Semester's End

Monday was the last day of the semester, and I am tremendously excited, and relieved, to be done. I am still loving school, it is stretching and challenging me in many ways, but wow was I ready to be done with these classes. For one thing, class from 7:30 - 5 every Monday was a bit exhausting, not to mention that the end of that long day was spent with an hour of having to focus and listen to a classmates concerns, and an hour talking about my own. I discovered that being a client is much more challenging to me than being a counselor. I haven't written much about school in my blog lately, which is mostly due to the fact that blogging is another form of processing things for me, and I felt like I had reached the end of my rope on self-analyzing this semester. Why do I want to be a counselor? What is my motivation for helping people? Why is it hard for me to be a client? How did my childhood shape who I am as an adult? How did I process my identity as an adolescent? How did I develop spiritually throughout my life? What are my goals? How will I achieve them? Who am I, really? Aaaaaaahh!! I'm starting to wish that some small part of me could remain a mystery. :) But it's been really good at the same time, and it's exactly what people are expected to do in counseling, so if I'm going to talk the talk, I should walk the walk, right? So, anyway, I'm really enjoying a break from school until May 4th, when I return, and begin fresh classes and new forms of self-discovery. :) Luckily, I am only taking 2 summer classes, and one of them is a bible class. God is infinitely more interesting than I am. Sometime soon, perhaps I will share with you all some of the things I processed through this passed semester, but for now, I am too exhausted with it all. But I want to emphasize, after all that, that I still love school in a major way. If it wasn't challenging, I would be bored, and would likely gain very little.

California...

Here I come! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for the Golden State, and I could not be more excited. I am dying to meet Elodie, so thank goodness that is happening. Last night I had to console a hysterical boy at the group home who couldn't be at his niece's birth and I was thinking - you have no idea how much I can relate. After a lot of "you feel ___ because ___" and other words of understanding, I decided to tell him about my situation. Sometimes a little self-disclosure goes a long way. It ended up being a really good conversation, because he was sort of stuck in the "no one could possibly understand what this is like" mode. Anyway, I can't wait to get down there and meet that baby. I'm also looking forward to warmth and sunshine, so this rain you guys have been having better stop. And I'm very excited about Kayla's wedding, and all the other festivities surrounding it. I can't wait to see everyone! (Except I'm super bummed I won't get to see the Randalls). So I just wanted to write to say that I may not write for a while, but when I do, I will undoubtedly have a lot to share, and I will be sure to take lots of pictures!