I just finished a 6 page paper on effective leadership.

Now I'm sitting in front of the fire, enjoying a glass of red wine and some m&ms.

This quarter is more or less kicking my butt, but I feel like I'm handling the stress a lot better than I have been this past year. I've been focusing more on the positive things about my grad program: the friendships I'm making, the job skills I'm acquiring, the writing skills I'm polishing up on, and the camaraderie that comes with sharing an experience with 40+ other people. I love having endless people to chat with about the profession that I love, people that know what I'm taking about when I say "student development."

My attitude has completely changed about my program, and I am so much more engaged in class because of it. I finally stopped resenting everyone in my class who wasn't married, didn't have a full time job, was just out of college, or who lived 2 blocks away from the school. I'm becoming friends with these people, and it's making things a lot more bearable.

...Of course I'd rather be at home than in class. But I feel like I'm currently in the best possible position I could be regarding my attitude towards graduate school.