my next life skill

I've finally had a chance to sit and reflect on some of the happenings in my life this past month. Albeit, these moments of reflection only happened because I had a 30 minute T-ride, but at this point of the semester, I take any chance I get to think about something other than school, comps or PRAXIS! With how busy and stressed I've been this past month, I've noticed a terrible want of insight into my personal life recently, which resulted in 2 weeks of headaches and sinus pain before I realized I had a serious sinus infection requiring antibiotics, three weeks since I saw my sister-in-law, three weeks and counting since I've seen my brothers, and fortunately only two weeks since I've seen Erin and Zach. In just a few minutes, I'm headed over to their home for Zach's phenomenal curry, chapatis, excellent conversation, an adorable baby who has won my heart, and hopefully a game of Ticket to Ride.

So, before I go, some reflections from this past month:

This week I was asked if I thought there were any cultural differences between Seattle and Boston. Sometimes I am unnerved by the differences I see. People can be incredibly rude in Boston, because they have little to no discretion or inhibition, nor do they seem to care or feel the need to camouflage their feelings. People in Seattle are typically very nice...sometimes to the point of passive aggression, but I rarely see displays of anger in Seattle, and as a transplanted Washingtonian, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable when I am anywhere near such a scene. Given my former critique of Bostonians, I need to add that I am often surprised by the novelty and grandeur of their acts of kindness...I've grown to love beantown, and Bostonians.

Even with these "cultural" differences, I am always amazed that people have such universal personalities. Oh, yes, people are unique. But people are also very similar in many ways. I think we like to think we are more different than we actually are. (I'm open to criticisms of that thought, so please critique as you feel the need.)

I've decided that the next life skill I need to acquire is how to take photos without the person(s) noticing. I have seen so many strange, often amusing things this past week...some were rather disturbing now that I think of it. Some I can't even begin to write about, because of the inability to describe what I've seen, and the indelicacy it would require. To do so would be to expose my own prejudices that I typically try to keep reserved. I know I'm being vague, but it's very intentional. As I already said, to share some of my observations from this past week would place me an uncomfortable position....However, let me just say...Judgments aside, I wish there were some way to upload images and sound bites from my brain to you...then you could see for yourself how ridiculous these scenes have been!

So, with those thoughts finally out of my mind, let me catch you up on my daily life. I have class one day a week where I attend class from 9am to 8pm (and I've already completed 2 classes this semester! Only four left to finish), 3 days of clinical placement at an early intervention clinic (which I LOVE!), and one day where I work on a "diagnostic" team...aka, we prepare for many hours on a weekly basis for 2 hours of actual testing with a client every three weeks. Weeknights and weekends I spend simply trying to finish all my homework and I study for my comprehensive exams (aka "comps") and PRAXIS (aka "boards") during the leftover time, which isn't much. Overall, it's exhausting. I am exhausted. I've somehow fit in the time to apply for jobs and have "interviews" over the phone, which has been encouraging, and a good prompt for studying for my comps! I also applied to graduate (!!!), bought my Masters' gown and hood, and registered for all of my exams (I think it takes a Masters to just negotiate all those pages required to register!). Hundreds of dollars and countless web pages later, it looks like an end is in sight! I will actually graduate with a Masters of Science in a field I love, and hope to make a difference in. Some day soon I'll try to blog about why I love Speech-Language Pathology, and will attempt a definition of and then an argument for why I think that Early Intervention programs deserve more federal funding. But that'll come at a much later date...I'm not sure I have the brain power for that now, and any brain power I do have should probably be dedicated to the ten page paper I need to write tomorrow...