Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated. Sorry 'bout that everyone!

The first month of school turned out to be a LOT crazier than I had anticipated. I just can't believe that February is almost over already! For my practice class, we had a quiz the 4th week of class, and then a presentation the 5th week, along with many many readings for that class and other classes. The presentation was a lot of fun but it sure took up a ton of time. For the presentation, we got into groups and analyzed a local community. My group did the Edmondson Village area, which is located on the west side of Baltimore. We attended a community meeting there and the people were just incredible. They are all so active in their
community, they care so much, and they were all so welcoming to us students. It was just really awesome to get to interact with them and get a real idea of what living in Edmondson Village is like. There's so much more there than what we passers-by see. We see the boarded-up houses, we hear about the drug scene. But the residents we met saw the closeness of the neighborhood, held fond memories of their children growing up in the school down the street, and proclaimed the abundance of activities and churches in the area. Really getting to know an area of Baltimore was an eye opening experience. Loved it.

My group also loves a certain librarian, Ms. Purnell, who was a Godsend. She met with us, gave us all these statistics on the area and the plans for restoration in the area, and even came to see our presentation in class! Here we are at the Enoch Pratt Library on Edmondson:

We love you, Ms. Purnell!

As much as I enjoyed my group and Edmondson, I am very relieved to have all the stress that went into the project over with. In addition to the stress from class, my internship was also crazy this month. The father of one of my individual therapy students tried to commit him to the hospital at least 4 times; each time he was rejected because he just wasn't crazy enough. (What does that say to a kid?!) And then my other individual therapy student was suspended for 45 days for bringing a weapon to school. Since he won't be around for a while, another student has agreed to do his individual therapy with me for the next two months so I can continue to meet my requirements for school.

It's also been disappointing to see other students in my group therapy sessions taking steps backward in their progress. I began to wonder if I and the therapist I work with could have done more in group therapy to help. My frustration eventually turned to apathy. I would go through the motions just to get through the day. I started looking forward to the end of the school year. But these past two weeks I've been having a big attitude change. I can't just give up; I need to do my best with the little influence and therapy skills I have. I do still enjoy spending time with these boys--despite all the nasty things these kids say to each other and the staff! It's still going to be a struggle and a lot of learning from mistakes, but I'm going to be really sad when this internship ends.

Well, time to work on my other group projects and two research papers. And more reading. Oh, and I got my FAFSA stuff done too (well, ok. My husband actually did it all for me. I was eating ice cream) which I believe is due tomorrow. Did you?

Have a great day!
-Sharon