When I woke up this morning, I immediately said to myself that I knew that this day would arrive eventually. If one person keeps pushing and pushing to get things accomplished, to make money, and to try to be Superman without pausing to eat the right things and get plenty of rest and relaxation, it's going to equal a big crash sometime in the not too distant future. Such is the case with what happened to me today. Having just finished working every single day for a week, and cramming the majority of my hours into a three-day stretch of eleven hours each, while still taking care of all my other school and academic obligations as well, I wasn't sure how long it was going to be before my body had just had enough. My body answered that question for me this morning when I woke to feeling, in a word, miserable. Everything about me ached, and I knew that it was five o'clock in the morning and time to head over to work for another shift. The only positive thought that could get me through my morning routine was knowing that I could come home at noon and take a nap on my couch. Now, that's no different from what I tell myself every single day in order to get myself motivated and out of bed, but today, I knew that I meant it. I've begun to recognize what my body needs in terms of rest, and by golly, I sure have not been providing it what it needs. Add that to the fact that I haven't exactly been eating on a typical schedule, and I've been substituting a lot of "healthy" options for my typical foods in an attempt to lose a little bit of weight before I head up to New York for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding in less than a month. Today was just one of those days that I knew that I couldn't move very quickly, because if I did, I was going to have a problem on my hands...namely that my stomach was not going to handle it. Of course, when you're not eating exactly correctly in the first place, and then you are having stomach difficulties as well, it's double trouble, because you don't want to eat and can't eat anyways. I told myself that if I made it through work that I would treat myself to whatever I was hungry for...nothing like making a pact with your body to make it through the work day. I had made it until about an hour left at work when I began thinking about the great nap that I was going to take. Then it hit me! I couldn't take a nap and recharge my body for all that long, becasue I had (stupidly) scheduled another meeting up at school for three o'clock this afternoon which I had no idea how long it would last. Needless to say, I made it up for my meeting, but the combination of my quasy stomach, my exhaustion, and the heat were not to easy on me. I had to excuse myself twice to go get a drink to rehydrate myself and cool off, because I was really on the brink of passing out. I know that you are probably all thinking that this really has nothing to do with finances and that I shouldn't be writing about it in my Christian finance blog, but in all honesty, what I'm talking about has everything to do with this subject. In my attempt to be a good worker, a good student, a leader, and an over-achiever, and most of all...to make a lot of money over the summer months, I never stopped to think about myself. I've spent the first two months of my summer break working constantly and never giving myself a chance to recover physically or mentally from the stress and exhaustion from the academic year. Money, of course, was my motivation. When you are used to having a fellowship provided to you (I'm extremely blessed in this respect, I know) for each semester to live off of, the idea of jumping back into some work that you aren't exactly being paid well for and has nothing to do with your interests is pretty scary. Most people like me know that the concentration is to make enough money to get through the summer months for rent, car insurance, car payments, cell phone bills, food, etc. without cutting into the money too much that I have desperately tried to save my being careful with my spending during the regular school year. Money, money, money...it motivates every single person in different ways. Some people might be comfortable not having all too much money and living every month wondering whether or not all the bills will be paid or not. That kind of living is just not my style. I like to have a financial cushion on which I can rest and know that I will have everything I need taken care of, and then some...hence my being down for the count today and my body just deciding not to put up with me anymore.