New Vantage Point

I've spent much of grad school round dos frustrated and not having a lot of fun. At least with the school part. I went round and round trying to figure out how I could get more out of it to no avail. Until this week. Thanks to some staunch supporters who both kicked me in the butt and gave me loving support I came to a realization. One I already knew but apparently hadn't entirely understood. Disappointment (and thus no fun) comes from having expectations that aren't met. I had gone into my program expecting it to be a great intellectual/academic challenge and so far, haven't found that to be the case. What I hadn't expected was it to be so emotionally challenging. That it would challenge me in ways I wasn't prepared for and up until now didn't want. That I have skill deficits that this program is bringing to light and forcing me to deal with. For that I am now quite thankful and excited. Because I'm sure this is what I need more than an academic challenge to reach my future goals. And perhaps that new perspective will lead to what I had originally expected as well. So this is scientific evidence people of the importance of being mindful and letting go of expectations in terms of complete life enjoyment. It's necessary to find the silver lining in all challenging situations. My situation hasn't changed one single bit but because I'm looking at it differently and have found the importance of it to me it's becoming much more fun.