My Simple, Happy, Beautiful Life

I have been confused for the last month or two regarding my future employment and internship. This whole not knowing where I was going to end up was making me really stressed out, but I am so happy that things are finally working out and coming together.  Do you want to hear my happy news?  I feel like my social work identity is finally coming together as I know who I am as a social worker. My professional identity is developing.  I am starting a new position as a Education Related Mental Health Therapist Intern at this private school called Guiding Hands. It is going to be a paid internship and I am working with the population that I love working with. I have developed a love for working with people who have disabilities, specifically developmental disabilities. I find working with this population is extremely rewarding yet challenging. It pushes me to work hard but I find the work very enjoyable. So, I am very happy about this placement. It is in El Dorado Hi...

So, I am ending my first year of my internship and it has been such a learning process. I haven't really thought about the termination process because the end never really seemed like it was near. Well, I have two more days of my internship. That is absolutely crazy to think that I have been here for a year. I have been at Health for All, which is an adult day health care center. I am with adults who have physical and mental disabilities. There is a wide range of clients who have mental health diagnosis, extreme physical health limitations and isolation. Many clients lost contact with family and live with caregivers and board and care. The clients struggle with isolation, depression, grief and loss of independence. The more I think about it, the more sad and happy I am with this termination process. I don't think I am really ready for the termination process, but I have to be though. I am happy because that means it is summer! Sometimes having the internship along with the sc...

So, I have learned something kinda funny throughout this whole process of making decisions for next fall. I have learned how I deal with stress, anger, frustration and anxiety. I clean. I organize. I do my laundry. I clean my bathroom. I do anything that is productive besides the actual thing I need to do. Avoidance is a great technique. Today, I had a stressful interaction with a teacher again. I am in the process of picking my thesis advisor. I have a partner for a thesis and we want to write our thesis on how income level affects education obtainment. I am actually really interested in this topic, and I am kinda excited to go through this crazy process of writing a thesis. Anyways, I may be stuck with a thesis advisor who doesn't really care about my topic, which is really frustrating. I was driving home angry. I realized that my car needed a oil change. Instead of doing homework and thinking more about this problem, I thought it would be better to work on cleaning, vacuuming,...

It has been a tough last couple of weeks. I am making some big decisions for my future. Do I want to write a thesis or take a capstone class? Where am I going to intern at next year? Do I want to do this summer program to be a school social worker? Can I get a paid internship? What population do I want to work with? Where would I want to work possibly after I graduate? What are my ultimate career goals? Needless to say, I have been trying to find the answers to all these questions. It is a process that is not the must fun. I have tried to stay strong with all of these unknown's in the air. My friends in the program have been a big support since they completely understand the stress and pressure that comes from these decisions. We provide encouragement to each other which helps the process move much smoother. Like I have said, I have tried to remain strong throughout the process. I tell myself, "things will work out". "If I have faith, god will direct me to where ...

For my spring break, I took a spontaneous trip to Rexburg, Idaho. I haven't been there since who knows when, so I decided it would be a good time to visit again. I was reminded of how much things change yet stay the same this spring break. Being back in Rexburg, reminded me of my college days there yet things are so different. Most of the people I knew when I went to the university have graduated, got married and have kids now. I had a couple really good friends I visited, but it was interesting to see how much of my life has moved on. Being there, I felt like I was reliving my freshman year when driving past places in Rexburg. I was driving through memory lane. It's weird to think back and remember my freshman year. It wasn't my favorite of college years, yet it was so important. Being a freshman was freedom. I was living in the college dorms and had no parents to tell what to do. I could stay up late and eat cookie dough and no one could stop me. I could go to the dan...

I was texting one of my friends today about the graduate school program and she asked me about what I have learned. It made me think about the growth that has come since last September. My experiences in graduate school have been challenging and not what I expected at all. So anyone wanting to go to graduate school, here are some things that I have learned about graduate school that might be useful (especially social work). Have a self care plan. Make sure that you keep yourself healthy because you need to stay healthy to be successful. Exercise. Eat Healthy. Find some kind of plan that will keep you mentally, spiritually and emotionally healthy.  Learn how to separate between work, school and personal life. When you are doing an internship and classes at the same time, it can be hard to separate your social work life and your personal life. When you let your personal life be overtaken with social work, you will go crazy. You need to create some healthy boundaries between yo...

For my chemical dependency class, I had a homework assignment of attending a open alcohol anonymous meeting. I was a little scared for this assignment. I don't have any family members who have struggled with substance abuse, so my exposure to this field is very limited. The reason I took this class was because I knew this was an area of social work I needed to be exposed to. I found a AA meeting in my local community and planned to go a meeting. I didn't know what to expect from a AA meeting. You know how some people make fun of the phrase, "Hi, I'm (insert name) and I'm a alcoholic". That is pretty much all I knew about these meetings. I was afraid that people would look at my weird for being a visitor. Would I disrupt the meeting? Would I feel like a outsider? Will they look at my as stupid for not being a consumer of alcohol? These were the majority of my thoughts before I even walked into the building. As I was walking into the building, a group memb...