Wow, I haven't written in a long time... Sorry about that! I've been super busy making ends meet, trying to make progress in my internship, and now keeping up with schoolwork.

I learned some things about myself during the first semester that I think will prove beneficial this year. For one thing, my internship has taught me that I'm not super interested in working at a general hospital. It's been a good experience, but I'm definitely not getting the full "mental health" experience I'd want from a real job. Also, I might not be entirely suited for working with adults at this point. I've always gone back to jobs that involve children-- I was a camp counselor, teaching assistant, and even in my job at BCPS headquarters I ended up working face-to-face with children. I think I kind of "get" them. Or maybe I'm biased because they don't require too much in the way of conversation, and as I'm finding out at my internship, neither do I.

I've learned about active listening, and I think this has helped tremendously to give me a pretty good foundation for practice. But I just have these hang-ups... I've always been shy, and I've never really had "the gift of gab," so approaching adult clients in my internship setting has been really challenging-- I've had to break out of my bubble a bit. I'm sure everyone experiences a little bit of that anxiety, but it's something that is almost more a part of my personality than it is situational. Either way, I've got plenty of time to work on that, and I plan to do so because it will make me a better practitioner in the end. Even if I can't change certain biases or drawbacks I might have, I can become more aware of them and learn to adjust or work around them if needed...

Additionally, this semester's classes are going GREAT. I'm taking Human Behavior II, Paradigms in Clinical Social Work Practice, and Practice II (Macro segment). My teachers are brilliant, the textbooks are interesting, and my classmates are active participants, which leads to great discussions-- it's almost like I'm dreaming. Don't get me wrong, my teachers were great last semester as well, but I'm really enjoying the whole experience more now that I've adjusted.

Baltimore was hit with a few measly inches of snow this weekend, so I'm finally leaving the house to do errands. Happy new year, only a month late!