Wrapping up a UQÀM session

The semester is finally over, and unless I hallucinated showing up for my final, I’m fairly certain I didn’t completely fail. Hurrah!

I spent most of this past week (et quelques…) catching up on all the little odds and ends put on the back burner throughout April as I tried to cram 300 pages of a textbook into my brain. I only took one class this semester, since I needed to make sure that my brain could cope after the mega-epic-cognitive-burnout-fest that was 2023. Relentlessly high cortisol levels are not correlated with peak cognitive performance, and performance/test anxiety remains a concern of mine — raise your hand if you’ve ever had an extremely disruptive panic attack during an exam or presentation! I think I needed to prove to myself that I am still capable of tackling a difficult task, and not utterly fail. I won’t get my final grade until the middle of May — gros soupir — and I am not only feeling nervous about that grade. By May first, I’ll have sent out applications to a few different kinésiologie programmes within Québec. It is unnecessary to state that I’m really anxious about this next step: it’s one thing to realise you want to radically change directions in life. It’s another for the eternal cancre that I am to realize that I am, yet again, preparing to submit my worth to various judges within the academe.

As I work on this blog post, I’m currently preparing my bujo (bullet journal) for the month of May. I’m a bit stuck on the “Monthly Tasks” collection I always create at the beginning of the month: there are so many tasks from March and April 2024 that were put on the back burner, and I’m trying to decide what I can just toss aside and what I should not. Often, the only real drawback of bullet journalling (for me) is that it lays bare how much I want to do, and how little I actually manage to get done. Though, I am noticing that being overwhelmed with bio this April had a silver lining: a little extra time to recover from a small injury with my right leg. If you remember my weeknotes from January, I’ve been dealing with a handful of vaguely related problems in my right leg since the new year. My physio has now confirmed that I am absolutely hyper-mobile^[1][2]! In practical terms, this explains why, when it comes to athletic activity — even when I do everything “right” — my joints simply have a harder time protecting themselves because of their inherent instability. Add onto that some definite issues caused by endometriosis in my abdomen (as best as myself and several physiotherapists have ascertained) and it makes for an interesting challenge when it comes to movement — and explains why I can be so physically strong in some areas, and have some unintuitive weaknesses in others.

A few other odds and ends: I’ve started driving classes, which has become a necessity now that I want to become a hunter-companion to my gundog puppy. I’m going to be completing my hunting training in late May, which includes obtaining my firearm permit and my hunting license. Once that’s done, and I can get myself to and from the hunting training grounds without constantly bothering Leif for a ride, I should be able to make some important progress on hunting training with Pip. I’ll keep you all posted on that front!

Pippin, Leif and I have a busy month of May ahead. With a bit of luck, it will include a lot of ballet and writing on my end, a lot of frolicking with Pippin and Leif as the weather gets warmer, and, hopefully, I’ll get into the kiné programmes I’m trying for. I’m grateful for all the rain falling over southern Québec at the moment. The earth and the trees desperately need the precipitation after a frighteningly snowless winter.

Be kind to one another, and until next time!