Double Duty

I was just listening to Ingrid Michaelson's song Overboard, and it got me thinking...

I love my fiance and I love my job, I probably love both a little too much. So I guess I shouldn't complain that I am fortunate to be in such a predicament, but sometimes its a bit overwhelming. I'm sure every bride experiences (at least a little) that overwhelming feeling of trying to merge two lives together. I'm not just talking about my fiance and I, but rather, my personal life and my work life.

I work in College Campus Ministry which is a life consuming job, but in the best way possible. There is a lot of office work and paper work involved in my job, but there are infinitiely more things that I love about what I do. I facilitate a seminar class on Christian Leadership, and work with a dozen college sophomores each week, as well as help plan events for the students at our parish. I typically work 7 days a week, and although I'm only "clocked in" for 40 hours or so a week, I tend to be here upwards of 50 or 60. While I go home feeling physically and emotionally drained, I also feel so energized by what I do. This is normally fine, since I live by myself and my FI had out-of -town internships 2 of the past 4 months for his final year of Pharmacy School, but now he's back for the rest of his internships, and I initially had a hard time balancing my work life with our relationship (I tend to be a bit independent).

I love going home and cooking dinner with him, curling up with a glass of wine, watching a movie and taking games of Monopoly and Scrabble far too seriously. But I have a hard time pulling myself away from work in the evenings, because it often doesn't feel like "work" to me. It hasn't really caused any problems, he's so understanding and supportive of my passion for my work, and patient when I'm a bit late meeting up after work.

But I can't help but think that it probably won't always be this way. And what about when we have kids? We aren't totally unprepared for this part of marriage, we've both agreed that we both want to be actively involved in raising our kids, but both of us need something outside of that home life, so we're both open to working part-time. But I know I secretly hope sometimes that the part-timer isn't me, while other times I could see myself staying at home full-time... at least for a little while.

Ultimately, I know that some sort of balance has to be achieved (and will). But right now, the scale is tipped in the work direction, with our engagement as a time to tease out a balance between the two.