what a week

This week has been one of a kind-- not in a good way mind you. My ability to process life has ground to a halt. It's turned into the art of survival; don't think about what's been going on-- just deal with the here and now.

I always knew March was going to be a hard month, I was dreading it all February. Starting March 2nd I had two and a half weeks of final skills exams for my EMT class culminating with a written exam covering 1,000 pages of textbook. And there's still the State practical exam and National written exam to take later in the month.

Add work stuff to the school stuff (preparing a week of teaching for Tijuana and fund-raising for Costa Rica) and I start to feel a bit stressed.

But this last week was something else. Totally unexpected... completely caught off guard. Here's what happened:

March 11: Japan earthquake and tsunami. After finding out that my family was safe and sound I mourned the loss of of our families vacation area that was hard hit by the tsunami.

March 13: My birthday. A little blip of fun in the midst of disaster. I'm so thankful for my friends. But birthdays always make me a bit melancholy too... thinking about the year gone by and reflecting on my goals and progress.

March 14: My roomie Karisse discovers that she has cancer... again. Karisse has battled with cancer for much too long. This was really tough news.

March 16: My HUGE  EMT final written exam and last day of class.

A massive tsunami and my roomie getting cancer were just not on the schedule. The psychological impact of both of those events far outweigh the insignificant stress of work and school. It's a lot to handle all at once.

Surprisingly, I'm doing well considering. I passed all my exams with flying colors even though I frequently found myself spacing out and thinking about cancers and tsunamis. That's called the Grace of God. I'm definitely exhausted from it all... and a little shell shocked too. It will take a few weeks to process everything that has happened.

You should read Karisse's blog. She's a great writer and has a very honest yet profound way of handling things like getting cancer again for the millionth time. http://karissejoy.blogspot.com/ 

Here are photos of the vacation area in Japan, Karisse and EMT class just to give you some visuals to go along with the words.

Notice the top half of a house sitting in the middle of the road. Our vacation area is in the background.

My roomie Karisse who was just diagnosed with malignant cancer... *again*

Me and a friend at EMT class. I passed my final with an A. Hooray!