It is time for a winter 2019 life update since it has been quite a few months since my last Sit Down With Scarlett post! So much has happened since I wrote that post, so it is definitely time for a catch up post!
How cute is this cat mug pictured above!? My housemates got it for me for my birthday and I am obsessed!
As I mentioned in my September post, I began a full time externship this semester and had night class 3 nights a week. Let’s just say I am very glad to only have one semester left of that because it is exhausting! I also mentioned I would be switching internships mid-semester, but I had no idea where I was going at the time. I ended up getting placed at one setting, and then switched to a different one 4 days before I was supposed to start. So you could definitely say that flexibility was a skill I really developed this semester haha. While the internship I had at the beginning of the semester was good and I did enjoy parts, there was quite a bit about it that I realized I didn’t like, especially once I switched. I ended up at a pediatric outpatient clinic with an amazing supervisor for the last 6 weeks, and I learned SO much in those 6 weeks. I got so many clinic hours, had a wide variety of patients, and experienced some very very busy days. One thing I wasn’t a fan of was starting at 7am and going until 5:30pm somedays, especially since I had class from 6-9 afterwards! However, it was still such a great experience and I am still bummed I only got 6 weeks there because I think I could have learned so much more even if I had gotten a full semester.
This January I am taking a class all about Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices, which should be interesting! And it will be refreshing to just have one (day!) class and no internship. Then in February I will begin my school placement! I am really excited to get into the schools and see if I find that setting as enjoyable as I have found pediatric outpatient! I also have 3 night classes again in the spring, however I have heard that they are a bit easier than Voice and Motor Speech Disorders which were the two main classes I had this fall! Fingers crossed that is true, especially since I have to take the Praxis during the spring. (The Praxis is a test that all SLP graduate students have to take, and it is basically over everything you have learned in grad school!)
Besides school and my internships… I really don’t have much to report! With how much I am doing during the week, most of the time my weekends are spent catching up on errands or cleaning, or doing homework. When I do hangout with friends, it tends to just be more low key things, like getting donuts at an apple orchard or baking Christmas cookies!
It was also my birthday at the beginning of December, so that was fun to celebrate with a few friends then! And then on December 8th it was my 8 year blogiversary! It is hard to believe it has been 8 years, and I never would have thought that I would still be posting here in my final year of grad school. But I love that it turned out this way!
I am on Christmas break now, with lots of free time ahead of me until after the New Year! I have quite a few books I want to finish while I am on break, but I just finished my Goodreads 2019 challenge today! My goal this year was to read 85 books since that was a few more than I read in 2018. Deep down I wanted to hit 100 books this year… but I knew that was just a bit too lofty and would have added some stress. Maybe 2020 should be the year for that though?! My main goal is just to read at least 1 book more than a did the previous year, though I am unsure how that will pan out over 2020 with finishing grad school in the spring, moving across the country for one last summer internship, and then moving somewhere else for a job in August or September hopefully! I like to think that once I am out of school I will have more time to read because I won’t have homework or studying… but I also have a feeling that won’t necessarily be true!
That’s all for this quick little winter 2019 life update! I hope you are having a great December and finishing your 2019 goals this month too!
xo, Scarlett