New Year. New Me.

This week alone has shown me why my friends in the past completing their graduate programs disappeared when the school year started. Thursday was the first day of KU classes, and Thursday also happens to be my only day on campus (three classes that consist of me sitting at a desk from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Already, the stack of reading is as tall as I am, which should be okay, since I don't have class until Thursday. Incidentally, I am also enrolled in a fourth class, which consists of acting as intern at an agency in Topeka for 24 hours a week. So while I don't have class until Thursday, I'm playing psychotherapist for eight hours a day, Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. No biggie, eh? I'll just take my homework with me and work on it during the down time.

Here's my schedule for my internship:


Office 208
MONDAY
(8-5)
8-9—INDIV APPT
9-10— INTAKE APPT
10-11—GRP SUP PREP
11-1—INTERN GRP SUP W/DONNA
1-2—LUNCH
2-3—INDIV APPT
3-4—INDIV APPT
4-5—ADMIN

TUESDAY
(10-8)
10-11—INDIV APPT
11-12—RELATIONSHIP GRP (330)
12-1—LUNCH
1-2—INDIV APPT
2-3—INDIV APPT
3-4—ADMIN
4-5—INDIV SUP W/DONNA
5-6—INDIV APPT
6-7—INDIV APPT
7-8—ADMIN

WEDNESDAY
(8-4)
8-9—INDIV APPT
9-10—ADMIN
10-11—PROCOVERY GRP (2401)
11-12—LUNCH
12-1:30—DBT GRP (330)
1:30-2—TEAM SUP MTG
2-3—INDIV APPT
3-4—ADMIN

So you may notice two things. One, not a lot of down time. Two? My own freaking office! I'm not sure why that always excites me, since I always had my own office in my BSW level positions (both during my internship and at the women's shelter), but for some reason, it makes me feel like I'm kind of important. It's also a little terrifying, because it would be nice to have another individual there to jump in when they realize I'm completely warping the client on an emotional and cognitive level (good practice for parenthood).

So... getting reading done? Should be interesting. Fortunately I have a system set up where I'm forced to do a bulk of the reading Thursday evening/Friday morning. Finances are tight right now (which should surprise you, what with the both of us in school, and grad school being almost unbelievably expensive), so when I looked at the list of text books I needed, I almost cried. Now, I'm not one to purchase textbooks, but I really want to do well in my grad program. I want to get a 4.0 so when it comes time to apply for a doctorate program, I'll have no problems getting a nice, cushy monetary package offered. I also want to participate a ton in my classes, so my professors will all be willing to offer nice, cushy recommendation letters on my behalf when job hunting season starts. I also kind of want to be competent when people put their emotional well being in my hands. I managed then to make arrangements with fellow students/professor (one of my professors, I can already tell, is fantastic/super hero material) to borrow the text book Thursday evening and return it Friday. My arrangement with the student is that in exchange for allowing me to borrow the books, I'll give her a digital copy of my outline. That makes it so I can't just bring the book home Thursday, decide to be lazy and not read, and then just return it Friday. No siree. I have to read it, outline it, and send it on its way. Accountability and scheduling works well for me. It makes me get things done. I'm very task-oriented, so this should help me be successful in this semester.

I have to make sure other parts of my life don't suffer as a result. My goal is to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to take my dogs running before I have to be out of the house by 7 (to get to my internship by 8 in Topeka, or to get to Twente to print off the articles that need to be read for my classes for the following week). My body's going to have to get retrained into that schedule, which means no naps (I was utterly exhausted yesterday after getting up at 6, and ended up crashing for an hour and a half in the evening. It felt absolutely glorious at the time, but then I didn't fall asleep until long after midnight). I can do this!

So, Blog, you may be neglected over the next several weeks. I only take time to write now because I know it's going to be a while before I can update. Being a grad student gives you super powers... it gives you the ability to disappear. *POOF*