Lost...and found

I know that many of you were major Lost fans, like me.  So you will understand what I mean.  When I woke up this morning, I felt a lot like Jack after the plane crash when he was laying flat on his back and the camera zoomed out from his eye to slowly show the magnitude of destruction and chaos. 

It hit me right away that it was pretty much a miracle that I was awake and coherent at all.  My head was pounding, my mouth was really dry, and I felt it difficult to roll over and check the time.  I hurriedly got dressed and was ready to patch over all of my ills and pull it together for work.  And that’s when I started to realize the magnitude of destruction that this semester has left in its wake.  

As I gathered my things to head out of the door, I couldn’t find my phone…anywhere.   Then, I remembered that I had to walk to Wonderland to pick up my car, and I got slightly lost.  Yes, in my own neighborhood.  I walked to 11^th and Park (which is where I kept telling people last night was Wonderland’s address), and was confused that the Wonderland wasn’t there, nor was my car.  I meandered down 11^th street chuckling to myself that I had made the same mistake that I made fun of other people for making last night.  Oh karma.  Luckily, I took notice of a car that looked just like mine on a street that was not the one I had left my car on.  I got closer and realized all of this paperwork on my windshield.  Apparently, my car was towed one block from its original location and an order for it to be towed and impounded had been placed on it.  I got in the car and drove far away from there to work since today was not fit weather-wise or otherwise for biking.

The kind of morning I had was honestly one of those that I thought I had left behind in my 20’s.  But alas, 30 apparently really is the new 20 in many ways.  Moderation has never been my strong suit, and I suppose six months on the dark side of youth is not enough for real transformation.

So, what are the lessons learned from this semester?  Well, for starters, I won’t be starting a new job and a new semester at the same time again.  I also won’t be taking a class with someone who thinks that using words like paradox is "proliferating terms instead of claims" (which is so ridiculous because paradox is a real word that means something and thus, I can use it and trust that it holds meaning rather than having to explain the definition because that's the whole beauty of words!). I am finding ways to stop letting my identity be defined through my work – both at school and at my job - since that only leads to sadness.  Finally, number one thing that I’ve learned this semester is that I need a team.  Without my amazing friends, family, colleagues, classmates, and professors, the destruction would have been far more severe...and I never would have found my phone.