Dear Significant Other of the Non-trad Student

    YOU are our hero!  You were with us as we made the decision to go back to school. You supported our dreams and agreed to take this journey with us. We see you, love you and appreciate you <3

    We are half way through our one year program. It has been awesome and hectic. I am enjoying my time with everyone at ASM. I'm learning so much and really getting a lot out of the process.  I look forward to applying all I will have learned into my daily life as a massage therapist.  With that being said. I'm exhausted!  

     As mentioned before, massage is most frequently a second career so most of the students are working all day and in class three evenings a weeks. I am also in student clinic, so I am spending time at the school giving massage on top of classroom hours.  When I'm not in the classroom or clinic I am studying....or trying to.  Because I also have kids to care for, laundry to get done, dinner to get on the table, dishes washed ect.  The list goes on and on. Guess how much time that leaves for my husband. VERY little. Often that little time is at the end of the night when I'm fighting to keep my eyes open. 

     Guess how much time my husband has for me. VERY little. He also is at work all day. On days I have class he walks in the door and I give him a kiss and say goodbye.   Leaving him to play single dad to our kids all evening.  When he finally gets the kids to sleep he is buried in his computer and papers to finish his work for the day (he is a teacher and they absolutely bring their work home)

    We knew this is what our lives would look like when I decided to start this journey and our motto has been "we can do anything for a year, it's just one year".  I appreciate the amount of grace my husband has shown me during this 'season' of our life.  I think as busy as he is he can appreciate how busy I am.  When I end up two days behind on laundry, the house is cluttered and dinner turns into pizza AGAIN he smiles at my apologies and says "I love pizza! I'll work on laundry while your in class"

    I think a hard pit to not fall into when everyone is running in different directions and everyone is stressed out is "you think YOU'RE busy, I have more to do than you ". Almost competing with who is more stressed and who should be picking up the slack.  You are a team and its constantly a balancing act. When he is down I try to lift him up and vice versa.  I feel a lot more often these days, he is picking me up and on the days I'm cramming for a test and get nothing else done, I hope he knows how much I appreciate him. 

    So non-trad student, remember you aren't going through this alone. Thank your significant other, kids, friends any of the people who are encouraging you. This is a hectic season of life so give your family and yourself grace as you work through it.  Remember you can you anything for one year.