.swift.

I wish everyone could understand camp. That is my conclusion. It is probably the ONLY place in the world where no college/graduate students are judged for belting out HSM (High School Musical), Taylor Swift, or Justin Bieber alllll the time. And not only that, but it's through our ridiculousness that we become such good friends. Regardless, I took a break from life and went to camp on Saturday, which was AAAAAAMAZING. I got to see some good friends for the first time since July and LOTS of amazing campers. 5 of my 9 girls (including one of my all time favorites) from the 2 week session of camp were there, so it was AWESOME to see them again...and they all had AMAZING costumes. We spent the whole day playing in the leaves, making caramel apples, decorating our spooky cabin, and carving pumpkins. SO fun. So, in attempt to look at the positive things in life and not dwell on the fact that I could break down at any given moment due to stress, here's the top 3 good things that happened over the weekend. :)
1. Listening to 'You Belong To Me', by the one and only T. Swift with my favorite camper of all time. Everytime this song played during camp (which was probably twice a day for two full weeks.....) she would always come find me and we'd dance and sing to it. Well it started playing and she hunted me down from the other side of the cafeteria and said that we had to dance to OUR SONG. So precious...I about lost it.
2. Four of the campers in my cabin over the weekend play on the same wheelchair basketball team. They got to "break in" the brand new sports pavilion with some intense basketball skills and some sit volleyball. Seriously, those girls would beat the crap out of me in basketball anyday.
3. Being able to escape real life and spend 13 hours in "the woods". This is one of my favorite places in the world and being able to spend time here with such amazing people was fantastic. It made me realize that there is SO much more to being a good OT than just knowing facts from the book....it's about being able to work with people who have different abilities and make the best out of what we've got. <3

.10-20.

I know that could quite possibly be the lamest title of a post ever, please forgive me. This is going to be quite short and postings from me are going to be minimal over the next few days/weeks (side note: 4 weeks, 5 days until classes are over for the semester). Continuing on, school is going to be ridiculous over the next 4 weeks. I can't even count the projects/competencies/tests/data analyses without seriously having a panic attack. Regardless, in the midst of it all, God is still proving himself to be mightier than all this ridiculous earthly stress stuff, and that He is the one bringing me through all of this. So, here's my top 3 of the day:
1. I FINALLY got the home address of one of my fave campers who passed away last month. I've been waiting for it to write to his family and tell them what a positive impact their son had on me (and our whole cabin) during the last two summers.
2. I got an email from one of my favorite adult campers. He was asking me if I was going to be working at the retreat in November, which I am sadly not, however, I told him he'd better come in December when I'm there! I love that this guy (hmm.....probably like 70 years old?) sends me emails. He has a some major difficulty with fine motor skills, but his email mostly made sense and it made me happy to know that he was thinking of me! :)
3. Homemade treats. I'm still enjoying pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin seeds, and honey chex mix I made while I was home!

.heart.

We hear it everywhere..."home is where the heart is" and "Ohio: The Heart of It All". Luckily, I've been blessed to have my home IN the heart of it all. :) It's been a pretty good weekend at home, but basically every time I come back, I feel a little bit older. Tonight I went to the HS volleyball game where I babysat for one of the graduating seniors when she was in ~4th grade and three of my little swim team girls are now SOPHOMORES and are on the varsity team. Weird. I sat at the game amongst a bunch of old familiar faces, wondering how these parents could POSSIBLY have kids in HS now....haha. Seeing my name up on the wall for All-Ohio swimming from 2004 makes me seem WAY old. That was over six years ago!!! Craziness. So yes...I feel quite old and slightly out-of-place in Findlay anymore. However, Findlay still has that good ol' feeling of going just about anywhere and STILL seeing someone I know. :)
Ok....here's 3 of my happy things of Fall Break...
1. Baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with my seeeester :)
2. Going to Dietsch's and then driving around Findlay with my family and 2 other adults squished in my dad's work car....
3. Having a break from homework and getting to spend some quality time with the family :)

.ramen noodles.

Ok...so let's start off with my three happy thoughts before I stand on my soapbox and talk about stuff I like.
1. Today we (my research group) finished entering our data for our thesis project. WOOT! Definitely a big relief, and we are still about 10 weeks ahead of most other projects in our class. We'll just have to wait and see if our research was actually effective ;)
2. Fall Break=tomorrow. I haven't been home/seen the family since early/mid August, and I'm excited to go home and do fun fall/Findlay things :)
3. Hoodies. I can't express how much I love wearing a nice hoodie...whether it's school, sleeping, just about anything...I just love a good hoodie. I suppose this revelation just hit me while I was sitting in class today....:)

Ok...so my soapbox/important social issue would be universal design and universal acceptance of individuals with disabilities. I suppose this fire has been ignited with the work I've done the last two summers, but it has become especially evident in the last seven weeks of working with a student with cerebral palsy on campus. Basically, it makes me SUPER SUPER mad when "average Joes" treat people with disabilities like they aren't real people. I know some people stare because they are genuinely interested in the person's ability/condition, but when people start giving dirty looks, then I want to start throwing punches...haha...not really. Additionally, I would consider myself a huge advocate of Person-First Language and hearing people (especially OT professors) speak without using it drives me CRAZY! Regardless, over the weekend, the student I work with was voted Homecoming King of the university. Granted our university is pretty small, the fact that he still won is AWESOME. It makes me happy to go to a university that is accepting diversity to the fullest.
Although this student's physical abilities are extremely limited (basically less than 50% of his left arm is the extent of ability to do anything) , he is AMAZING. I spent most of my evening shift with him just talking and laughing about all sorts of things...life, being a psychology major, The Office, laughing about his condition, ramen noodles, reminiscing on our camp memories.....such a fun night! You would never guess that he had a severe disability if you just heard him talking on the phone...you'd only know because he looks different. I suppose that this is just a big social issue that's important to me because SO many times, people can't understand why I do what I do. It's just about loving people...whether that means helping them eat, wiping butts (ehh....I never said my jobs were glorious!), helping get dressed, or just helping with simple everyday schtuff.

A person with a disability is still a person, I just don't see what's so complicated about that.

.smiles.

I am trying REALLY hard not to smile directly AT my computer right now. It has been a good night. And honestly, a plain good weekend. :) Right now, I'm happier than I've been in a couple weeks, so yay for that.
1. Relaxing weekends make me happy. Although I did a reasonable amount of homework this weekend, I got time to just hang out. Lovely. I spent Friday night IN (a rarity for me!) and watched a movie and worked on our roommate puzzle with one of my roommates. Saturday I got to spend almost the whole day with a certain boy. :) OSU creamed IU, so that was fun on my end. Then we walked the canal and saw Dinner for Schmucks which I HIGHLY recommend for any Steve Carell fans reading this. DEFINITELY was a day o' fun after not seeing him in a looooong time.
2. My job. Well....yes, I work 3 VERY VERY VERY part time jobs, but the one I was busiest with this weekend was working for a student with cerebral palsy. He is HILARIOUS and super smart, but just lacks the physical ability to do most things. He was voted Homecoming King yesterday and we went out for celebratory McDonalds afterwards...so I learned how to drive a handicap-accessible van. Cool. And today he told me that he was really glad that I am working with him this semester and he thinks I'm going to be a great OT someday! :) Seriously...he's so nice...no wonder he's our Homecoming King!
3. Feeling motivated. I ACTUALLY did well on a test this semester (granted, it was a B, but at this point...I'll take that!) I do strive for A's but I've really been learning the importance of actually being able to deal with people, as opposed to only knowing ALL of the book answers. :) No more tests this week...so that's a good thing. Just one project to finish up and then FALL BREAK!!! I'm headed home for the first time in 2+ months. :) AND my sister is coming home from school since she knows I'll be in Findlay....yay! :)

.beautiful.

Good news....6 weeks down and 6 to go!! I'm excited to go back out and do fieldwork and get out of the classroom. In more exciting news, 55 weeks until I'm done with classes for my whole life! :) WEIRD! So...in 56 weeks, I could be a real person. Weird. Anyways...the week ended on a pretty good note. OT school is truly a rollercoaster ride at this point, but I'm TRYING to make the best out of it :)
1. In our OT prayer group this morning, my friend (she's from Ukraine) started praying outloud in Ukranian during our popcorn prayer. SOOOOO beautiful. I'd never heard ANYTHING like it before...it was just seriously awesome.
2. Beautiful weather!!! Last weekend I went camping in the chilly weather and this weekend it's going to be "sunny with a high of 75" <--- probably even a bit warmer than that actually. I think the boy and I will be hitting up the canal for one last time this year after my team (OSU) crushes his alma mater (IU). Fabulous.
3. I'm going home in ONE WEEK. I don't really get excited about going to Findlay all that often, but it's been over 2 months since I've been home and seen my family. It should be good schtuff. :)

<3

.chats.

Even though I'm in the midst of the chaos of midterms/being 5+ months away from being a semi-legit OT student on fieldwork....I am relatively not stressed out at this moment (granted, that could change at any given moment.....). Regardless, here are my top 3 things o' happiness.

1. A good Facebook chat with a far-away friend. I got to talk to my favorite (and only) Irish guy friend, who just so happens to be quite good friends with the boyfriend. It was nice to catch up and hear about his clinicals at home....I'm pretty certain I could hear his accent through the facebook chat. hahahaha.

2. Short days of class. Today, my 8:00 class and 1:00 class were cancelled. Better than that, my 2 1/2 hour afternoon lecture was only 50 minutes. Amazingness. And I forgot how awesome it is to sleep in on a school day :)

3. I FINALLY got more than a 14 minute chat with the boyfriend. Literally, I've been limited to 15 minute phone calls for the last week. As ridiculous as it sounds, we haven't seen each other in nearly 2 weeks, even though he lives 12 minutes away. He's been studying like crazy for his exam block which ended TODAY and he's coming over and bringing my Jimmy Johns to celebrate his fall break... :)

.sp.

Who EVER knew that the road sign abbreviation for 'state park' was 'SP'? Clearly I didn't. When I saw the sign for Shades SP over the weekend, I verbally concluded that we must be getting close to Shades State Park; however, that road sign ACTUALLY met that we were at the park. Brilliant, I know. We had quite the epic weekend really. Six OT students in a state park for 40 hours. Yup....good times had. Hopefully in the next day or so I will be adding pictures to Facebook of the ridiculousness of 6 OT students post-competencies. :) So...here's the big 3 happy things of the past few days (yeah...I'm slacking...I know)
1. GETTING MAIL. I got a letter from my best friend from summer camp this summer from New York. I LOVE getting mail from cool places, however I dislike that she lives SO far away :( Basically, I love anything that involves being a pen pal, because I like getting mail THAT much. I'm pretty sure I screamed a little when I saw a letter from her. :)
2. I spent some awesome quality time with my school friends over the weekend. It was just a much needed short break from the reality of competencies/school/tests. It's always fun to see people "out of their element" and out in the woods. Nothing like a little group bonding over a campfire! :)
3. Nature. I forgot how much I like being outside and climbing "rugged to very rugged" trails. It made me miss my camp home and I realized how blessed I am to have such a beautiful home away from home. God's glory was ever present in the waterfalls, trails, and beauty of what we saw this weekend. I'd even go out on a limb to say that God's beauty was seen in an area called "Devil's Punch Bowl". bahahaha. :)

.borderline.

WOOHOO! I just survived my first competency. Not to brag or anything, but I sorta rocked it....like 100%. Woot. Being said, I have things that I am ACTUALLY really happy to talk about on my "3 happy things of 10/1/10" haha. AND I proved to myself that I can actually work with clients with mental illnesses. My client had borderline personality disorder and polysubstance abuse. Buuuuut apparently I know how to help her be a more effective parent!? Holllllllla. :)
1. I'm going camping with OT friends this weekend. It's going to be epic. AND I'm teaching everyone to make banana boats this weekend. I can't WAIT! Definitely will be a good stress relief after a crazy week. :)
2. I rocked my competency. The professor who I THOUGHT was out to ruin my life and fail me out of OT school actually had some really nice things to say about my intervention session. She actually wrote on my paper "I'm so proud of you!" which was AWESOME to hear since I've nearly failed her first two tests and I'm pretty sure she thought I was just plain ridiculous/stupid. haha. Makes me realize how much I appreciate a good compliment...and I probably should give a few more every day!
3. Last night when I was up way late finishing my intervention, I had Monster Cookie Ice Cream. Probably one of the best tasting coping mechanisms I've encountered in a long while :)

.thirty five point two five.

Yup. That's right...my group's research proposal scored 35.25/45 on our application to present at the AOTA national conference in Philadelphia next spring, so we won't be going. Again...thank you God for answering prayers, even when we don't understand them. So these 3 positive things a day are more difficult that I thought, but I'm not giving up yet.
1. I'm REALLY stressed out writing this initial goal plan/intervention session for my IMAGINARY client with borderline personality disorder and substance abuse issues...to the extent that I didn't think I was going to make it to church tonight. But one of the girls in my bible study who is in my little prayer group just texted me begging me to come, so I am. It is nice to feel loved. :)
2. I got a hilarious text message from a dear friend in the middle of me trying to write an intervention plan for my dear, fake client about moose sweat. It made my morning.
3. The director of our program looked like a complete fool in front of our guest speaker today and it was quite hilarious. Definitely a light-hearted pick-me-up for the 2nd years who needed it this week!! :)