Gut Check. Week 5 Complete.

These last few weeks have been testing my grit. I'm a full time graduate student, part time worker as a Behavior Specialist and an intern at a local non profit. Each role is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Particularly now that I have to juggle them and assign priorities in an interchanged manner. This doesn't account for the social life that is slowly diminishing as the fall semester progresses.

Is it worth it? Yes! Of course it is. I'm loving the expansion of my knowledge base in the field of social work. What troubles me is knowing that I will have to make more sacrifices. What to sacrifice? that deduction remains to be seen.

Also, I covered (yet another) new client's session last night. Little guy was escaping or attempting to often and I happened to get head butted as I redirected him back to the couch. Feels like I was punched in the nose. Luckily, it was only bloody mucus and a sore nose that I had to worry about this morning.

Gold Mine for Behavior Specialists

Dollar Tree: an inexpensive resource for every Behavior Specialist.

Life Without Timekeeping

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” 
― Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

Cracking the Codes

This past Thursday during my Social Welfare Policy class we were introduced to "Cracking the Codes". It was a chilling look at how we erroneously believe we "now live in a “post-racial” America". Admittedly, I fell into that line of thought when Obama won the election back in 2008. Even when I saw an interracial couple, I would think to myself, "Wow, we've progressed so much!". But after four weeks of being immersed into my MSW program at Cal State Dominguez Hills, that couldn't be further from the truth. While it's true that some progress has been achieved, we still find ourselves being divided on key social issues such as LGBTQ rights and immigration. Even though we're living in the 21st century, hate continues to manifest itself within our "progressive" society.

Something the film touched on that was quite revealing is the notion of Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome(PTSS). What is PTSS? PTSS describes a set of behaviors, beliefs and actions associated with or, related to multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans that may be inclusive of but not limited to undiagnosed and untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in enslaved Africans.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Traumatic_Slave_Syndrome] How did "Cracking the Codes" address PTSS? They had an African American mother discuss a prior experience where she was at a school meeting for her son. At that meeting, she was having a conversation with a Caucasian mother that happened to be her son's best friends' mother. The Caucasian mother was delighted to acknowledge her son's outstanding achievements and yet managed to reflect on the fact that the African American mother's son had actually performed better. However, the African American mother didn't acknowledge or praise her own son's performance. Why didn't she want to show any praise for her son? Because during slavery a colored mother would do so to protect her son or daughter from the slave owner and instead of praising or acknowledging praise they would devalue their own children. It's amazing how decades later, (some) African American mother's unconsciously react the same way when their son/daughter is receiving any form of praise. It's not that they aren't proud, it's just an instinct to protect their child. What's the big deal? These children NEED that praise. They need it so that they can feel appreciated by their OWN mother and family.

I'm just spilling my thoughts on this but I highly recommend that everyone watches this film and takes some time to think about it. Quite insightful!

MSW Program - Week 3

It's week 3 and I'm still adjusting to being a student once more. The main complaint from my cohort is the never ending assigned readings, I agree. Still, I'm enthralled by the discussions in class and find myself participating more often than I would during my undergrad. It's refreshing to (finally) be able to have conversations about issues that matter to me.

Alternately, working part-time at around 15 hours a week feels drastically different. The workload is manageable thus far but I expect things to pick up soon. I'm anticipating that by December I will no longer be a Behavior Specialist. Sad times.

Actually, I posted a picture of my badge from work this weekend on my Facebook. I was intending to poke fun at the fact that I've been working there for 9 months and I finally have my badge. However, poor phrasing made it seem as if I was just hired or promoted. After so many congratulations were had, I didn't have the heart to tell friends and family that it was supposed to be a joke.

Time to go read me some more social work related articles.