Spring [Work] Break

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph."  Theodore Roosevelt


Leading a strenuous life is exactly what I've been doing lately.  It's nice to know that ol' Teddy would approve though.  I will be spending most of my break working on multiple assignments and non-academic tasks and projects.  But this is what graduate school is all about, right?


A couple small toots of my horn:


-I joined Weight Watchers in January and have lost 10lbs so far.  I am very proud of myself and also very thankful that this program is working to help me transform my eating habits.  I've been going to the gym an average of 5 days a week, and I finally bought some new running shoes.  I'm starting out on the treadmill for a while because I'm injury-prone, and hopefully, I will be able to venture out into some local trails soon.


[my pumped up kicks]





-I completed my first Diagnostic Evaluation and received my first couple of clinical practicum hours.  Even though it felt like being thrown in the deep end of the pool without floaties, it was a great experience and a great way to learn a LOT about our campus clinic in a short amount of time.  


It's insane how, between my studies and my grad assistantship, how much time I spend in my cerebral cortex-area of high level brain functions.  My roommate was thanking me for doing the dishes so often and I replied, "I honestly enjoy doing the dishes.  It's one of the few mundane, thoughtless tasks that I look forward to."  As the semester trudges on, I'm trying to keep things simple and enjoy the ride.  

Dx Factor (Get it?)

My first diagnostic evaluation is tomorrow eeeeeeeeek!  Thank goodness for all the love from the fellow speechies in my program.  My partner and I are the first pair scheduled, foraging the frontier for our fellow phonteticists!!

All silliness aside, this assignment is the first assignment in the program's clinic with a real life client.  Thinking about diagnosis gets serious when there's a real human being right in front of us.  I'm excited to meet the client and even more excited to hear feedback about how we did.  I've been prepping some of the test materials for the past couple of hours.

I somehow have found time to make it to the gym on all of my regular days and I even studied for an aphasia final a little bit here and there.  Oh, and I did an observation at a local aphasia program last week!  As far as my decision to become a SLP?  Let's just say it was one of the best ideas I ever had.

Okay, I need to get back to my date with the CASL (Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language).

Winter Break to-dos!

As the academic semester reaches its final stretch, I am looking forward to accomplishing some non-class related tasks over Winter Recess.  Here are some of the things I might think about accomplishing:

1.  Make a mix CD.  This is a dying art.  All the same, people love mix tapes.  I want to make a good one to distribute to everyone accordingly.

2.  Host dinner.  I want to plan out a dinner menu and invite some people over for dinner, so I can have the joy of cooking for a group of people.

3.  Knit and crochet.  I want to do as much knitting and crocheting as possible.  I also want to try my hand at needlepoint, to make things like this:

4.  Clean and organize my room, apartment, and storage space.  Not much explanation needed there.

5.  Plan trip to San Diego.  I want to visit Maureen in San Diego, so I need to plan when I can go and buy a ticket.  

6.  Spend time with friends and family.

7.  Do some pleasure reading.  I want to finish The Help and then read Cherry by Mary Karr.  

8.  Exercise.  I need to use my gym membership.  I haven't gone in over a month.  

Cover Letters and Resumes

While reading through some cover letters and resumes for my boss, I am making some interesting observations.  Here's some of my [slightly un-]professional opinions:

• Write a cover letter.  If you don't want the job enough to write the cover letter, then don't write a cover letter.  Your resume will be put in the "no" pile.  
• Don't overgeneralize in your cover letter, and don't use abbreviations.  Use full title positions and institution names.  And give specific examples.  Don't mention the weather in your cover letter either (true story).  
• Don't give a paragraph of description for every bullet of experience, and don't give me every single fast food job you worked 10 years ago.  
• Formatting is more important that you think.  Employers like to see attention to detail, and the resume is the first impression of this.  
• Sidebar:  I have a friend who went in for a job interview and the person interviewing him said that she combed his resume for grammatical errors and typos and was impressed that he didn't have any, which showed that he is highly attentive to detail. (Granted, the job is at an accounting firm, but it's relevant.)
• Don't write that you have good interpersonal skills.  Any schmo can write that on their resume.  
• DO include:
• social networking proficiency.  
• All computer programming and software skills.
• Languages, if you speak more than one.

Okay, now that I have a better perspective on what a good resume looks like, I'm going to go edit my own.    

I'm still trying to figure out what area of speech-language pathology interests me the most.  I am also engaged in the ongoing decision regarding the type of setting in which to work.  

Here are some findings, so far (subject to change, of course):

1.  I like working with kids.  I know this.  But I haven't worked with other SLI populations enough to know if this is the only group I could be happy working with.  

2.  Multicultural aspects of speech and language are of special interest to me.

That's all.  

In other news, my GA-ship is great.  I love the people I work with, and I love being able to dress business casual every day.  It's gearing me up for clinical practicum next fall.  Speaking of clinicals, I talked to my program adviser and decided that I won't be able to continue my GA-ship for a second year.  Hey, I'm thankful  to have this opportunity for even a year!   And I am excited about being able to live somewhere where I can have a pet.