Studying

One of the biggest difference between my undergraduate career and graduate school is that I really try to learn not just for the grade, but because I will need the skills and knowledge in my profession.

In high school, I had a little sheet of paper with a quote by Albert Einstein on it hanging in my locker.  When I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed this quote helped remind me why I was working so hard. The note said:

"Never regard study as a duty but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belong."

- Albert Einstein

In graduate school, this quote still inspires me. 

Welcome Fall Semester 2014!

The fall semester of my Masters of Social Work Program has officially begun. This is my clinical year where we begin to apply our theoretical foundation to practice with individuals, families, and groups.

The start of a new semester comes with the challenge of adjusting to a full schedule, early mornings and late nights, time management, and lots of reading.

One of my goals this semester is to really practice self care so that when I am a social worker in the field I will have that as an established pattern of behavior.  Another goal at I have for this semester is to utilize the skills and knowledge from my classes and apply it directly in my field internship.  I want to learn from my mistakes, because I know I will have them.   I plan to use this year to establish myself as a burgeoning social worker so that when I walk across the stage at graduation I will feel that I have defined skills in my social worker tool belt. 

I am ready and dedicated to this year of hard work.  So as I take the first textbook off the top of my textbook tower, I wish myself and my fellow graduate students good luck!