Sunday, October 18, 2009

Finding the Pace of Life

Last week I was chatting with my young nieces about writing and drawing, when one of them commented, “Maybe when you grow up you’ll be a writer.” I had to laugh, but I also still get a little thrill sometimes when I realize, I am all grown up and I am a writer. Last month I got published for something like the fifty-fifth time, and last month I also started working professionally as a freelance editor. Of course, I’ve been doing small editing projects for friends and for PeP for years, but not full-sized manuscripts for strangers for pay!

This term I’m not taking any regular classes—just mock interpreting in one class and doing a Human Development correspondence course, as well as continuing with a little interpreting training with tutors. It’s a quiet schedule that seems just about right for my body, and lets me do occasional writing or editing in the evening.

I feel like my Fibromyalgia is finally as under control as it’s gonna get. My overall fatigue and especially pain levels are a little lower, and the cognitive problems aren’t as severe or as frequent. The only problem is that I’ve discovered in order to keep things that way, I have to limit my active activity time to about three hours a day, most days, with some rest days and lots of naps. So it limits things a lot, but I’d rather have a few hours I can do things well than have almost no good hours like happens when I push myself too hard.

On November 16th I have the next attempt at the Qualifying Exam for my interpreting program. I have to pass it in order to get an internship next term, graduate in the spring, and begin working part time as an interpreter. I feel fairly confident that I have the skills, I just have to pray my body will let me access them. It’s a performance exam, so not really something I can study for—just need to keep practicing.

Today I went to the DeafNation Expo. I took a couple of friends with me, one of whom doesn’t know much sign, so I got to do a bit of interpreting for him. Real life practice is always the best. We saw tons of people we knew at the Expo, so it was a lot of fun.
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5 comments:

Joanne Sher said...

Praying you can discipline yourself to keep the pace you need to, and that things work out exactly as you hope (and as God desires). The expo sounds neat. Keep practicing - AND pressing on! Love ya!

Laury said...

It's good you're getting to know your body and can adjust things. Praying for your qualifying exam. Hope your body cooperates.

purple_kangaroo said...

LOL, I love the conversation with the girls.

"it limits things a lot, but I’d rather have a few hours I can do things well than have almost no good hours like happens when I push myself too hard."---so, so true.

Kivlan Maron said...

Dear Amy,

I was so happy to read about everything you're doing! It's so cool that you're writing, learning sign, and living your life in spite of fibro. My mom is rusty but used to be fluent in sign language because she worked with children with autism and cognitive disabilities, and my sister has FM. I'm trying to educate myself and have been checking out as many blogs as I can to help with the social forum I moderate about FM. Anyway, keep up the great work and I hope to see you soon in cyberspace.

Kivlan (:

marcos rogerio amadeu filho roberto marinho said...

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