Indian Epicness: My Journey Through the Ramayana & the Mahabharata: Famous Last Words: Week 11

This week was busy and fun. I had lots of good news, good experiences, and good time spent with friends (though not very much good eating.. too much Halloween candy and snacks). At Calm Waters (my practicum site) I got to perform supervised client intakes! This was exciting because I got to become even more involved at Calm Waters and I got to do something that is important in deciding if we include a client in our groups. We do an intake where we ask them a series of questions about their loss, school, friends, home life, and wishes for what their life could be like to find out how mature they are, what they know, a little about their personality, and whether or not they would do well in group. We also want to look for any red flags, things that hint at abuse, mistreatment, behavioral issues, inappropriateness, developmental delays (we will still take these children, but we want to make sure they are in a group where they will be able to participate and understand what is being discussed; some children just need to be put in a lower or higher age group), and need for further assistance/services. I got to do intakes on children and teens which was neat. Also this week marked the beginning of a new session for our divorce groups (they are only 8 weeks long), and I was assigned to a new group: teens. I was nervous and a little intimidated because to be honest I was a jerk when I was their age, so I hoped they were in a better place than I was so they could really get something out of group. Our first meeting went well enough; the only real issue was actually with my co-facilitator, not the teens! He just doesn't understand that you cannot talk to a group of 8th-12th graders the same that you would a group of 4th-5th graders. He talked to them like children and it made them all really awkward. It's nothing a little discussion and coaching can't fix though!

Then, Friday I met with my field instructor and we discussed so many more learning opportunities such as shadowing a few social workers, helping plan a remembrance celebration for the Valir Hospice families, volunteering at the Valir Hospice office, going on-call/doing extended care of Valir Hospice, taking a tour of PACE (a program for seniors that is getting started up in OKC), taking a tour of the Valir Rehabilitation Hospital, and attending further interdisciplinary team meetings. I'm going to get to do so much! I also am going to continue working with Valir as a volunteer beyond the necessary hours of my practicum (I plan to continue volunteering with Calm Waters too). My field instructor seemed really impressed by my willingness to help beyond what is required and was excited to get some help at the office.

Friday was also HALLOWEEN! I love Halloween! It's so much fun and who doesn't want an excuse to wear a costume and be silly? I decided to be a Disney princess for the first time since I was 3 (I was Belle from Beauty and the Beast) and dressed up as Snow White. My roommate and I went to Fright Fest at Frontier City which was fun and cool since I had never been there before. We rode rides, joked around, watched a few shows, and walked the park all in our costumes. She was a dark elf and looked super cool. We had a blast, then went home where I made up my boyfriend to look like a zombie and his friend showed up looking like Uncle Si which was pretty funny. We had a few more friends show and we all watched The Addams Family, ate Halloween candy and queso dip, had a few drinks, and listened to some music before turning in for a necessary night's sleep.

Overall I had a great week and am looking forward to a continuation of positive thoughts and actions as well as hard work (or at least, as much hard work as I can muster) in this coming week!

Here are some pictures from my Halloween adventures: