Going through some changes

Today I fell in love with Boston all over again. Not much can beat a walk through the commons on a crisp fall morning. The cool air blowing, people walking their dogs, young parents pushing their kids in strollers, ducks playing in the pond. I know it seems contradictory, but my early Sunday mornings like these are a retreat from everyday life, even if I am going more into suburbia. It's amazing how quiet and beautiful downtown Boston can be sometimes.

Some of the trees have started to turn, and soon we will be surrounded by an amalgamation of reds, yellows and oranges. Bostonians will pack away their tee-shirts and shorts and bring out the long-sleeved shirts and the fleece jackets.


I will be undergoing a sort of similar change. My life has turned over the past month. Now I am working on packing away part of my life, my "leaves" if you will. Overtime these leaves will decompose, and then in a few months hopefully something new will bloom.

I have to admit, going through this entire process of change is terribly exhausting. Especially when you add work, school, and the myriad of other things that one deals with in their daily life. I can't wait to get to the spring.

(pictures are from the fells)

Should I Stay or Should I Go

The Boston School of Occupational Therapy is unique in the fact that it is one of the few (I think) OT grad programs to offer study abroad opportunities. There are three international schools that I could potentially study at; Queen Margret University College in Scotland, Oxford Brooks University in London, or Karolinska in Sweden. Pretty cool, huh? If I went, it would be during my spring semester in 2009. So now that you have the background, here are my thoughts.

I never got a chance to study abroad as an undergrad, and really regret that. All of the people that I know who went abroad had a great time. Then again, this is not undergraduate, this is graduate level studies. Could I even hack it abroad?

Going abroad would also push me back by a good 6 months. Is it worth the extra money? Katie [a classmate] made the point that she would just rather save the money from going abroad, and just travel sans school for 5 months, which is perfectly reasonable point. Would I not be able to enjoy my stay in a different country if I had to focus on school? Will I have the time (or money) to travel for a few months? (Or a friend to travel with, I don't think I could, or would want, to do the solo traveling thing outside of the US.)

Oh decisions, decisions. Any semi-quick decisions; applications are due October 15th. I feel the same sort of stress that I feel when I think about my fieldwork II. How can I be expected to make decisions about my life 2 years in advance when I barely know what I'm doing next month? In two years I could potentially be in a serious relationship where I wouldn't want to leave, or I could even be married! (Okay, 99% chance of not being married, but Audrey, didn't your friend get engaged after only knowing the girl for three days??)

Its in times like these when my two halves do battle. The wanderer part of me says go and don't look back. The other part of me (whatever you want to call it) says to do what's "safe." I wonder who I'll listen to.

The Wisdom of Others, Part A

"Being brokenhearted is like having broken ribs. On the outside it looks like nothing's wrong, but every breath hurts."

A Week In Review

I am so glad this week is over. It's certainly been one hellish ride. I can't wait for this month to be over either, that would be nice too... except the first week of October brings my first exams as a grad student. I'm sad to admit that I'm not where I should be with my studies, and that I really need to haul ass until October 1st... and past it really.

We finally got our assignments for my Fieldwork I class. I'll be observing a larger classroom in Lexington once a week for about 2 months or so. I'm not really sure what to expect, but I do know that I'm nervous. I feel like the majority of first years have a good amount of more experience than I do, especially with peds (read: pediatrics = children). I just hope that I don't make a fool of myself or do anything that reflects poorly on the school. Odds are that everything will be absolutely fine and I might even love it and want to work in schools (I doubt it). I think my biggest fear is missing my alarm and waking up/arrive at fieldwork late, which would be doubly bad because I'll probably be carpooling with someone.

This Thursday at Metrorock I banged my knee up fairly decently. I decided to start of my session doing this bouldering route with a traverse across and arch (think no where for Tara's legs to go), and my hand slipped of a hold and I fell [safely] onto the crashpad, hitting my knee against the wall in the process. The bruise doesn't look that bad, but it was sore for the next 36 hours or so, which was a pain (haha, get it?). It didn't stop me from succesfully navigating my first rotary on my bike today. I was very proud of myself (and relieved that I didn't get killed).

In other thoughts (I don't have the attention span to stay on one topic for too long), trying to plan my fieldwork II placements have been difficult and interesting at the same time. Do I want to stay in state? In the north east? Or do I want to go someplace completely different? Maybe I'll go to Alaska and climb Denali in my spare time (if I have any). Or I can go to Colorado and do some ice climbing or maybe Hawaii and learn to SCUBA. I've been feeling the need to escape recently. For various reasons, I feel like Boston has been closing in on me a little. I need to figure out how to fill this new void in my life and fill it quick. Some people at BSOT commute from places that are a lot farther away than my measly 1.25 miles, so maybe I just need to move. Or maybe by the time morning rolls around I'll be okay again. There's too much time for me to swim through my thoughts at night, and I'm pretty sure that's what gets me in trouble.

The night is dark.

The night is quiet.


The night heralds the dawn.


Let me look expectantly to a new day,
New joys,
New possibilities.

Amen.

Oleeeeee, ole ole oleeeee, oleeee ole!

As I found out tonight, the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place right now in China. As I write this, the USA is beating Nigeria in the 61st minute. It has been a VERY long time since I've watched women's soccer, or soccer in general, and oh how I've missed it. Ooo, the Nigerian keeper just went down! Anyway, Kerry has had to endure me shouting at the TV for the past 30 minutes. Good soccer is so much fun to watch. So much action and excitement! (Even if it's not a high scoring game... *ahem.) The stadium looks so empty, and I wish I could be there to watch. I can pretty clearly remember going to 2003 Women's World Cup games at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. I think the level of play has risen a lot since then. There's something empowering watching women playing such a physically demanding sport. I also enjoy watching the women referees, whom I've noticed are wearing headset, I'm assuming to communicate with one another.

Watching soccer also makes me miss it. I'm not really sure what I miss the most about not playing soccer anymore. There's the game, the comradery among your teammates and (sometimes) the other players, the competitiveness... everything. It really is such a beautiful game with all of the fast-paced strategy and skill. I used to often wonder why my life would have been like if I kept playing club in 7th grade... or if I had worked hard the summer before freshman year to make it onto the varsity team at Tufts. I'd really like to get back into coaching and maybe reffing - AHHH!!! TAKE HER DOWN! DON'T LET HER SHOOT!!! - sorry, I digress, the game almost got tied up. Aaaaand, I just lost my train of thought.

Moral of the story, soccer/futbol rocks.

Random thoughts #478

• Having every song on the radio seemingly relate to you can be both comforting and saddening at the same time.
  
• The passing of time is extremely relative.
• You know that college is back in session when every single seat in every single coffee house is taken.
  
• Tequila shots do not taste good without salt first.
• Walking around town sans shoes is generally not a good idea... unless you have friends to steer you away from piles of glass.
• Classic rock has no better setting then a bar.
  
• Very few things can substitute for time with your gals.
  
• Cleats should always be worn when playing outdoor soccer.
• Playing outdoor soccer without sidelines is just sorta dumb, and sucks for the out of shape.
  
• And as The Beatles said, All you need is love. The good thing is that it's pretty much every where you look if you pay attention.
  

Life Planning 101

Today I met with one of the fieldwork coordinators to discuss the fieldwork placement and planning, but let me back up...

One of the steps towards becoming an OT is completing different levels of fieldwork. Fieldwork I takes place in conjunction with your academic coursework and is done on a very part-time basis. This semester it's about 3 hours every week starting sometime in October. Fieldwork II generally occurs after the completion of all academic coursework and consists of 2, 12-week, full-time placements in an OT facility/organization of some sort. And now I continue...

If all goes as planned, my academic coursework should take roughly 4 academic semesters (2 years), which means that I will be starting my level II fieldwork in the summer or fall of 2009. But apparently we need to start applying for our placements now. Scary, huh? I will probably do one placement somewhere locally, mainly because it's easier and I would also be closer to family and friends. For my second placement I would really like to go elsewhere, for example, back to Wyoming.

In the coursework office there are files upon files of organizations that we have (or have had) fieldwork contracts with. Guess how many there were for WY... none. None for Idaho either, which is the closest state to Jackson. Isn't that just peachy? I guess what that really means is that I have my work cut out for me, but the fieldwork adviser suggested that if I didn't have any solid leads by December I should just move on. I'm trying to get my networking groove on, but I really don't know... What happens, happens, right?

Listening to: Once Soundtrack (I'm in a cliche mood, but I guess there's no better music to listen to when you're in such a mood)

And now for something new... (sorta)

After a wonderful summer of trips to the Philippines and The Tetons (absolutely amazing, see facebook for pictures), concerts and other summer funness, things are swinging into full gear for another year of school. Even though I'm still at Tufts, with pretty much the same job, etc., Things do feel different. While still familiar, the campus seems somewhat alien to me, know that I am no longer in the part of the undergraduate majority. Living off-campus for the first time also contributes. I swear, the freshman get smaller and smaller every year. Overall, Tufts is still Tufts, for better or for worse.

The people at BSOT all seem very nice. I have about 30 people in my class, all girls. I guess that fits the stereotype of women being the more caring and nurturing gender. This semester I'm taking Anatomy, Physiology, Clinical Reasoning 1, Occupation and Adaptation: Children & Adolescents, and Health Conditions 1: Pathology & Prevention. Generally, my classes are good so far. Anatomy & Physiology are somewhat of a review for me since I took and A&P class at Northeastern a couple of summers ago, plus some bio classes at Tufts. Hopefully I'll be able to remember a little something from those classes. Most of my classes are in the late afternoon/evening, except for an 8:30am class on Fridays, which I can foresee having trouble waking up for.

Work is gearing up as well. We've started to take outside artists at Granoff, meaning more work and more high-demand people, but I'm still enjoying it. Raises always help too :)

So things are going decently. I'm getting back into a rhythm, but miss things like soccer and singing (I'm still trying to figure out a way to do both). I played in a soccer league over the summer, but the games no longer work with my class schedule. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to keep up with everything academically, I'm shooting for all As if possible, which is something I haven't done in quite sometime. But I also want/have to find a good balance between work and play. There are still a lot of things I have left to figure out, but why does it always seem that the things you want to think about the least you can't get out of your mind?


For your viewing pleasure, some summer highlights:

Modest Mouse @ Download Music Fest

Introducing Olive, the cutest black dwarf hamster ever :)



Nickel Creek & Fiona Apple @ BOA Pavillion

Cliff Walk @ Newport, RI

And of course, the Tetons

Now listening: Near you always - Jewel (you know you love the old school)