The Great Trade-Off

"Do you want to sit in the warm, noisy area - or the quiet, cold area?"

Dahlia, a girl i had just met about an hour ago, couldn't have put the question relating to where to sit in Lehman Library better than a Pulitzer Prize winner.  There's always a trade off in life.   The past week has been a muddle of trying to focus in on readings, live out the schedule that I had set for myself, and trying to work through a number of personal issues.  To say it's been an emotional rollercoaster would be an understatement.

But I was reminded today, at the first gathering of Christian SIPA students, that there is a purpose in everything even if we can't see what that purpose might be.  And although we might make choices that either leave us bothered and distracted, or shivering in the mast wind of the A/C, that's just life.   And there will be ups and downs, but like the All American Rejects are singing into my eardrums right now - even when your hope is gone, "move along just to make it through."

So that's where I am.  I'm in a place where people have placed an incredible amount of faith in me and my abilities - whether it's blogging/editing for the Morningside Post, editing for the Journal of International Affairs, meeting my phone date times everyday, living within my budget, and being successful at school....as much as i'd like to be free of these expectations, the pressure is a trade-off with the opportunity of living life, fully and abundantly.