On The Downwind
Because I can and it's my journal, I'm starting with a cliche. Isn't it amazing how the more things change, the more they stay the same?
In so many respects, this semester has far outpaced anything I've experienced prior while in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. The biggest reasons are the introduction of much more portable computing, the new aids, and a much-welcome relief from financial burden.
Have I done as well as I would have liked academically? Well it's starting to appear that I have not. I can't recall if I mentioned it in my previous entry, but the instructor of my mock counseling class has pretty much decided that she's going to give me an incomplete and have me work with her on fine-tuning my counseling skills over the summer. I gather that with what she has seen thus far, she couldn't pass me with good confidence. "You're making progress," she told me, "but I just want to see it be a little more consistent".
I certainly can't argue with her on this point. I sometimes find it difficult to know exactly what to say to the client, and thus I end up making a remark that takes me "onto another street" as she is fond of saying. I suppose I'm fortunate she's giving me a chance at all. As we know, the results of my first semester here mean that I can't afford even a low-passing grade or my graduate school career will end prematurely. I think she sees enough potential in me, but the more information I'm fed, I sometimes feel the more flustered I'm becoming in working with clients. The odd thing though is I feel like I'm so close to figuring this out and actually making it work. How many more shots do I get, though. I'm well aware of that ticking clock. And let's not even mention how I'm supposed to convince my counselors at the Division of Services for the Blind to continue believing in me. I guess all I can do is my best.
Other things are going ok, I guess. The weather is finally turning all the way into Spring. As I write this, I'm sitting under the sun and warmth of an 85-degree day and wearing shorts for the first time this season. I know it'll be cooler for most of the rest of this week, but getting a Monday like this can't be topped.
I've also been reading, but then that never really stops. Tried to read Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, but it just never really grabbed me. I think that had more to do with the NLS narrator who read it though, as the way he rhythmizes (Ok that's not a word, but so!) sentences just doesn't sit well with me.
Read all three in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, a reality show type story set in a bleak future wherein kids are set in an "arena" to fight it out to the death. These kids come from what are called districts, and their sole purpose is to entertain "the capital", the city that rules Panem with an iron fist. If you've not read it, I highly recommend it. It's 27 hours of audio in total, and yet I still read the entire thing in two weeks. That's absolutely unheard of for me.
I am currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. It traces the lives of two Afghan women as they unfold against the backdrop of the war with the Soviets, clashes among the warlords that left the capital in tatters, and the rise and I suppose fall of the Taliban. I've not gotten all the way to the end yet, so I'm not entirely sure. It's a great, if somewhat sad, read.
And that's about all I've got going on over here. Naturally, it has made me feel a lot better to write out some of the things that I've been dealing with. Thanks for reading, and I hope your life is going wonderfully. Bye bye for now.
In so many respects, this semester has far outpaced anything I've experienced prior while in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. The biggest reasons are the introduction of much more portable computing, the new aids, and a much-welcome relief from financial burden.
Have I done as well as I would have liked academically? Well it's starting to appear that I have not. I can't recall if I mentioned it in my previous entry, but the instructor of my mock counseling class has pretty much decided that she's going to give me an incomplete and have me work with her on fine-tuning my counseling skills over the summer. I gather that with what she has seen thus far, she couldn't pass me with good confidence. "You're making progress," she told me, "but I just want to see it be a little more consistent".
I certainly can't argue with her on this point. I sometimes find it difficult to know exactly what to say to the client, and thus I end up making a remark that takes me "onto another street" as she is fond of saying. I suppose I'm fortunate she's giving me a chance at all. As we know, the results of my first semester here mean that I can't afford even a low-passing grade or my graduate school career will end prematurely. I think she sees enough potential in me, but the more information I'm fed, I sometimes feel the more flustered I'm becoming in working with clients. The odd thing though is I feel like I'm so close to figuring this out and actually making it work. How many more shots do I get, though. I'm well aware of that ticking clock. And let's not even mention how I'm supposed to convince my counselors at the Division of Services for the Blind to continue believing in me. I guess all I can do is my best.
Other things are going ok, I guess. The weather is finally turning all the way into Spring. As I write this, I'm sitting under the sun and warmth of an 85-degree day and wearing shorts for the first time this season. I know it'll be cooler for most of the rest of this week, but getting a Monday like this can't be topped.
I've also been reading, but then that never really stops. Tried to read Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, but it just never really grabbed me. I think that had more to do with the NLS narrator who read it though, as the way he rhythmizes (Ok that's not a word, but so!) sentences just doesn't sit well with me.
Read all three in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, a reality show type story set in a bleak future wherein kids are set in an "arena" to fight it out to the death. These kids come from what are called districts, and their sole purpose is to entertain "the capital", the city that rules Panem with an iron fist. If you've not read it, I highly recommend it. It's 27 hours of audio in total, and yet I still read the entire thing in two weeks. That's absolutely unheard of for me.
I am currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. It traces the lives of two Afghan women as they unfold against the backdrop of the war with the Soviets, clashes among the warlords that left the capital in tatters, and the rise and I suppose fall of the Taliban. I've not gotten all the way to the end yet, so I'm not entirely sure. It's a great, if somewhat sad, read.
And that's about all I've got going on over here. Naturally, it has made me feel a lot better to write out some of the things that I've been dealing with. Thanks for reading, and I hope your life is going wonderfully. Bye bye for now.