Biggest Challenge

My biggest challenge during my first year of MTC was class on the weekends. I would leave work on Friday exhausted, go home and throw clothes into the car and begin my trek to Oxford. Well, this is how the fall semester began. As the year continued and my activities picked up, the drive became less and less desirable. First football season got underway. My fiancée coaches, so I would try to attend his games before I left. This would usually put me in Oxford around one in the morning. In October basketball season began and I was coaching a game on Friday nights, often taking a bus ride back to Jackson, waiting for all the girls to leave and then going home and packing clothes to make the trip to Oxford. This became too tiresome and I started driving up on Saturdays. After I complained enough, my fiancée began making the drive up with me. This helped a lot.
The thing that was most problematic was how tired I would be in class on Saturday. Generally on the break, I would trek to the gas station and buy a four-pack of Red Bull which kept me awake for the rest of the class.
Another thing that was difficult was that I couldn’t spend time with my son on the weekends. He was already with my mother all week and there was no feasible way for me to make the drive here and then make another two hour drive to Noxubee County and back to Jackson and be rested enough to be effective in the classroom on Monday. I spent a lot of time feeling guilty about the time that I was missing with my son. Although I realize that this was what I signed up for and the classes were the most basic part of the agreement, that knowledge didn’t help me when I was dreading making that drive nor did it help me explain to my son why I couldn’t come to get him.
Hopefully, this fall will be better. My son will be in Jackson full time and will probably even come to some of the classes with me. Since we only have the fall classes, the schedule should lighten the burden between the Friday night football and basketball games and the drive up. Either way, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is called graduation.