What's your schedule?

Here we are. After spending one month in Brazil enjoying family, friends, good food, beer, and the heat, Hannah and I are back to a -7 C (20 F) environment.

While my beautiful girl goes to school, watches High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and has lots of fun, I am working like crazy. Things are going well: I defended my thesis proposal and it was approved; I continue to teach Portuguese lessons, and new financial supporting activities are part of my routine now. (But I still have to pay the taxes; that's another story...)

Comprising my activity umbrella is the barrista career. I now make coffee. Three undergraduate students are in my shift very patiently teaching me how to make those delicious Starbucks drinks. This morning, one of the girls expresses her feeling of being behind concerning her career. I wondered how, then she told me that it was a result of having a younger girl as her manager. "How should I feel then", I asked her? The students who work there are in their 19s, 20s and they feel behind. I am 33 and on track. Is there a rule? What is the perfect timing for life?

I left my parents house when I was 22, in early 1997, same year I entered college. I became a mom when I was 25, and when I was 26 I graduated. I am now back to school for my masters degree, which means I will be 34 and a master probably concomitantly. Some friends here in Athens are 10 years younger than me and are only graduating. They are not even parents! So, who is behind?!