When the rain subsides

When the rain subsides

April 21st, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

Since right after my surgery last November, things started declining work-wise. This scenario is usually foreseen because it pretty much looks the same around November, December, and part of January, things pick up in February, and March. Towards the end of the first trimester, things start going down again due to Easter break. After that two week recess, things start rising slowly until late June, when summer arrives.  

The entire school starts making a slow transition towards vacation mode so many students are on slow motion, there are more absences than normal, it’s harder to get them focused and I cannot get them to work. That is the synopsis of the entire school. As for me, it’s looked otherwise during the last two years. I have been collaborating with an American company as a Translator/Editor/Proofreader, therefore, my agenda doesn’t coincide with ASFG’s schedule. I can work with that foreign company all year round, only taking the most important holidays off: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other American holidays, unless there’s a deadline after a particular holiday. I go side by side with them more than with other projects as long as they keep sending me work.

Working as a freelance for the most part, usually brings more projects from prior clients, contacts, or through word of mouth. There’s always a flow going, it is expected for me to go through high seasons, slow spans of time and dead periods. That is exactly what I touched base on with a friend of mine during Lent or Easter break on our way to do volunteer work. “A client cancelled on me at the last minute on Wednesday, things have been awfully slow for the last three months or so, and I am disappointed but I will not lose my cool, I chose to remain faithful instead because I know that God always provides.” She looked at me incredulous and I was more surprised at my aloofness because at other times, I would’ve broken down. In reality things had been a lot more quiet than normal but my demanding nature always pushes me to do more. 

I remember that Saturday very vividly as yesterday was exactly two weeks ago. M. G. and I meet every other week to spend time sharing our passion and reaching out to our community by doing volunteer work. True, we could pay someone to do it instead, but it wouldn’t be humble of us and it would most definitely defeat the purpose of our intentions. Anyhow, I am in awe at the meaning of time. Two weeks ago I had more free time (not idle time because I always find something to do) than usual and now I wish there were more than twenty-four hours in a day. All of a sudden I got a call from Oregon, an email from Michocan, a skype conference from Washington D. C., a face to face chat with someone in Nayarit, a call from a local colleague to discuss work related matters, that I’ve lost track and I am ready to say, “No” for the first time in a long while. 

Since that particular day, things have taken a different turn and here I am rising at 6:30 on a Sunday to catch up on the many things I’ve got lined up. This morning there were three or four tasks to get out of the way and so I wrote a letter of recommendation to my sister in law, another letter to my insurance agent to make some changes to my mother’s policy, I proofread an eight page translation and sent it to my client - I was supposed to get this done yesterday but I completely forgot about it. I proofread three short medical reports, then I went on a power walk, came home, showered and went to mass. Came home, had lunch while looking through another two medical reports, then I started working on a long pending medical translation, afterwards I finished translating an autobiography for a seminarian at F. S. S. P., who wants to become a priest so he’s filling out all the required paper work. 

I took a thirty minute nap and right after I woke up, one of my sisters called. While we chatted, I took advantage of putting my clothes away that had been lying on my desk for about three weeks. My work area had been snowed under with clothing garments which I always put till the end because I hate doing it! 

“How will I get through all of this?” I kept thinking. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the next day, the day after, the following day and every day of this week my mind has been going in circles, thinking of how I will manage to meet all the deadlines coming closer. My answer to that is, “Take each day at once.” But sometimes several days strike me at once. A-ha! All I can do, is tackle one by one and that’s that! I will not let this overwhelming workload daunt me. 

Unfortunately OR luckily, most of my work is done from the comfort of my home, sitting behind my computers for long hours in a day. If I pull through the next twelve weeks or so, I will take a long break (one day! Ha, ha) from my computer because right now I am delirious. When the rain subsides and in a perfect world, when there’s world peace, I will meet my weekly writing, praying, working out, reading, volunteer work, etc., and put more time into the things that keep me going. Right now I was about to call it a day until I realized at eight thirty that it I didn’t want to forsake writing another day. I’d not posted since Wednesday so there was an empty void that I just filled. 

I am still delirious, NOT more than last night when I was on the verge of tears because I was extremely overwhelmed. I will be very patient (this is a HUGE challenge because patience is NOT one of my virtues), I will stay focused, not complain or think, but more than anything, I will look at the whole picture through God’s eyes while I lie and wait for the rain to subside.