8 posts tagged “school”

Today was my last day at USC.

At the end of the tunnel is very visible.

I start school on Tuesday. Guess what? It's my LAST semester! Graduation is in May...

My schedule is pretty rad this semester. Here are my classes:

Policy--analyzing health policy in the US and abroad.
Leadership--eh class, not really looking all that forward to it, but apparently I have a professor who makes it easy.
Spanish--learning basic Spanish terms for social work practice. I'll be a LOT more marketable after this is over.
Psychopathology--basically it's learning the DSM and how to correctly diagnose people.

Plus my internship. I started my county clinic rotation the other day and while it's overwhelming and a little unnerving, its going to be awesome. At SPECTRUM my field instructor (who has really been more amazing than I thought possible out of a supervisor) has told me that we can focus our work together on professional development and integration of theory and practice. Which may sound like a lot of psychobabble or whatever, but it's quite important. I need to be able to go into an interview (holy shit... I have to start interviewing soon!) and say that I perform intakes, psychosocial assessments, diagnose, formulate treatment plans, come from an Erikson theoretical approach and so on and on and on.

I got my student loan refund check on Friday (the last time I have to do that too...) and paid off some bills, which felt really nice. Not having certain debt hanging over my head has been a little relieving, to say the least. Having more than $10 in my checking account has also been a nice feeling.

Green Bay won their game yesterday. I really effing hope the Giants can squeak by in Dallas today, because if that's the case, I think that Green Bay will play in the Superbowl, which would make me one happy cheesehead.

That's it for now. I have to go do laundry at the laundrymat and go see my best friend and my goddaughter.

Today is the last day of summer vacation. I spent it well. Went to work (since I'm back at PBIS, doing accounting, not selling porn), saw my sister. Went shopping at Old Navy and got some cute stuff for a good deal (I had left over gift cards from my birthday, so only ended up spending about $35).

Then, I hung out with Nicole. We walked down to 2nd Street in Long Beach. She's looking to get a bike so we walked down to the bike shop. Then we went to Panama Joe's, had a few drinks and talked about her new boyfriend (which has to be said in a sing-song voice with your hand over your heart). Then, we went to the $16 dollar store and everything I tried on made me look pregnant. It was back to her house and I have been home for the rest of the night with a hubby who isn't feeling well.

So I'm looking forward to this last year of school. It really is my LAST year of college. I'll be 28 in March and it will have taken me 10 years to complete school--since graduating high school that is. I'm looking forward to spending this semester at the LA campus of USC and even taking mass transit to get there (not looking forward to having to be on the train at 6am, but whatever). I'm looking forward to taking classes of my choosing and starting an internship that holds countless possibilites for me.

I'm not necessarily looking forward to the cramming, papers and research...but then I remember, I only have two semesters left to bitch about papers, complain about professors, and relish each moment I spend in class. Its going to be an awesome year. This is it.

This. Is. IT.

It all started out last night after our research class was over. I went out for dinner with D and N since last night was our last class. We initially went out for sushi but the all-you can eat place in Laguna closed by the time we got there. We decided to head to the Yardhouse at Irvine Spectrum. We got a table and some drinks and started kevetching about the semester, boys, and life in general. After D and I had a second round, this guy turns to us from the bar and asks if he could buy us a round. We politely declined and then he proceeded to tell us that he was home from Iraq and how he had been in the desert for the last seven months and just wanted to talk.

We invited him over to our table, and being the social workers that we are we began asking him questions about his time in the military. Come to find out, he had just left his THIRD middle east tour (one in Afghanistan, two in Iraq) and was planning on volunteering to go back with his squad in December. He confided in us that he had been diagnosed with PTSD and received a Purple Heart for being wounded in battle.

It was a very random experience and on our way to the car and back to school so I could get dropped off, the three of us lamented that this kid was espousing all of this brainwashed bullshit ("I'm fighting for everybody in this bar, because I want to make sure we fight them over there and not over here") and was so excited to go back to fight in this war which has been perpetuated and built upon by lie after lie. It took a lot of restraint for us to keep our political views out of the conversation, but like I said to my friends, I didn't want to minimize the sacrifice he and his friends had made (his platoon lost 100 men, and had over 200 wounded out of a group of 1000).

Today was my last day of class at USC (for this year, anyways). I'm sad because next year I'll be at the LA campus and won't get to see many of the really good friends I've made this year down in Orange County. I am hopeful that we'll all stay in touch, but I'm realistic that it may not happen.

And right now I'm sitting in the oncologist's office while Aaron gets his first round of chemotherapy. His next round is in three weeks, but in the meantime he's going to be taking chemo orally twice a day between now and then. I'm very scared about what lies in front of us, but I am glad that I'm on summer break so I'll be able to be fully there for him in a way that I haven't been able to because of school this year.

And with that I need to get crackin' on some finals. Keep us in your thoughts/prayers/good wishes, if you don't mind.

I picked my concentration for my master's program today. Until today I was confused about what I wanted--COPA or Health? Health or COPA? COPA is Community Organization, Policy and Administration which is macro social work that focuses on the "big picture" of societal issues. Health focuses on working in the health care arena like hospitals, hospices, and so on.

A goal of mine is to get involved in international social work and work for the United Nations or an NGO. I thought COPA would be the way in, but today in seminar class we talked about the various concentration tracts and I learned that all of the concentrations get some degree of COPA in them (grant writing, program evaluation, and research). We also get to take four electives on top of our four concentration courses, so I will be able to take some COPA classes along with my health classes. I really want to make sure I get a chance to take the fundraising class along with the being a social entrepranuer class--both of these classes will really help in my future career path.

I feel good knowing that I've finally selected a concentration. And now I'm off to happy hour and go see the Princess Bride on the big screen for Flashback Thursday. :)

Night kids!

I had to take back the Coach bag August and Bert got me for Christmas so I could get something I'd use more. I had to go to South Coast Plaza, as it's the only mall on the way home that has a Coach store and a Sephora (so I could use my Sephora gift cards). I walked into the Coach store and at first, I didn't get any service, which I found odd. So I spoke with an employee and he told me I could exchange the bag with whatever in the store. As I was looking around, I had four of the six on the floor employees ask me if they could assist me. I felt so pretentious because I felt like people would see me as one of "those" people who are in a Coach store on a Thursday afternoon around lunch. It's not me at all. You wouldn't have known me if you saw me (although I was my same joking and charming self and made a joke about Coach to which the salesgirl laughed with me--and she meant it. I could tell).

I exchanged the bag with a smaller, cuter one as well as a peace sign cell phone charm (which I would have never paid for out of pocket). I found a cute pair of sunglasses but I refuse to pay over $100 to get shades. Now if other people wanted to *buy* them for me...I'd gladly hand over the rest of my credit ($78) and smile. :)

School still sucks. They are changing my schedule. Again. It will be the third time. This week.

Dog is still cute. Housetraining him is going better, now I just have to train him to sleep on the other two couch coushins, as opposed my lap all the time. :)

Today was the first day back to school. It started nice and early--5:45am. I left my house at 7:05 and arrived 5 minutes late for my first class (joy). Then, I found out my 3pm class was cancelled and had to rearrange my schedule. So now I'm at school on Tuesdays from 8 until 4, Wednesdays from 6 until 9 and Thursdays 11 until 3. My schedule also got immensely harder, since I'm having to take two professors who are very tough graders. But, at least I know I'll learn something this semester, whereas I feel like the fall was just reideration of shit that I learned at Fullerton in my human services classes.

Aaron and I got into kind of a spat today. Nothing huge, just something lame. We had dinner at a local thai place, which was adequate. We had this really freakin' awesome appetizer with ground chicken in these cute little fried flower things (its the best I can do...I'm exhausted). Soup was good and the chicken which was supposed to be spicy was rather bland and disappointing.

Tonight I've been sitting here with the dog in my lap, catching up on my blogs and now I need to read a few articles before getting some sleep.

(thanks Pants Party for the email. I will definately take your advice, especially about the drinking, because that's when he pees in the kitchen. And it's time to move his food and water bowls...thanks again!)

This time tomorrow I will have finished my first semester at USC.

The paper I finished and turned in today reminded me of why I do *not* want to go into clinical practice (read: therapy). I'm just not that into micro change. I'm more of a macro (read: big picture) thinker and changer. I think that's why I enjoyed my policy paper so much. People are great and everything, but working with them on their b.s. everyday? Thanks, but I'll pass.

Oh yeah, and I totally think I'm developing carpal tunnel in my right wrist.

Time to study for my last final. Exams...only three more semesters to go. (sigh)