20 Minutes of Sanity: The Struggle Juggle - Balancing Heart-Work and Homework #21

I just finished Collaboration Analysis #2, which is actually like my fifth or sixth assignment in this Community Collaboration course in the PhilD...and there's like 3-4 more, including a final!

It's a lot. I'm proud of the final products so far though. There are so many concepts taught throughout this course and baking them all into a concept paper can be quite the challenge. The beauty is that so many of the concepts within my applied research project on HBCUs are entrenched in the last 3 weeks' topics of collective identity, power, status, and belonging. It's simple to understand how they all interplay, but it ain't always easy to put the words on paper in a manner that flows for prose writing.

All is well though, the submit button is on the horizon right after this quick writing session.

Mondays are such an interesting day. They are always jam packed with work stuff as everyone is coming back fresh from the weekend, school stuff with the boys and what's the theme of the week or whatever (there's always a spirit week or something that mommy and I are trying to keep up with—we aren't the best at this, can't lie), and Mondays are submission nights for school.

It's truly the struggle juggle, but man once that assignment (of the week) is behind me, it's a huge sigh of relief and then…

On to the next one!

I've been challenged by personalities at work that are interrupting my speed of productivity and causing me to question if I'm approaching situations correctly. I don't know—I just have to keep doing my best to uphold the standards that I have for myself and keep my eyes on the impact. I know nonprofit work is especially tough because it's "heart-work" and we (many of us, not all) pour our truest self into the tasks at hand and give up our time and effort to often times be burned and buried in a sea of emotional debt in an effort to change the lives of the people we serve. I know that sounded horrible, but if you're in this field you especially know what I mean. It's challenging. We deal with so many little frustrations that they can often drown out the wins of the day. But you know what, when we reflect and get out of our own way (and our offices) and use our senses to be with the beneficiaries, we can glean that light again. That purpose, that hope, that vision, and that plan is what I seek out every day.

I've got some great colleagues (at work and in the field at-large) and as I've mentioned before, it's vital that I lean on them for support, laughter, suggestions, and best practices on how to approach the complex and wicked work we do in the third sector. Many may want to put nonprofit in a soft box, but it's just as necessary and nuanced as any other business. This is exactly why my classmates and I are studying them on the doctoral level.

Everything that I just mentioned—from HBCUs, to burnout, to complex strategies to inform policy and practice, we are here to share how to solve for these issues and I'm most grateful for this everyday struggle.

Even when I want to run as fast as possible—I know I'm on the right track.

It's been 20 minutes. Let's submit this work, pop this magnesium pill and get some sleep.

Dex