We all have to make sacrifices in life. Sometimes we have to sacrifice something good for something better down the road. This has become very apparent to me over the course of the last year and a half, but particularly over the last few months.
When I got divorced I was faced with a very serious decision. I wanted to be on my own, but I knew that if I didn’t finish my last two years of school we would be barely scraping by for the rest of our lives. I wanted more for Logan so I sacrificed my independence and moved back in with my parents so that one day we would have a better life.
When I got into school I realized just how difficult this was going to be. I was more than full time with 16 credits and often had 30 hours of homework or more. Somehow I had to find a way to balance school and being a single mother. At first I failed miserably. I spent so much time trying to get on top of everything for school that I wasn’t giving Logan the attention he needed from his mom. I knew I was going to have to make another great sacrifice for him.
School had always been important to me. I was a straight A student, took AP and concurrent enrollment classes in high school, was a hard worker, and determined to finish my degree. But after that first semester, I realize no amount of school work was worth giving up that relationship with my son. I wasn’t going to quit school. I was going back to give him a better life, but I started spending more time focusing on my son’s need for his mother, and less time on my need to be an overachiever at school.
I got him on a better nightly routine, which allowed me to do my homework almost solely after he had gone to bed. Instead of relaxing on the nights he was at his dad’s, I spent my time doing everything I could to get ahead in my classes. This allowed me to spend the time I did have with him doing things to strengthen our relationship without the added stress of all of the things I needed to get done that day. We will all have to make sacrifices in our lives. Going to school was a good thing, but letting it interfere with my son was not. With that sacrifice being made he is happier, our relationship is stronger, and my life is more balanced as I focus on the most important thing in my life, my son.