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Spring Break has arrived, two major assignments down, the job search is in full swing, graduation is in sight, and I need to stay focused. It is easy to get lost in the glimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel and daydream about how good it will feel to bask in it. Unfortunately, by doing so I will lose sight of the road directly in front of me and there is a significant amount of road left to travel. So how do I stay on point when I am so close and so ready to be done? I try to take the semester one task at a time. By focusing on the next task due I don’t allow myself to become overwhelmed by what needs to be done or lose some of the drive that has sustained me by becoming fixed on the impending graduation. When I begin to feel complacent, because I am so close to being done I remind myself, I have another assignment to work on and I must complete that assignment and learn everything I can from it. I also try to leave my home and study on campus as much as possible. There are far too many distractions at home and time can be wasted far too easily. I am close to being done, and I am happy about that fact but I will be even happier when I am ACTUALLY done. I will leave you this week with a quote from Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor and philosopher; “Every man’s life lies in the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.”
Peace happiness and good luck to you all.
The semester is about to start up again. My LGSW exam is looming (although I have not set a date for it yet). Graduation is looming. The search for a job has begun. My Thesis continues to move on. It’s going to be a busy last semester and it will begin, in full force, next week. Soon I’ll see my wonderful bright classmates and begin again the exchange of free thoughts. This is the silver lining to my looming cloud of stress. The relationships I have formed at the School of Social Work are all immensely important to me. Some of these relationships have been on a personal level, while others have been on more of a collegial or professional level. However, every single one of them has allowed me to grow as an individual and as a clinician. Every person I have met so far, student, professor, supervisor, fellow intern, etc. has helped to shape me into who I am today. As I sit and reflect on myself two years ago I see a very different Chris today than I was then. The core remains intact but has been strengthened and has at times been challenged and tweaked. Some ideas and values have been revised while others have only been strengthened. This has occurred because of classes and work in the field, of course. But I believe that the greatest contribution to my growth and change has been the conversations I have had with other students and my professors. We don’t always agree but surrounded by so many intelligent people has helped me to think about things from different perspectives.
All this is great but, nothing can compare to the friends I have made. People I can laugh with and genuinely enjoy the company of. It makes class that much better when I look forward to seeing a friend upon arriving. Someone who can relate to the stress of school and in the future (and present) can relate to the sometimes stressful environment we work in; someone who can push you to succeed and whom you can push back. So to all my friends and professors who have and will make an impact on me: Thank you, and I look forward to our next conversation! I will end this time with a quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero, an Ancient Roman Lawyer, Scholar and Stateman; “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.”
Peace, happiness, and good luck.
The semester is over, the gifts have been bought and I have the next two weeks off of field. It is a nice period of time I get to catch up on some pleasure reading, but I am also in the process of preparing for the LGSW exam. As I have the time to sit and contemplate many things and relax I think about what one of my professors told me regarding class and therapy and an article I read in the Washington Post. We were discussing mental health and the changes that can stem from contemplating one’s own psychological struggles. He reminded me that time is a luxury of the upper and middle classes. This reminded me of the article I mentioned earlier of just how much it costs to be poor. But the article did an excellent job of discussing the costs in terms of money (buying groceries from expensive corner stores, paying check cashing fees, etc.) but also in terms of time (waiting for buses that are rarely on time or walking). These are tiring endeavors; you need to pay extra money for groceries and then get on the bus with these groceries and carry them home where you have time to give your son and daughter a meal that you picked up from the store and then run out to catch another bus to get to work with the risk of running late depending on whether or not the bus is on time. There is a lot of stress and anxiety both acute and long term in this life. With this in mind we must remember that mental health services must be provided effectively and efficiently over a short period of time.
Today I will leave you with a proverb about time and worrying, this proverb was not attributed to an author on thinkexist.com “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”
Happy Holidays, peace, love and happiness.
With the semester coming to an end and the deadlines looming large above me, I went into my field placement on Thursday with a little stress. It was a bit of a difficult day and all the clients I saw seemed to be very challenging and stretched me as a social worker. When I met with my field supervisor we discussed some of my more difficult clients and talked about my emotional reactions toward them as well as some of my “learning opportunities.” While it felt good to discuss the clients with my field supervisor and vent some of my frustrations and explore the sessions from an outside perspective, a little more removed from the intensity of the emotions. There was also a great deal of value in her advice to me based on some of my tendencies. I am pretty self-aware and fairly analytical but it is very hard to objectively look at yourself as a clinician. When you discuss the clinical self with another clinician you see some things that you didn’t notice before; but even more important is the perspective of a more experienced and skilled clinician. Part of your field placement is to gain experience working with clients or systems and this is invaluable and in no way could this be replicated in the class room. In order to truly grow as a social worker it is vital to have that second mind to help you analyze the social work self that you present and help you to hone this expression of self into a very effective, competent, and caring social worker, one who is insightful, reflective and analytical. The techniques will be taught in class and the skills will come with time and experience and things will become easier but the social work self is dynamic and changing over the course of your career.
I will leave you this time with a quote from Lao-Tzu an ancient Chinese philosopher who is credited by some as the author of Tao Te Ching “Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.”
Love, peace, happiness, and good luck to you all until next time.
The end of the semester rapidly approaches to end a semester that was much more challenging, engaging, and thought provoking than the first year (which says a lot). Thesis proposal defense: done, one paper: done, one presentation: done one midterm: done. Still left to complete, my IRB proposal, two more papers, one more final, tons of reading. This year has been an excellent year that has allowed me to grow as a clinician and a researcher. This growth has been stimulated through good professors, a great field instructor, a great field liaison, a great thesis committee and a lot of thought provoking conversations with other students each with their own unique perspective of life.
So with Thanksgiving upon us I am giving thanks to the people who have helped me grow this year and will hopefully continue to help me to grow. I am also giving thanks to my family for their support and love. But more than anything else I am giving thanks to having a home, a roof over my head and the knowledge that I know I will be able to eat tonight. I am giving thanks to the fact that the biggest stressor in my life is school and finding a job in the next few months, as opposed to how I’m going to survive. I have often thought this year about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and I am thankful to not be fighting for the basic needs. I am thankful to have a loving and supportive social network and a future with opportunities ahead of me.
Take some time this week and think about what you are thankful for especially those things that you may take for granted daily, take a moment and focus on the positive things in life instead of the negative. It is far too easy to focus on the negative things in life.
I will leave you with a quote from Abraham Maslow the American psychologist “The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.” Don’t sell yourself short and take note of the positive in your life.
Peace, happiness and good eating to you all.
As I begin anticipating the beauty of fall and the changing of the season I begin to think about all of the people who do not have a place to call home. The weather is getting colder and colder making sleeping outside all the more risky. Shelters can be difficult to get into unless you arrive early and wait in line, and society generally shuns you as deficient. My internship at the VA Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program has reinforced some things I knew about homelessness and some things I felt was correct about homelessness as well as bringing some new information to light. Although my mind is spread in many different places at the moment (two research projects, two classes, three days a week of internship, and personal relationships) taking a moment to sit and think about the plight of people who lack housing is important and unavoidable. Many of these people are proud people who may have taken a large number of wrong turns to get where they are, others are victims of circumstances or the economy, still others maintain a steady income but are having trouble finding and maintaining housing, some are completely sober whether they used in the past or not. Sadly there are others who may be psychotic or highly addicted, or violent. They are, however, all human. It bothers me that I feel that I need to say this but I do. Whatever their reasons for being homeless they are no different from anyone else on our most basic level. These are people struggling to meet the most basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy every day. Yet many people feel they cannot even be bothered to exchange a word with a homeless person, and I don’t mean starting up a conversation. I see people on the streets act as if another human being is not even present when a simple acknowledgment of existence, saying “I’m sorry I can’t help you” would accomplish the same thing. I think this is in part, an attempt to deny the reality of life for people who lack housing. An “if I don’t acknowledge it, it is not real type” of mentality. Next time someone asks for money on the street, politely tell them you can’t help them, or give them some change or food, but please don’t pretend they don’t exist, imagine what it would feel like if someone ignored you in your time of need.
I will leave you with this quote from Sheila McKechnie, a Scotish Trade Unionist, recently deceased, “People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes.”
Peace, happiness and good luck to you all, I hope you never have to experience homelessness.
Books…purchased, notebooks…purchased, syllabi…downloaded, folders, pens and other supplies…obtained, mind in gear…getting there! Classes began this week indicating the end of the summer and the beginning of the last year of my Master’s program, next week I begin my internship at the VA in Washington DC. In the mean time the readings have begun and I feel like my brain has been asked to go from 10 to 120 in about 2 seconds. The school year is not yet at its most hectic but I am beginning to look forward to the time of the year when everything will become very busy and I will be pulled in many directions and multi-task as if my life depended upon it. With the knowledge that this is on the horizon, I listened intently the other day to a segment on NPR in DC as they discussed a study that provided evidence showing that people who think they are good multi-taskers, are generally the worst multi-taskers. In addition it provided evidence that multi-tasking actually decreases our ability to focus on one thing in a sustained manner and that some of our cognitive skills are diminished from over multi-tasking. So I will do my best to reduce the amount of time I spend multi-tasking this year, maybe I’ll start right now by turning the stereo off!
I will leave you with this quote which thinkexist.com credits as anonymous – “Multi-tasking – screwing everything up simultaneously”
Good luck to everyone in the upcoming school year and I look forward to sharing my insights and thoughts, struggles, joy and successes with you this year.
Peace!
As spring break approached I had fantasies of being able to relax, sleep in, and generally have a more relaxing schedule as I enjoyed as an undergrad. No such luck! I still have my placement twice a week, two mid-terms on the Monday after break, a presentation the following week, and a paper due that same week. Oh yea, I’m putting the final touches on my research proposal. Although it is busy the amount of work and lack of downtime is good and provides a purpose. It is functional; it prepares us for life outside of the comfy confines of the University. In addition to all of the formal education we are receiving we must be reminded that we, as humans living in a social environment and being students of it, are SURROUNDED by learning opportunities. We are surrounded by them; from diagnosing someone on “Wifeswap,” to applying some of Freud, Parsons, Bandura, or Mead (to name a few) to everyday conversations, interactions, observations, or intrinsic behaviors. We are thus able to transform the mundane into the exciting. The best education comes from the synthesis of quality classroom education, learning in the field, and the daily environmental application of it. I will leave you with a quote from American writer Will Durant: “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
Peace, happiness, and joy to you all!
After a conversation with a co-worker at my field placement on Tuesday, I cannot help but think about the economy and my friends, yet again. It is the ever present topic on people’s minds and in the school system they are giving the students mock interviews to practice their skills and be, hopefully, more competitive when interviewing for a job. I don’t mention it to discuss its merits or short comings but to point out that everything, everyone, and every job is being affected by this recession. These kids are now faced with having to compete with more people for the same jobs, people with far more work experience or connections with someone at the desired job. In other words, more people are now competing for fewer jobs. No matter what your political stripes, this is obviously not good. People are going from rich to broke overnight, and more importantly, people who were struggling to get by before are now being forced to make decisions no one should have to make about basic needs such as food or shelter.
There is no easy answer, people will not be happy with the solution, but people providing social services are certainly going to be needed and valued. With all the negativity surrounding us I want to leave you with a quote from American author Mark Twain “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.? So let’s remember to laugh, and smile even when we don’t feel like it.
Peace, happiness, and prosperity to you all.
I recently got to thinking about the difficult times facing us in our current economic situation. I’m sure most of you know someone who has, by now, been affected in some-way by the economic recession. People are finding it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to pay mortgages, they are getting laid off, simply because there is not enough money to pay them, joblessness and homelessness are on the rise and being undercounted. As the situation continues to get worse people will be more and more in need of help; help that is not often easy to accept, requiring, in some people’s eyes, a swallowing of their pride.
This help must be ready and reach out a hand to the people who fall so they can stand on their own again. This goal is at the core of the profession of Social Work. This is why we are needed now more than ever. There may not be much money going around right now but the demand is high. So as a profession we must come together and remember to always think critically about the world and consider the best interests of the people we serve. We also must get creative in how we help our fellow human all the while considering our ethical guidelines. It is not a simple task and one that might wear us out as people but we must not get discouraged. Although his numbers are certainly specific to his time period I leave you with this quote, which I think still holds true, by Martin Luther King Jr. “It’s a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty?
Peace, happiness, prosperity and love to you all.
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