Last summer is a blur. I remember doing the math afterwards and my summer job amounted to twelve weeks, during which I had 10 days off, four of those I had on-call duty, though. In addition to that, I completed four summer tests for uni, so I would not have to take a jackload of courses come autumn. No wonder I felt so drained all the time.
Autumn brought with it the return to uni after my BA-degree and the immediate start of my MA-thesis. Since I don't do cliffhangers: I did it. With flying colours. Well, actually, I spent autumn taking about 15h worth of courses at uni, doing a 20h/week internship, working 10-15h/week and training for my first MMA competition between 10-15h/week (morning conditioning, evening technique). In hindsight, I don't know how I did it. Also, I moved to a new flat in September. I really don't know how I did not go totally bonkers last fall. Every minute of my day was planned. I'm not kidding you here, my time management game was up to par and well, the glorification of busy was just my thing.
My internship ended in December. I spent most of Christmas on my own and then flew to Frankfurt to see me mum. And after Christmas the real work began. I went to our gym's member/birthday party and off I was to Berlin to collect material for my MA-thesis. Because... I had not done anything for it all autumn, but told my professor I was making great progress (yeah, don't do that, I got my presentation date in early February thanks to that). So, Berlin. Back there, meeting friends and family, I realised how much I actually missed that overpopulated pit of a metropolis. And I made the mistake/great decision to train at a JiuJitsu/MMA/other martial arts gym there. And... I just clicked with some of the people. I mean, MMA Team 300 is family, nothing is ever going to change that, MMA Team 300 has been the only reason I've been hesitating with this decision to be honest. And now I know, if I go back to Berlin, there's people who would welcome me with open arms into their midst.
So, I'm probably headed back to Berlin in September, thus setting an end to my life as an ex-pat.
But back to my MA-thesis. Well, I went to Berlin to get material and hit the ground running with the writing part of the thesis. Thank goodness I knew exactly which theories and books I wanted to use for my theory part, thanks to my Communication Science studies. So, I got the first presentational version ready in two weeks. The result was not as great and world-changing as I would have wanted it to be, but tough luck, I should have started earlier - months earlier. And from there on out I spent every single minute of my spare time either writing or thinking through problems I'd encountered. Twelve weeks of work went into my MA-thesis, the better part of spring. But. I wouldn't be me if I did not do something stupid to make life just this little bit harder on me now, would I? First, I decided to take a road trip through Romania this year or the next (peering at my financial situation, it'll be next year) and for that - of course - someone like me who taught themselves basic Italian for a week-long trip to Rosetto, has to be fluent in conversational Romanian. So, I took up a totally unnecessary Romanian course at uni. Because I wanted to. It just meant a whole lot of work more than actually necessary. Second, flicking through the study guide, my eyes also fell upon a literature course in our English department (I already had done five literary courses on the master level, so it was absolutely unnecessary to go for another one) and thus I was doing even more work for a class called "Psychoanalysis and Literature", which was the most gruesome tour de force and the most interesting course I've ever done. I found out a lot about myself during those long hours reading through Freud, Lacan and other theories, ready to lose my mind at any point because some of it went so far over my head it was almost painful to make myself understand it, but on the other hand incredibly enthusiastic anytime I found out something about the way my mind works. And third: I started actually training in our competitors' group and logged even more time doing MMA preparing for my first fight in March. Then April. Then May. But that's a whole other story and has to be told another day. But bottom line is: there's a reason most people choose to do their MA-thesis far from any other studies and concentrate wholly on writing. But I have never been most people and common sense has always been a thing I've liked laughing at in the rear-view mirror.
In the end, I made it. I even finished a week before the deadest deadline. And here we are again. I got time on my hands. This year's summer job seems to be pretty easy-going, predictable and I don't have to be anybody's boss. For the first time in my work life, I don't have to spend my summer glued to a work phone, worrying about shift lists and paycheck gone wrong or people calling in sick. All I have to do is show up. Do my work. Go home. I could get used to this. Everyday life, they call it. :)
But what's ahead blog-wise?
Well, I've been fighting with a light eating disorder (I'm even hesitant to call it that, but...face the music and dance) and body image issues for quite some time now and it really reared its head when I started to think about competing in Grappling/JiuJitsu and MMA competitions (weight-class sports are great breeding ground when you're already an easy victim). It's not that serious, but I have to be aware of it and not slip back into these kinds of behaviours. I'd like to write a post or two on that and how it relates to sports/fitness.
I still love working out and I'll be writing on that, too.
I have been preparing to compete in MMA (oh, what a rocky road it has been and I'm not talking about the cookies), that's worth a post. And I actually have been competing in grappling competitions. Also worth a post.
Pain and sports/fitness. It is an issue. Ignoring injuries, playing them down, making light of them and sports. Also an issue. An issue I know far too well.
Nutrition. I love to eat. I love to cook. I made the perfect protein pancake last week. Have to tell you about that, too.
And... one of my older passions that has come back with a vengeance now that I have time; books and movies!!! I've read four books within the last seven days (one of them over 600 pages, another one more than 90 chapters). And... since this blog is called welcome to my life and not some kind of training blog per se, you'll have to suffer through those posts as well.
Oh, and I got a new tattoo. Only a little one...
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