Diving back in

It's been a while people! The sad thing is that I had a whole two weeks of nothing to do and of course I choose to do my blogging after a very hectic week. Can you believe I am officially done with my first year of graduate school and already started summer semester??? I never thought this day would come haha. I can't even start to think about graduation day(which is only 349 days away by the way) without getting emotional. This is by far THE most intense experience I have ever been through in my entire life. I'm getting a little choked up now, thinking about the day that I will have survived all of this and have that little degree in my hand. I am truly grateful for this experience though. I have met some wonderful people and am learning an incredible amount. Most importantly it's becoming more and more apparent to me that this career is really meant for me.

I can't explain how much I love working with my clients at the clinic and my little articulation class with the district. Last semester I was priveleged to work with some AMAZING clients. My buddy H.(I will use initials for confidentiality purposes of course) an 8 year old with Down's Syndrome aka my little "enigma". My other buddy H. a 13 year old with severe Autism who required an AAC device(assitive technology) to communicate(so cool!). And then my two adults D. and D.(haha! I really had a hard time with names sometimes because my kids had similar names as did my adults). D. #1 was my 44 year old with Asperger's. Probably the cutest of my clients. I have never met someone more christ like than this guy. Every week, he had some type of association to make between the gospel and our therapy tasks:) He was one of those special people that radiate with a testimony of the gospel without verbally expressing it, but did through his kindness and actions. And D.#2 who I BEGGED to work with again this semester(because I got him more than half way through last semester). He is a 58 year old client with Aphasia and only 4 months post stroke! VERY COOL! I actually started working with him when he was about 1 1/2 to 2 months post stroke. He is such a funny guy and we have a blast working together. I honestly feel that I could go on and on about each of these clients but it's just one of those "you have to know them" kind of things, in order to really appreciate how great they are. Just take my word for it:)

This semester I've got D.#2 again, my litte S.(5 year old little girl-artic and phonology) and D. #3(6 year old boy artic and phonology). Although my clients are not as involved as they were last semester I'm actually pretty excited to just have a REALLY fun semester with my two little artics. I only have two classes this semester AAC(Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and Motor Speech Disorders, but it's still going to be a pretty busy semester. Wish me luck!

Oh! before I forget. For those of you who don't know yet, I was chosen by Intermountain Medical Center(IMC)for an externship starting in December!!! SO excited. My second Externship will be with Early Intervention, so I get to work with cute little 0-3 babies doing not only speech but also learning some of the ropes of OT and PT(Occupational and physical therapy) with these little ones! After this whole experience so far I'm still not 100% sure whether I want to work with strictly adults or kids I absolutely LOVE them both. One of my supervisors said that I'm most likely one of those people that will do both. lets hope I have it in me:) So, I'm grateful that I get to do externships with both populations. So much to look forward to! life is very good:)