The stresses of study and having a life

I'm loving my new found freedom from uni since the end of the semester and I have taken the summer semester off.  I have so much more time to ignore... oops I mean to be with the kids!  I did receive my results from semester 2 on Friday just gone, and though they were great results, lets just say I know I could have done better, considering my marks for the 2 assignments I had for research were nearly full marks!  I had an exam for that subject, which I flunked.. 22/50, I was not impressed with my effort for this exam at all.  I seem to set a very high standard that I expect myself to stick to, and I think cause I have been studying so long (the full 2 years without a break til now) I had just had enough and wasn't even trying any more. 

For both subjects I did last semester I got B's for, and seriously B's are an awesome mark!  I should be so excited that I have knocked down 2 more subjects and I passed them, but there is a little bit of disappointment there.  Yes I didn't put the effort in that I should have, but life happened this semester!  I had a trip to Tasmania to see my brother, his girlfriend and my gorgeous niece (who I had only met once before then, and she's nearly 3 now!), then got back from there to have 3 assignments due within 1 month of me getting home.  I had done a heap of work on one (it was massive and worth 70% of the subject...yikes!) and that would have been fine, except the lecturers kept changing what they actually wanted from us for the assignment.  That subject also included my first ever clinical placement!  I have to say I LOVED it and learnt so much, I also found out that I learn better with hands on stuff than sitting at a desk, I already knew this, but I didn't realise how much hands on you needed for this.  After my first 2 days of being scared shitless, I quickly fell into the routine at the old folks home and loved every minute! I was so sad when the last day came and I had to leave all my oldies, I cried as we walked away.  It showed me how much I was born to do this job!  I am getting my resume together so I can try to get a job (hopefully where I had my placement, but it's not likely) in the nursing field as an assistant in nursing.  So for that subject I managed to get 74% in total... 1% under what you need for an A!!!!  Yep I was fuming, if only I had put more effort in to the assignment I would have been right.  But hey it's a pass!  I have to keep telling myself that. 

So the other bits of life that got in the way were that my hubby had to have a hip replacement (he's only 35), so the Friday before my exam for research (which I was slack with and didn't go to the tutes, nor did I listen to the lectures... yeah I made no effort at all this semester!) I had to get hubby to the hospital which is about 3hrs from our home.  Then myself and the kids stayed there for the weekend, but before hubby came out, I had to take the kids back to my sister's place so I could do my exam on the Tuesday, then after the exam I left straight away to pick hubby up.  The whole time I was at the coast going to see hubby in hospital and keeping the kids occupied, I had no internet access, and so I didn't study for the exam, which I now regret, but what can you do!? So anyway after the exam I head back to the coast to get hubby, pick him up and turn around and head for home, luckily I had my mum taking the kids back to our house cause they live an hour from us, so would have put even more time on my travel!  I think I drove about 6 hrs that day, it took a few weeks to get over that. 

Hubby is now on the road to recovery and can drive himself around now which is awesome!  he may be going back to work in about 2 weeks time.  I am enjoying my semester off, and slowly coming to terms with my bad marks (they seem that way to me... I just remembered part of the story I had forgotten, hubby asked me once I told him my grades, he goes... how come you only got B's?  I thought you were doing better than that.. part of the reason I'm not happy about them, cause I feel like I let him down a bit, silly really cause I passed, that's all that counts!) and now I am looking forward to starting the semester next year fresh and ready to go!  I am going to orgniase my time properly and do up a study timetable, I have another placement in first term, so I'll have to stay on top of things as I will be intergrated (2 days a week for 10 weeks) so have to make sure I set time aside for the kids and for study and assignments!
Wish me luck with that cause it's going to be a struggle!

The next post will be a bit more detail of my PND days... I feel I need to get it out so that I can deal with what happened, sorry if you don't really want to read it but I have found this very therapeutic.