Big Picture

What? I'm blogging again and it hasn't even been a full month. Is this real?

Surprisingly enough, I felt like blogging today. The real surprise here is that I feel like blogging seeing as how I just got home (spent the last 13.5 hours on campus). I'm feeling mentally drained, and yet revitalized at the same time. Sometimes in graduate school, you work on all these little things separately and you forgot about the big picture. Seeing that big picture again? So nice.

I had meetings, classes, and clients all day. Ended the day with a three-hour, live-graded report writing session with my group (3 classmates) and professor. Three hours. Despite being exhausted and occasionally getting distracted, I really enjoyed this three-hour report writing session. Who knew? Learned a whole bunch of tricks for Microsoft Word (yessssss!) and learned about things I had never considered before. Serif fonts vs. non-serif fonts, the importance of letterhead and fancy paper, precision of decimal points (obviously you round to one digit after the last nine, even if that means that number is longer than the ones around it), how Ms./Mrs./Miss differ, how to make good signature lines (mind = blown)....the list goes on. I think my sister would enjoy much of the trivia that I learned during this report writing session.

I also had another good session with a client. I really thought that counseling was stupid, and that I would not enjoy it. Surprise....I really do enjoy it. And I think I'm not too bad at it. There is a certain art in getting people to tell you things that they haven't told anyone else. And getting clients to return homework (but for that I use plain old-fashioned bribery in the form of YouTube clips). Some days I wonder if I got anywhere, and some days I am just stunned by how successful I feel. I wouldn't say that today was particularly successful, but I learned more and saw that my client is making progress on some of his goals. It doesn't really get much more exciting than that.

We're coming up on the end of the semester, which likely means I'll have many more 14-hour days ahead (but no more than two weeks worth, so that's a plus?). Final projects and papers are due (and getting done--a paper AND a presentation for tomorrow, go me!) and everything is starting to wrap up for the semester. I alternate between a calm, relaxed feeling (some light at the end of the tunnel, I guess) and flat-out panic/hysteria. I was just talking to someone earlier about our ridiculous mood swings (super happy to extreme anger to tearful panic...in no particular order) but overall I'm really not feeling too bad this week--which is nice.

Whether I'll continue to feel okay will probably fluctuate with the day (and maybe even the hour) but I'm looking forward to the end of classes and being able to enjoy the holidays with my family :) No complaints here.

Where does the time go?

Uhhh whoops. Sorry dear followers (few and far between you may be)--it turns out that keeping a blog during a doctoral program is more of a challenge than I thought.

So I haven't blogged in about seven months. You'll be happy to know that life is much the same. I find myself busier this year than last year--which I could have sworn isn't possible. This semester I have classes (love those three hour classes...), clients (whaaat? I'm ready for this?), and research (ok, this isn't so terrifying). Somehow those things take up, oh, all of my time.

Let's take a look at today. Gave a Second Step lesson in a kindergarten classroom (think, social-emotional development and violence prevention). I really don't mind these lessons because kids are adorable and it's nice to be able to see them. Some days are better than others. Take today for example. Child mentions being hurt by father. Uhhhhhh. Fabulous. What's even better? The District of Children and Family Services abuse hotline is "busy" today. That's right, not only did I have to leave a message, they still haven't returned my call. The bright side here (yes, there is one) is that I'm really not certain I should even be concerned. No visible signs of abuse, none of the warning signs, and he couldn't/wouldn't explain what he meant. He very well could have meant that someone hurts his feelings. I just have to take care of all of my responsibilities and do my duty by reporting what I know.

I barely remember the rest of my day. Doing clerical work for my GA, working on some homework, and class. This is generally how my week looks. Honestly, everything is coming to a close in the next month and I should probably be more freaked out than I am now. Maybe it's apathy. Maybe it's lack of sleep. At any rate, I'm glad that I'm not so freaked out. Some of this stuff is scary, and I don't always feel like I know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it.

At this rate, I'm just pushing through this week. Friday night, I get to go home for Thanksgiving break. Hooray, right? Right. Not having classes or clients will be fabulous. I suspect that I will do more sleeping and relaxing than work. Not that I'll have time, because I truly need to write some papers and do some IQ testing. At least I get to do it from the comfort of my home? And let's get real--Thanksgiving is a pretty awesome holiday. And I guess I miss my family, because they're not too bad either.

Free time? What's that?

So, you may have guessed by the lack of posts that life has been crazy. Grad school has been all-encompassing. I definitely don't have a life....at all. I think I went "out" twice last semester. It was a a busy semester, and I was a little overwhelmed with everything I had to do. I thought about blogging once or twice (you know, when my mom mentioned it...) but just never got around to it.

I've been reading books and articles, writing papers, and venting with my cohort. I just realized, when looking back at my blog...I didn't blog once this past semester. Whoops. About that...let's see. I had a variety of classes: one on counseling, one on consultation, one on social, emotional, and behavioral assessments of disorders, and my pro-seminar class. Additionally, I spent two hours a week in an elementary school (observing, tutoring, etc.) and two hours a week at Head Start (learning about behavior management...and playing with 3-5 year old children). I also led a group at The Autism Place for siblings of children with Autism. It turned out to be a lot of fun--all of those things. I had individual supervision, group supervision, and a variety of meetings. See how I might not have time to blog?!

This summer..I have one class! It's on Monday and Wednesday nights, from 5:30-9:20...which is gross. Night class? Ugh. But it worked out quite well, as I have a babysitting job during the day. It's going to be a busy summer. It's probably for the best, though. All I would do is sit around and read. Wait...wouldn't that be fun? Oh well, I could use the money and the entertainment?

I'm also getting a roommate again! A different one from that last, as the last one decided that grad school wasn't for her. I'm pretty excited. I kind of felt like a crazy cat lady before, just me and my cat hanging out. It'll be an adjustment, but let's face it...I'm used to having people around all the time. I miss having 40-some sorority sisters who were always up for hanging out. They were so good at making sure that I didn't spend all of my time studying. I'm still working on that work/play balance. I don't do many fun things, but that's a goal for this summer and next year. I need to have some more fun and meet some more people. Not that I don't love the people in my program (especially my cohort!) but it's awkward that I don't know ANYBODY else here.

I wish grad school hadn't taken over my entire life. I like what I'm doing, and I know I'll be grateful in the end, but right now, it feels like it will last forever. FOR-EH-VER. 3 more years of classes and THEN an internship? This reminds me of when I was running my half-marathon. About 8 miles in, I couldn't figure out why I would have decided to run 13.1 miles. It was miserable...but in the end, I was so proud. I guess grad school has a lot of ups and downs, but I don't even know what I'd rather be doing. I just need to get better at fitting fun things into my life again!