Friday, September 19, 2008

A Full-Time Job...

I miss working. Two years ago, right after graduating college, I never thought I'd say that. School was what I knew, and the concept of working 40 hours/week for more than the three months of summer was a completely foreign concept. Now I find myself looking forward to my internship. It's my favorite part of the week! One great difference between a job and an internship is that instead of them expecting you to know things, they go into the whole thing planning to teach you. I hope that when I finally get a part-time job I'll enjoy that too... Classes are tough to deal with. Some of the info is interesting but a lot of the presentation is not. Same with the readings - some are interesting, many are not. I'm starting to think that I should take people's advice about grad school and just focus on the things I find interesting. It's so hard to sit and listen for so many hours! Seriously, I'm not cut out for this student stuff any more. I want to do things. Interact with people. Be outside of the classroom. Making money would be a plus too... :-) Is it bad when it's September of my first year and I'm looking ahead to the end of the program?

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Boston. Seattle. Life.

If I approach my time in Boston with the mindset that I want to go back to Seattle after I graduate, will that prevent me from giving Boston a chance? I don't hate Boston. In fact, some aspects I really enjoy. I love subways. I really do. As far as public transportation goes, subways are by far my favorite mode of transportation. I love New England. On some level I think it will always be home for me. Not the cities quite as much as the towns though. The small towns and lakes and beaches and mountains. But I miss Seattle. I'm homesick for it a bit I think.

I'm settling in here though. It's week two of classes and I'm hanging in there. The reading is a bit overwhelming though and I haven't even begun my field work or a job that I will hopefully get very soon. My room is getting more set up. Hopefully I can finish with it by this weekend. The rest of the house is slowly, but surely, getting more furnished as well. Our landlord is kind of amazing. We currently have $1500 rugs in our place that he is letting us use, because, as he said, it seems a waste to just keep them in storage. Yeah. What kind of landlord does that? Anyway, back to reading about human behavior and communities...

Choices and Debt

It's hard for me not to question my decisions. Some might call it overthinking, but it's just always been a part of how I work. I've been trying really hard lately not to question my decision to enter a grad school program that will put me in extreme debt as I get a degree that does not generally allow for a high level of income. It will, however, make me qualified for a variety of different types of work in human service fields. I just keep telling myself it's worth it. I discovered last night in a moment of financial panic that there are many, many options for dealing with large amounts of school debt. I think my social work degree will prepare me for a many different jobs and different situations in life, and if somewhere down the road I choose to change careers, that's okay too. Maybe for the next career I'll try to minimize the debt though :)