Jacquelyn's Space

Another semester beginning …. and recaps …. because it always helps me to look back in order to move forward.

School starts today, yay! Noooo, not yay but I am trying to be positive. I could really use a couple more weeks vacation to relax, work on getting my house and stuff organized, and to write. School is so demanding that I don’t have time to do much else. This semester I am going to try to keep my assignments under control so I can do all those other things – things other than school work.

I was so grouchy yesterday, maybe because I new school was starting today and I only got done half the things I wanted to get done. I will just have to live with it and really keep my New Year’s resolutions to not procrastinate and waste too much time.

Last Semester Recap

Last semester was challenging to say the least. I had 14 credits plus my internship (which is 3 credits and about 10 hours of interning a week) so I was actually carrying 17 credits, or 6 classes which included Wind Symphony. Why the f— did I do that to myself? I learned some lessons during that semester – well I did, but I didn’t because I believe I have about the same load this semester – 17 credits but only 5 classes and no Wind Symphony and no interning. UGH! Anyway, I did well on most of my classes last semester, all but 2 that I had to just let go (It hurts me not to get A’s, ha) and say ‘whatever’. As far as the new semester, I am going to try my hardest to keep everything under control but I am prepared to drop a class if I can’t handle it all – graduation be damned! I can still graduate but I would still have stuff to finish up during Spring semester. I am thinking about getting a Bachelor of Arts anyway and I intend to be on campus in 2011/2012 while I prepare to take my GRE and apply to graduate school.

The highlights of my semester:

I loved my internship. I interned with Dr. D who is PsyD and teaches at UM-Flint as well as does private counseling and grade school (WISC) testing. I was able to sit in on counseling sessions with him and I learned a lot. Dr. D mainly counsels children so I was able to participate in some sessions (I played with the kids) which was fun. The whole experience helped me to realize three things: 1) I really love counseling; it is a job I would enjoy and I wouldn’t even get all sad about people’s problems; 2)Even though I need a lot of training, it is something I can do and excel at; 3) I would love to work with children. Previously I wasn’t sure about working with children because I thought I wouldn’t have the energy for it. While there were some sessions that were draining, a lot of the times I actually gained energy from working with the children.

Dr. D was the highlight of my semester really. Not only did I intern with him I took his class, Intro. to Clinical Psych. I loved that class. Dr. D is a great lecturer and makes stuff fun. I also learned a lot about how to get into grad school and what degree to pursue. Assignments for the class weren’t too demanding – we had to do an intake interview on an Intro to Psych student or a Developmental Psych student. I had to pretend like I was a psychologist and interviewing a client on their first visit. I was a little apprehensive to do this but I loved it. I actually did two interviews and I learned much about what my strengths and weaknesses are. My two ‘clients’ were very interesting too. By saying that I do not mean that they needed psychological help, they were just very interesting people.

I loved playing in Wind Symphony last semester. It was a lot of work though. Every semester that I play I get a little better, but I still think I am not quite up to par yet. I had my first paying gig as a musician, LOL. We play for graduation every semester and this time we got paid to do it. I am going to miss it. I couldn’t fit it in for Winter semester and I will be graduating so I wouldn’t be able to play for that anyway.

I started working out at the gym at school…I made some new friends last semester, and we had a lot of fun… I am also starting to develop relationships with the psych faculty at school so I am excited about that. I am hoping these highlights from last semester will transfer to the new one.

Vacation Recap

I should say Christmas break because it really wasn’t a vacation. I had exams right up until December 22, and then I had to scramble to get ready for Christmas. Luckily I had done the bulk of my Christmas shopping early.

Christmas was good but hardly relaxing, going hither and yon. Plus over break I was trying to get my house in order so in addition to Christmas decor and wrapping paper all over the house, I either had books or clothes all over the place too (I picked up for Christmas eve, Christmas Day and New Years, of course, haha). I had wanted to get a lot of reading and writing done but I didn’t even get to it.

This Christmas I even got to go back to Greenfield Village’s Holiday Nights. I was excited about that, I hadn’t been in a couple (2 maybe even three years, yikes) of years. I hate to miss it because that event does a really good job of making a person think about what the holidays should be about. My husband got us a membership for Christmas. I love it there so much, and this winter I want to make time to go to the Henry Ford museum.

New Years Eve my husband and I had some family and friends over. It was fun but kind of low-key. Everybody, I mean all the adults, are just wore out. The kids on the other hand, were running around and having a blast playing wii, foosball, and The Sims. I went and partied with the kids for a while after midnight and they actually got me all energized. I thought to myself, “I need to hang out with these youngins more often” LOL. It kind of goes along with what I found out about working with kids in my internship.

Anyway, over break I did get some stuff accomplished, had some fun, wasted some time doing things I enjoy, and relaxed a little.

Last and Least

Oh, my husband had to go to court over a child custody matter. It is a long story I will try to break down. I am glad it is over though, especially before the new semester started because it was just an annoying and inconvenient waste of time over something totally stupid and blown out of proportion by my husband’s dumb ex. How do you like that for a summary?

Actually I am going to finish this story up in my StepMom blog:

Just A Stepmom

http://stepmomj.wordpress.com/

“You have to believe in yourself

when no one else does.

That’s what makes you a winner.”

– Venus Williams