Time

Life is a balancing act.  Lately I have been adding twists and turns to the end of the semester drama by putting everything off until the very last moment.  Case in point: I woke up early this morning to finish up the paper that is due today and now I am writing this...

Yesterday someone said to me, "but you have to ask yourself how much time should you be quilting in graduate school?"  The implied answer to the question was something along the lines of "you probably shouldn't be quilting at all as you are on a scholarly journey of epic proportions."  In my sleep deprived, hungry, mildly bitchy state, I almost exclaimed, "I am studying effin' quiltmaking!  I should be making bajillions of of quilts!"  Instead I did a face scrunch, mini eye-roll, giggle, and I wandered off before I lost it.   

And that event provided me with my avoidance-of-homework mind suck of the evening...People have all kinds of hobbies.  Some don't really seem like hobbies, like watching TV.  People go to the gym.  People are in book clubs.  Are these activities ever put on the chopping block in the face of graduate school?  What is it about a craft-based activity that calls into question its legitimacy as a use of one's time?  Should graduate school be conceptualized as an activity that requires total focus for the duration?  My program has not required that investment of time or mental energy, so quilting seems like a better alternative to fill my time and occupy my mind than other more traditional graduate school activities: drinking, drinking, and whoa, I'm drunk!  (As a general rule, drinking and quilting don't mix. That rotary cutter is sharp...)

Anyway, I hate to use my blog as a platform of sorts to bitch and moan about life, but, in conclusion:  I AM A QUILTER. I SPEND A LOT OF TIME MAKING QUILTS.  AND I'M PROUD OF IT.  I am also a student, and somehow I do finish my work in that realm too...