Classes have started again. Part of me is happy about that because I get antsy when I don't have something to stimulate my brain and keep me from laziness. The other part of me is wondering if sleeping in every day will really be that detrimental to my future. So my new schedule looks like this:

Monday from 12:15 to 1:45pm I have a research class on adoption with Prof. Alstien, the same prof I had for my foundation research class last semester. It was neat to see that he remembered the names of all his previous students. I'm really excited about this class. Adoption is a topic I haven't really studied or even thought much about before. But Alstien had talked about his research on adoption a lot, and I became intrigued about people adopting children who differ racially from themselves and about how women who use surrogate mothers or fertility drugs tie into adoption. Because I don't have to leave my apartment till 11am to get to school on time, I have told myself that I am going to still get up early and exercise and take some time to pray and do homework. So far I have slept in anyways and only accomplished the homework bit.

Then I go right over to "Children and Social Services Policy" from 2-5pm. I'm not sure how confident I feel about taking this class. The teacher is Bevan, and she told us straight up that on the end of the semester evaluation, her last class reported that they would not recommend her class to anyone and made many other unhappy remarks about her class. She seems a little scattered, but she does have many years of experience working with policy and I do want to learn about this subject. The problem is, there is no time to decide or find a new class because I just had our first class yesterday, and TODAY is the last day to add any classes. And the only other classes I could contemplate require me to get approval from one of the Deans. Oy. We shall see how it goes. Oh, to note, I get home by 6pm.

Tuesday is the day I REALLY want to just keep sleeping, as my alarm goes off at 5:45am! I can get to my internship by 7:30am. I plan for my individual therapies, pray that the boys won't be terrible, do a little homework, assist the group therapies, meet with my adviser, and head for home at 3:30pm. This gives me two hours to eat and do some reading before my hubby and I go to our Cha-Cha class.

Wednesday I leave at 7:45am for my 9am class. From 9am to noon I have my Social Work Practice class. This class continues over from the first semester, so it's the same prof and same classmates. Now we've started our group project where we learn about a local community and attend a community meeting there and then write a paper and present our findings to the class. I have a good group, so I think this project will turn out really well. Prof. Wilson always gives a TON of reading, but I think it's the same for all of the SW Practice classes.

From noon to 2pm I eat my lunch, start on some of the readings, and inevitably doze off on one of the benches on the 2nd floor. Dang, this is a long journal entry!

Then at 2pm to 5pm, I have Human Behavior 2 with a new prof named Marcus. I believe this is kinda like a sociology and some more general psychology class. He seems like he'll keep my attention even when the after lunch drowsiness hits. It promises to be an interesting class. In fact, fellow bloggers Chad and Kim are in this class as well, so I'm sure we'll keep you well informed on how everything goes. Again, I get home by 6pm.

Thursday is like Tuesday, only I actually conduct my individual therapies.

Friday I don't have any classes or my internship, so I sub at a YMCA daycare for a few hours and try to clean up some of the mess I left around the apartment all week. Phew!

So now you know what I'll be doing for the next several weeks, along with lots of studying and hopefully a lot of sleeping and some socializing as well.

Hope that was a helpful look into the daily life of a Social Work student. If you want to know about something or have any questions, please feel free to add a comment to this blog. I'll try to answer them as best I can!

Thanks for reading!
-Sharon

Posted by Sharon at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"We want to be professionals: heal the sick, help the poor, teach the ignorant, and organize the scattered. But the temptation is that we use our expertise to keep a safe distance from that which really matters and forget that, in the long run, cure without care is more harmful than helpful." -Henri Nouwen

I really want to get my application for next year's internship done before classes start next week. I also really want to get this handed in as early as possible because there is one particular internship I really really want next year (your first year of internship the school picks for you, though they do look at your interests and match accordingly. I was surprised at how well I was matched--I said teenagers, I got teenagers. The second year you list your top 3 choices, and they try to get you one of those). The application consists of a resume, an essay on how my past experiences influenced me to get my MSW, and an essay on my career goals. I have most of these done, but I have gotten stuck on my first essay where I am trying to explain why I continue to want to work with teenagers and their parents based on my experience at my internship.

Why DO I want to keep working with these delinquent youth? They have little respect for women, many don't wash regularly, they sweat all the time (I really meant to write "swear" there, but they do sweat alot too--ha!), and many only care about themselves. I can plan ahead for the day, but I can never know what may happen that day because my students may be cheerful or they may be threatening someone with a stapler. Yet when people say, "Oh, I could never do what you're doing. I don't know how you do it," I think to myself, they're not so bad. A good amount of the time I really enjoy being with these students. They are funny, raw, and real. There is beauty and strength to be found in them. You just have to look really hard and then have lots of patience to find that strength again. And the more I get to know them, I see how a lot of what they do are reactions to fear and built up anger.

So, I guess the reason I persist in wanting to counsel youth, even they they frustrate me everyday, is that I care. Some days I don't want to care so I could go do something else, but I do care. I believe that every one of them has worth and a purpose given by God--how could I ignore that? If God loves them, so shall I. Sure I could keep doing social work without having to care about my clients. I could ask the right questions, use tried and true therapeutic games, and do well every day. But if I don't give a damn, then none of it matters.

"What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart."-Henri Nouwen

Peace to you,
Sharon

(Quote in the title is from 2 Corinthians 13)

Posted by Sharon at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)