving loose ends everywhere.

I can’t operate like that. My plate needs to be full, but I need to be able to clear it on a whim in case other stuff (especially paying stuff) comes up. Nothing like someone saying they want to pay you $1,000 to do something that takes a few evenings to do, but not be able to commit to doing it, right?

So, I’m still taking one online class and one on-campus class each semester session this summer with a 3 week overlap for the two campus classes. Not too bad. Life just got simpler.