Week-by-Week

At the beginning of every school year at UNC, my friends and I would line up at Student Stores to purchase very expensive and very boring text books for the first semester, along with various school supplies.  The lines were always long, and the books always so heavy.  It was a right of passage, a signal that summer was over and that long nights at the library and many cans of Diet Coke were in our immediate future.  Between class (which of course was the reason we were at UNC), different social functions (read late night pizza and movie parties) and participating in campus activities (read football games and hearing local bands at Cat’s Cradle), it was hard to keep up with where we were suppose to be and at what time.  Sure, I had the entire aerobics schedule at the Student Rec Center memorized but did I know when I my Shakespeare class was?  Well, to keep us on track, a few of my friends and I religiously and enthusiastically included one critical school supply during our first semester book buying event…

The Carolina Week-by-Week

The Week-by-Week was a spiral bound day planner, that not only  included listing national holidays but also listed exam weeks for both fall and spring semester and the entire football schedule.  It was just small enough to make it easy to transport, but large enough to write lots of notes and various deadlines and important information (read phone numbers of friends and…if you’re lucky…a boy’s phone number)!  We were of course right at the cusp of everyone having a cell phone so actually taking pen to paper to capture important information instead of typing in a virtual note into your cell was the norm.  The Week-by-Week contained my class schedule, not-to-miss aerobics classes, weekend plans, library study dates, important phone numbers, dinner dates with friends on Franklin Street and any other information I deemed worthy enough to jot down in the Week-by-Week.  It was a great tool that kept my small little college life in order (as much as a college student can keep their life in order).  In fact, during my entire first year out of college, I often considered driving over to Chapel Hill to pick up a Week-by-Week.  After not being further than 10 feet away from the Week-by-Week for four years, I kind of felt lost without it.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been seven years since I graduated college.  When you’re in school, you never think it will end.  And then it does.  And then you’re in the real world with a real job and surrounded by real adults, some who are nice and a lot who are not so nice.  You have bills to pay.  You have to get up when the alarm goes off.  You have two days off every week and your schedule does not allow for a 2pm step aerobics class.  You spend a year getting use to this 9-5 thing.  And then you wake up and you realize you’ve become one of them…an adult!  You’re making a car payment.  You’re going out for drinks with co-workers after work.  You’re shopping at Ann Taylor instead of the Limited.  You’re looking – and feeling – like an adult more and more every year.

You meet someone…an actual real guy who is mature, smart and funny and know that you can not let this one slip away.  You walk down the aisle, you say your vows, and you can see your entire wonderful future in your new spouse’s eye’s and smile.  Together you decide to buy a house, bring a dog (or two) into your family and you begin making plans.  Wonderful plans that include deciding what job to take, and where to spend the holidays.  You decide that your wonderful little world would be even more perfect if it expanded by one, and before you know it you’re anxiously waiting for a small plastic stick to show one blue line or two blue lines.  Two blue lines and six months later, you’re on your way to having your first baby, and life couldn’t seem better.  Or to go by faster.

There was a time when I lived my life week-by-week.  When I didn’t know what the upcoming weekend held, or what the next semester’s classes would bring.  And it didn’t matter – in college, you could live week-by-week and get along just fine!  But now, it seems that I am back to living week-by-week again, despite years of planning and living in the adult world of schedules and meetings.  I am back to my week-by-week mindset because my son is changing and growing so rapidly that every week brings a new development in his little life.  A few more ounces gained.  Hair begins to grow.  Eyelids form – and then open! – and you begin to feel him kick your side (and of course your bladder too).  Your stomach pushes forward.  Your back aches.  You can’t sleep.  And it’s all wonderful, because every week, you move closer and closer to meeting the person that will celebrate birthdays with you, that will make you laugh, yell, cry and be so proud of you can’t stand it.  He’s the person you’ll teach to ride a bike, tie shoelaces and swim.  He’s the person that you’ll then watch graduate from college, help move into his first apartment and who will hopefully posses all the good lessons and morals you’ve instilled in him over the years. You make plans for your family and kids, because Lord knows there are so many things to accomplish in a day and in a week.  Weeks turn into months and then turn into years.  No doubt I’ll wonder where the years went, how time passed by in an instant.

But for now, I’m back to  living week-by-week.  And it’s wonderful.

Tags: pregnancy, UNC