The semester is now halfway over. This is reason for celebration; the first semester of my first year of graduate school is near completion. However, with this celebration comes the stress of mid-terms, which of course are all scheduled within a span of 7 days! This means lots of studying and little socializing for me in the near future but the topics are of interest. This makes the sacrifice worthwhile and at least somewhat enjoyable. I’m enjoying learning about human behavior theories, social policies, specific individual counseling techniques, and yes, even research helps make the sacrifice endurable and worthwhile. Learning about a subject in a concentrated way is a very exciting process and makes it that much easier to apply what I am learning across classes, and in this case to my field placement.

Last night I allowed myself a brief reprieve from studying and writing papers to watch the presidential debates. I thought my candidate of choice did a very good job and I find myself thinking about the policies we are learning about in class and how each candidate’s positions will affect social policies. As you can see, even when not studying, the course content is always in on my mind; but this only helps to extend the course content into the real world and outside of the classroom.

So as I get back to preparing for midterms and attempting to keep myself sane by thinking about politics, music, and the great outdoors I am reminded of a quote made by an anonymous person “Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize that you haven’t fallen asleep yet.” I think that pretty accurately sums up the mindset of midterms. Until next time, I wish you peace and happiness.