In the Middle

You know that nightmare we all have about being homeless after we graduate from college? Okay, okay, it's nothing that dire--we all know I have a little penchant for the dramatic. And I'm not really homeless at all. Just... in Limbo. And Limbo seems to be a place for reflection.

The bad news: My possessions are spread out between three different locations, I'm pulling my clothes out of the garbage bags they're stuffed in, and I don't really have a place to call my own at the moment.

The good news (which vastly outweighs the bad): I have a clean bed to sleep in (without washing my sheets every single night), the people I'm staying with have got to be some of the absolute most gracious people on earth, I've regained quite a bit of my sanity (thanks to a lovely clean bed, a bedroom door, and sunlight), I get to see my parents next Saturday, and I have the promise of moving into a brand new apartment in a week.

Watching Molly (my "host mom") keep up with her 6-year-old, 2-year-old, and 8-month-old sons, still manage to keep up with housework, be up at all hours with the crying baby, find time to cook for her husband and kids, and be more than gracious and cheerful in every moment is, frankly, eye-opening and awe-inspiring. I'm noticing things I've never noticed before about being a grown up and being a parent. (Though I'll admit, I am glad not to be in that stage of life at the moment--I feel like I can barely take care of myself and she was a year younger than me when she had her first son.) It's also making me more and more thankful for my parents with every passing moment.

It's all cliches. It's the stuff we mention every year on Mother's Day; stuff I feel like I should know without being told. Sometimes, though, it takes seeing something from a new perspective, or being in a different place to see something from a different angle. I feel like I'm camping out in the middle of their life, but they haven't seemed to miss a beat, and have graciously taken in the poor, stray grad student who can never hope to repay them or thank them enough for their kindness and generosity.