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).