April was a busy month for me. And it showed in the fact that I only posted six times. For me, that’s not a lot. My entire April seemed to be wrapped up in school and finishing up assignments that blogging fell by the wayside. It happens.

April was about school. It was crunch time to get all my assignments completed. I knew I had to complete my final draft of my short story, complete a bunch of quizzes and blogs for my online lit class, and take two Spanish exams. For my senior seminar course, I had a mock interview and a professional website to finish. It was going to be a busy month. And let’s just add on the anxiety that I would fail a class or something would happen that would cause me not to graduate. It was a worrisome month.

But I got through it with hard work and determination. I set aside an entire weekend to fix my short story and make it a million times better than it had previously. (And my second read-through went a lot better, as well, with my classmates telling me how much they enjoyed this second version.) I set aside time daily to work on my website and make it look as professional and unique as I could, using a free template. I began studying a week in advance for my Spanish tests to make sure I knew the vocabulary and verb tenses backward and forward. Any extra time left over was used for my literature class.

I’m ending April on a good note. All of my work is done and I did the best job I could. Next Sunday, I will be walking across a stage to receive my diploma and it will all have been worth it.

April was also the month of the IronGirl race. It was the month I should have been able to declare myself a half-marathoner, but I ran the 5K instead. It was a great race and I had a blast. I ran my fastest 5K yet and it proved to me how strong and capable I can be when I put my mind to it.

Easter was made more special by seeing it through the eyes of my nephew, who is two-and-a-half. We dyed eggs with him and hunted for Easter eggs. Kids just make the holiday so much more fun and he was especially thrilled whenever he saw an “Eter Vony” (Easter Bunny). The day was pretty low-key, with dinner at my grandparent’s house and spending the night curled up on the couch, watching TV.

I started applying for jobs in April. And worked a lot on my resume. In the beginning, it was pretty awful and I had a sweet Twitter friend who helped me to make it sound and look better. I only applied to three jobs: two involving human resources and one involving marketing. I was called in for an interview for the marketing job and today, I am in the midst of the second round of interviews. This is big and I am desperately praying that God grants me this job. I mean, how awesome would it be to already have a job lined up before I graduate?

As for weight loss, it was a pretty stellar month for me as I lost 4 pounds this month. It puts me at 12 pounds total and I am finally beginning to see the difference. Some pants are fitting looser and my clothes are looking better on me. Seeing the results in the mirror is sometimes better than seeing the results on the scale. And while I’m not counting on May to be a big weight loss month (uh…I’m going to count it as a success if I only gain 5 pounds during my cruise…), I’m still hoping to stay on plan and keep a consistent exercise pattern.

May is going to be a busy month for me but I’m excited about it. It marks my graduation, cruise, and hopefully a job offer. I am so ready for May!

What exciting things are happening for you in May?

March was about recovering, school assignments, and taking risks. Since my word for 2011 is risk, I’m actually very pleased with how this month has panned out for me. There were still many other opportunities to put myself out there that I didn’t seize, but it’s a work in progress.

March was welcomed in while I was on the tail-end of my shingles virus, finally starting to feel like myself again (and starting to put on clothes and not cringing every time they rubbed against my blisters). It was an odd way to welcome in the month, but not as odd as the last day of March, in which my area got hit with torrential downpour and tornadoes. Luckily, the tornadoes happened west of me but I heard stories of roofs being ripped off houses, trees uprooted, and fences falling down in neighborhoods and streets I am very familiar with. Tornadoes are not common where I live, so it was definitely a wild day!

But let’s recap March, shall we?

• A photo shoot. I met up with someone who is quickly becoming a great friend to me to take professional, graduation pictures. I’ve never before done a photoshoot and Emily was the best at making me feel comfortable and taking some pretty fantastic pictures. Anyone who is my friend on Facebook can see the whole slew of them. It was really hard choosing my favorites and the ones to put in my graduation announcements!
• Reading my short story aloud. Although I’ve always wanted to be a fiction writer, I’ve never thought about the process of writing, editing, and having people critique your story. At first, I thought it would be hard for me to take criticism. I tend to take any kind of criticism, even helpful criticism, to heart and for people to critique my writing? I was just hoping it didn’t turn me into a ball of tears. I wanted to be strong enough to take it as it is: a way to make my story better and stronger. And I did that. I took criticism from blog readers (and lots of compliments!) and from my classmates. I read my story aloud, even as my heart beat a million miles a minute and my face burned through it all. I didn’t fall apart. The world didn’t end. I have one more reading to complete, but since I’ve already shown myself I can get through this, I know I can do it again.
• A struggle for weight loss. This month was not my month for weight loss. I went up and down on the losing/gaining spectrum, settling in at 2 pounds lost this month, 8 pounds total. But since I was dealing with shingles and an influx of school assignments, I’m taking the positives I’ve developed this month and running with them: I’ve begun to limit my soda intake, I’ve stuck with the program even when it feels incredibly hard and I’m not motivated, and I’m still at a loss. Two pounds is two pounds.
• Prioritizing my life, once again. I can easily get so caught up in things that don’t matter. Right now, my most important focus lies in school and weight loss, as well as making sure I don’t burn myself out. Usually, the first thing to fall when I get busy and need to prioritize my life is blogging but this time around, I’ve begun to see how much blogging means to me and I need to have a place to write daily. What I realized, during a long walk one day, is how I’m letting Twitter take over my life most days. I’m constantly connected to it, always scrolling through my feed, making sure I catch every important tweet and conversation happening. There’s a lot more I could say about this, but I’ll leave it at this: I needed to break away from being constantly connected to Twitter and I will say I’ve done a pretty good job at leaving my TweetDeck application and Ubersocial app closed lately. And the world hasn’t ended.
• A new gadget. My Kindle arrived last week and it was love at first sight. I’m already wondering why it took me so long to jump on the e-reader bandwagon because it’s such an amazing little gadget. AMAZING!