Good morning! Today is Sunday, and although I didn’t sleep well, my grandpa made me a strong cup of coffee, so all is right in the world. I splashed my face with cold water, combed my hair (combed, not brushed– I learned not to brush curly hair) and am getting ready for a hike/run.
During the hike, I tested my endurance by running 2 miles and walking the rest. While I ran, someone’s toddler tried to throw a rock at me. This was right after I waved at his parents. He didn’t hit me, because toddlers are about as coordinated as a teenage male trying out Zumba for the first time. All I said was “oh!”, and the parents were clearly embarrassed, but my first thought as a psychology student was “autism?”. The child’s expression held no malice. I don’t think he realized that throwing a rock could hurt.
I ran to a point in the trail where there wasn’t a single person to be seen or heard. It was just me and the stillness of nature. I perched at the edge of the trail and looked down, alone with my thoughts. I did a few of my morning prayers (it was 11:55 am– I managed to do them right before the morning ended). I felt so at peace. I stayed for as long as I could before getting cold and turning back in search of my family.
We got home from this long hike at 2 pm and had a late lunch until 3. Then, it was time for work. My sister and I did a little “study date” at my grandparents’ house, which is to say that I worked, she read, and no one technically studied.
I finished three work reports. One of the autism summaries took me a while because a) the child was abused, and b) the child also had autism. Then, I finished the final project for my group therapy class. I’m proud of myself for taking this group therapy class. Initially, I took it because I thought I’d like a certification in addition to my doctorate, but I ended up staying in the class out of the sheer fun of it. This final project felt like a bittersweet goodbye.
After that, I started the paperwork for my job at Continuity Care (it’s due every week). At this point, it was 8 pm, and the rest of my family went home. But I decided to stay at my grandparents’ house because I love it here that much. Their area reminds me of Texas (I’ve never been to Texas, but it looks the way that I imagine Texas would– lots of open fields and undeveloped land).
At 8 pm, I got hungry and made these apple pancakes:
The last task of the evening was to work on cover letters for my practicum applications. For anyone who might not know, practicum is part of every clinical psychology program. We do testing and therapy on real clients, acting like real psychologists, except with supervision. I’m not going to say which sites I got approved to apply to, but there are 3, and they all seem slightly different. The problem is that I have conflicting information about one of them (students say that they exclusively do assessments, while the website itself advertises only therapy). I emailed our practicum coordinator to get that sorted out and started my cover letter anyway.
It was a long day. It’s currently 10:47 pm. I’m going to take an early night so that I can be up early tomorrow :).
