Decisions

Seven days.
Then it's Thanksgiving break.
Welcome back to: final draft of my senior thesis, article for publication submission/independent inquiry, community intervention group project and presentation, and two exams.
Is the end in sight?

I must admit, my emotions lately have been much of a roller coaster. With thoughts of graduating and heading out into the "real world" being clouded by the options to stay here for one more year and finish my MSN with a year of full time grad school, I feel a little lost. Today, while sitting through my 7th straight hour of class (none of where the lecturers had posted notes and/or an outline to follow, I found myself day dreaming. And just where did my dreams take me? Back to preschool where I was all dressed up as Flopsy from the Peter Rabbit school play that we put on, to sitting in kindergarten art class where I was crying because Dan told me that I drew a pig nose on my self portrait, to first grade where I proudly handed out pink bubble gum jelly beans when my baby sister was born, to second grade when I got scolded for stealing a piece of gum from the candy jar, to third grade when I was devastated that my teacher didn't really believe in homework (hey, I was a little bit nerdy), to fourth grade when I got my tonsils removed, to fifth grade where I infatuated with wearing the latest apparel from Limited Too (matching scrunchie and all!!), to 6th grade where I had the tightest group of 5 friends and I walked the halls of middle school with confidence, to 7th grade where I remember the butterflies in my stomach as we played spin the bottle or went to school dances, to 8th grade where (well I actually detested 8th grade so I have no fond memories, yes- I know, it's sad), to 9th grade when our swim team won the hocking league and the TG's were created, to 10th grade where my return to school with a change in appearance prompted lots of positive attention, to 11th grade where I finally got the boy who made me feel like a princess, and to 12th grade where so much was gained in wisdom and experience, yet lost in a whirl wind of fast paced deadlines.
It's funny how selective memory works. More often than not, we remember the good and try to forget the bad, yet its the bad experiences that help build our resilience and make us who we are today. I don't know if I am going anywhere with the train of thought, but my 4th lecturer of the day today was one of the most phenomenal speakers that I have ever heard. He spoke of how to talk and interact with adolescents and emphasized four principles of building a therapeutic relationship:
1) set the stage: emphasize privacy, express honesty, explain your metholodogy/school of thinking, and remain non-judgmental
2) Shift the model of care to take the shame out of the behaviors
3) recognize that adult models of learning and teaching (i.e. lecturing) don't work on adolescents and that they actually backfire
4) realize that stress drives negative behavior and go equipped with tools to teach positive coping strategies.

WOW- powerful stuff. It just keeps me thinking, if only some of the people who I have met along the way had known these strategies...