The Wheel of Time

"The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again." - Robert Jordan

Maybe this quote is a bit overdramatic, but it has been two years since I last posted. Two long years, full of ups and downs and surprises. I'll give you a quick overview here, and then I'll take off with regular posts.

Ups
- graduated from university
- admitted to a grad program in speech pathology (literally, a dream come true)
- new boyfriend
- fabulous summer job (at the speech clinic where I volunteered for years)
- an amazing, supportive group of lady friends
- crohn's in remission!

Downs
- broke up with said new boyfriend (we dated for almost 1.5 years)
- moved home for the summer
- commuting to the fabulous summer job (40 min bus ride/train trip x2 per day)
- a stressful summer job (very high expectations, everything must be done in a specific way)
- went through 2 medications and some awful side effects to get into remission (remicade, then humira, now migraines)

But just to give a spot of good news at the end, like a sandwich, I have so much to look forward to now. Moving to a new city, new apartment, new program and new experiences. It's the change of scenery and the chance for independence that I've been waiting for. I am literally counting down the days until September 4th - my first day of classes!

Will give you lots more updates soon!

Laura

Rest, Relax and Eat Right

All things I didn't do this past weekend. I decided to push myself a little bit and volunteer as staff for a 4-day 3-night leadership conference for high school kids. Now this may sound fairly innocuous, but this is where you are wrong.

The day begins at 7:30 for the delegates when we wake them up. That means that staff are awake as early as 5:00 making pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast in the residence kitchens. We are lucky to get three hours of sleep because by the time the delegates get into bed and the staff meeting finishes up it's usually around 3:00am.

The days are absolutely grueling with constant cheering, dancing running all over the place with a little bit of down time for motivational speakers and sessions on leadership.

And the food . . . delegates eat first always, so if there isn't enough the staff don't eat. Or we eat things like burgers and chicken wings and pizza, pizza, pizza. Candy and cake all hours of the day, trying to replace sleep with food.

I know this sounds really really awful, but I absolutely LOVED IT!! My body was up to the demands and my Crohn's didn't get in the way much at all. It definitely let me know near the end that it wasn't all that happy, but that didn't stop me from having an AMAZING time.

I guess it really proved to me that I am okay, I can still do the things I love. I'm not an invalid and I am stronger than I think I am. Now I'm going to collapse into bed and try to catch up on my sleep a little more.

New Beginning

Today was my LAST EXAM!! I am finally done with second year!! This entire year has been such a rollercoaster, ups and downs in pretty much every area of my life. This term has been especially brutal with recovering from surgery, writing all of my exams from first term and just trying to get back on my feet.

I'm moving on Monday/Tuesday, and I'm going to take this as my new beginning. All of my pain, illness, hospitalizations, prednizone side effects and depression are associated with this house. I have the chance to pack up my life, move a couple of streets away and start over. This time, with a group of amazing and supportive people.

I'm going to turn over a new leaf. Continue on with this super-positive attitude. I've gotten my summer all sorted out, with three volunteer committments, a sign language class first term and two credit courses second term. I will also be working my job 17 hours per week, and setting my own hours.

This next week is going to be super busy for me, and that's exactly how I like it. Shopping, packing, partying and moving plus a couple of meetings for work.

And I recieved a fantastic piece of news this morning, which helped me go into my exam feeling super confident. In February I applied to be a volunteer counselor at Camp Oasis, a camp for kids with Crohn's and Colitis. They emailed to set up a time for an interview!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Looking Up

I know things have been a bit gloomy lately on the blog, but my life really isn't that bad. I've been getting out more, seeing people and having fun! It's just very easy to use writing as an outlet for all my negative thoughts and feelings, because sometimes I don't want to burden my friends with all of that.

I went to my first pilates class since surgery last night, and my abs aren't thanking me for it. Actually my whole body is hurting, but I really want to gain back some of the muscle tone I've lost this year with being sick.

I have been attending yoga for the past couple of weeks, and I'm finding that a very mild work-out. I love the breathing exercises, and the way my instructor finishes each class with a story!

And this week is Arts Matter at school, put on by my Faculty society. I've been helping out at the art exhibit, coffee house and film festival. Tons of fun, and very talented people!

I did have a little bit of pain on my lower left side yesterday. It was pretty sharp, and it happened three times. I've called my gastro about it, hopefully it will be nothing. It freaked me out a bit because so far all my Crohn's activity has been on my lower right.