"The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships."

This post's quote is from Anthony Robbins, a self-help writer and apparently famous for various seminars and the tactics he uses to sell his point. I'm not very familiar with it, and I won't even go as far to say that I buy into it at all, but I like the quote.

As I read through the other blogs on studentaffairs.com, I’m starting to see a trend. It’s apparently that time of year when nothing seems to go right and everyone is ready to absolutely scream. I can buy into this – last week I could not WAIT to pack up and get out. I had fun weekend plans and I wanted them to start immediately, without any of this work stuff getting in the way. I was a whirlwind as I packed, cleaned up my desk, tore through my to-do list, and hit the road. I had a fabulous weekend with some fabulous friends and I’ve returned energized and ready to charge through the next 5 weeks.

At least, that’s how I feel today. Yesterday was a mish-mash of feeling sorry for myself and being sad about other people. I teared up twice in my office during the day (email exchanges full of emotion and reminiscing of good times will do that) and then ended up crying later on in the evening while I was talking about everything that was going on. Thankfully my evening took a turn for the better, and so now I’m looking forward to seeing what might happen with a new situation……

Okay, so I’ll just put it out there. I might enter the new realm of trying to date while having a full-time job. Up until last week or so I didn’t think I was ready to handle it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to balance my job with my personal life and learning how to make time for myself in a world where I’m always at work. It’s been a rough transition, much more difficult than I anticipated. I find myself with plans every weekend (you don’t understand how much I love having coworkers that are my age that share similar personalities to my own) and spending the evenings during the week trying to catch up on sleep and recharge for the next day. Now I’m starting to see that I’m a little bored with myself and maybe I’m ready to try sharing my time with another person. Maybe.

My dating record is full of mistakes and smudges across the page. I’ve made some good friends over the years (I’m proud to say that I still speak to almost everyone that I’ve ever dated) but haven’t ever found someone that could put up with me just as much as I could put up with them. But now things could change, and after a 10 month hiatus from being in a relationship, maybe I’m ready to give it a go. Maybe.

As for everything else, it’s shaping up to be a beautiful fall. The weather has finally turned cold – cold enough that the heat got turned on in my building yesterday – and I feel like fall weather is here to stay. The sun still shines brightly and the campus is looking more beautiful than I even imagined that it could. My job is still busy (although will slow down quite a bit in the coming weeks) and I still love what I do here. With each passing week I feel more and more comfortable with my position here, and now that I’m achieving career satisfaction it might just be time to get some personal satisfaction as well.