Honor bestowed upon me & Goodbyes

Today was the celebratory pizza lunch for all those who participated in the MARR basketball bracket. In case you have never read my blog before today or have not talked to me in the past month, you need to know that yours truly here won the gall darned bracket- oh yeah baby!!! Midwest rules! Anyway, early in the morning, Bill, my supervisor and bracket organizer extrodinaire, told me that he "had something for me at lunch" with a gleam in his eye. I also have been told that the winner gets carried around the building on someone's shoulders. This is what happens when you work with a bunch of crazy guys.

Anyway, as I went throughout the morning I sort of got nervous. What in the h_ll would they do to me? Plus I spent a lot of the morning with Janet, our family program director, putting packets together. She said that one of her first days at MARR was going to this pizza lunch and she remembered them carrying the winner around on their shoulders. Oh Nelly. I was pretty convinced that was a hoax until then.

What happened? Fortunately just a lot of pizza eating, and the awarding of a sweet trophy that Bill made. It was a coffee can spray painted black that said "MARR Bracket Winner" in white writing and a sweet toy basketball super glued to the top. It was an honor. I had to make a speech, but it stunk. Believe it or not I don't do well with spontanous speeches in front of people.

It was on display for the rest of the afternoon, but my hall-mate Rick who is across from me kept stealing it. He's just jealous.

I also had my last supervision with Bill this afternoon. It was really, really great. I know I have gotten closer to being an excellent clinician because of his guidance and listening ear. We did our "goodbyes" today, which is a MARR tradition. Basically, when a patient is transitioning into another phase and will be working with a new set of patients, they say "goodbye" to each of the guys in the group by saying their name and individually encouraging them and appreciating them without giving words of advice. You end it by saying, "and with that I say goodbye" and then the person does it back to you. It's really powerful especially in a group setting. The staff do it too when someone is leaving. It's one of my favorite things. So it was a really encouraging day, and my heart now is very full =).

Getting more excited

As of today I have finished my last APA style paper and have written my last journal assignment. I have but a mere book report, one more summary paper, and a take home final to finish. Next Friday is my last day at MARR. I'm bringing a bag tomorrow to put all my personal stuff in to take home with me. We also have our final-four bracket pizza party tomorrow at MARR. Since I won the bracket (the midwest rules), I'm supposed to be carried around the building on someone's shoulders, but I'm faaaairly certain that is not true. I'll keep you posted.

Yesterday we had a meeting about graduation. I was able to get all of my tickets for the actual ceremony, an invitation to join the PSI alumni organization, and five graduation invitations. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with just five of them. I mean, when you have an extended family the size of Alaska like I do, five doesn't really cut it. But they looked really cool. You could also get a PSI class ring. I think I'm going to pass...although I really want a PSI car decal. I've got to get on that.

I was struck yesterday again by the uniqueness of my school. One of the exit forms we had to fill out at the meeting was a sheet with our contact information, information about where we were going to be working (if we had a job), and how DeAnne (our dean of students) could be praying for us during this transition. The thing is, I know she will pray. She is the most sincere person I have ever met with things like that. I really need a job and have been trying to trust God in his provision for all of that and not being overwhelmed with worry. So filling that out and asking her to pray, knowing that she will was pretty cool. I've definitely never heard of a school asking you to complete a form with your prayer requests. It's awesome.

Let me know if you would like a graduation announcement...first come, first serve!!

Guess what I got yesterday...

My cap and gown!!!

A bunch of us went and picked them up yesterday during our break from vocational class. We had to try on the gowns before we took them to make sure they fit. The masters degree gowns are a bit different. Mainly, the sleeves are really puffy and hang down strangely.

You also get a hood, based on the color scheme of your degree program. The other side of the hood is supposed to be your school colors. My packet came with instructions telling you how this worked. When I was opening it up, I was reading it to my roommate Amy Mo, who is also a counselor. Here was the conversation, last night, with her, as I chose for some reason to bring this up right before she needed to go to bed:

me (as I pull the hood out of the bag): "ooooh I guess counselors are burgandy and gold."

Amy: "yup."

me: "it says the other side is supposed to be your school colors so that means mine will be blue and silver."

Amy: blank stare and watches as I flip it over.

me (with puzzled look): "it's white. Why doesn't my school have colors? Did your school have colors?"

Amy (who went to a normal state school): "Yeah, it had colors. I don't think PSI has colors."

me (disappointed, and wracking my brain as to why I thought we not only had colors but that they were blue and silver): "we don't?"

Amy: "No..because you don't have sports teams. That's what you need colors for."

me: "Hmmmm. Neat. Good call."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if we did have sports teams, it would be sorta lame. I mean, we're all counseling students. So people are way too nice. It would probably be like "oops, sorry I didn't mean to tag you out. How did you feel about that? Did any childhood regression occur as you walked back to the bench?"

Only two weeks to go!!

Never again will I have to do this

I am on my way to Alison's house in Smyrna to work on my very last group project ever in my life. We have to present on how people with criminal backgrounds have a hard time finding jobs and why and what would you do if someone like this came to your counseling office for vocational help. We're going to show parts of the movie Crash, which I'm excited about. But I just got done watching the carjacking scene, which is what I wanted to play, and I seemed to have forgotten how much those folks enjoyed the F word. Hmmmmm. Well, maybe I can just present it as part of the pathology we have to analyze.

I also wanted to share the verse that I've been clinging to over these past few days. I found it in my new fave devotional "Jesus Calling."

7"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."
~Jeremiah 17:7-8

What's been going on

Basically, just this.

It's what I've been staring at, reading, sleeping with, throwing around, hugging, and now, leaving behind.

Yes, it is my study guide for the NCE, which stands for "National Counselor Exam."

All three years of my graduate school career can sort of be summed up in this three hour test of doom that took place yesterday morning at 8:30 in the Mt Paran Grand Hall, Atlanta, GA. I survived it, despite being consumed with many "rational" worries, including but not limited to, my car not starting when I went to drive to the test, or there being a horrible wreck on 285 East, thus rendering my efforts to make it to the test useless. If you were even a minute late you were not allowed to take it. This increased my worries. However, I think a lot of people were praying for me because I didn't feel anxious at all during the test. Just bored. And tired. There were definitely questions I knew, some I didn't know, some that had choices of answers that all seemed right or wrong. So I picked the best answer and moved on. I'll know how I did in about 4-6 weeks. I know. Brutal.

However, today I've enjoyed a day of complete relaxation. I had a great morning at church, enjoying a break from 1st grade sunday school and seeing my friend's baby get baptized. Then I lounged around in the afternoon watching episodes of CSI and NCIS on Comcast On Demand. Then tonight, Amy Mo, Christina, Laura D and I went to see Big Boi perform with the Atlanta Ballet at the Fox. It was sort of like watching one-half of OutKast perform a concert with ballet dancers, but it was so awesome. Not to mention the fact that Christina totally spotted Andre 3000 who turned out to be sitting just TWO ROWS ahead of us. What-up holmes!! (a totally appropriate saying for this venue). The show included songs like "Bombs over Baghdad" and "Kryptonite" with a finale of "I like the way you move" where people just danced in their seats for like 20 minutes. It was sort of like a mellow-er Club 1150, mostly I think because there were still quite a few white people there.

Of course, after being inspired by what we just saw, we totally had our own dance party in Laura's sweet Nissan on the way home, complete with Krispy Kreme donuts and decaf coffee. Wow, it just doesn't get any better than that.

Back to the grind tomorrow. Only three weeks to go!!