bitter with the sweet

I had a client who, when asked "how're you doing", would always smile and say, "I'm pretty good, ya know, you gotta take the bitter with the sweet". I recently had to part ways with this particular gentleman, but I find myself hearing his catch-phrase in my mind pretty frequently these days.

In a nutshell, I've been given some fantastic opportunities (the sweet), but they require a very hectic and intense lifestyle (the bitter) for the next 8-9 months. These opportunities are both highly concentrated in the area of social work, specifically the realms I am interested in (poverty and policy) and therefore I am fully committed and up for the challenges. BUT, I am also very interested in and committed to the pursuit of leisure and having a social life! But between school, my job, my internship at The Center for Social Policy & Community Development (opportunity #1) and my new job working for the Director of the Social Work (bachelor) program at Temple University (opportunity #2), I have no free time!

So that's where I'm at; I'm trying to balance the busyness with some down-time, and not just down-time but fun-time! It's hard though... so please bear with me as I try to navigate this new lifestyle. You all know how much I love to chill, yet these next few months will be anything but chill. Challenging, stimulating and exhausting -yes; chill? NO.

But, like my old client used to say, I just gotta smile, be grateful, and take the bitter with the sweet.