School Update – All Around

College Update

About a year ago I was finishing up my Bachelors of Human Services degree and was determined that I was done with school until I went back for my Masters degree. However, most of you know that it only took a couple months for me to be like “Just kidding.. I’m back in school.”

I am currently in my second semester of my second bachelors degree, this time in Social Work.. which is where I plan to do field work once I am done. My plan is still to get a MSW and work in the hospice field. I plan to finish up this degree and see where I am in life and then figure out my next step – whether that be getting a job for a bit or going right into my masters program.

I am only taking two classes a semester however my classes are only 8 weeks long so I am learning quite a but in such a short time. I have a lot more homework with this degree than I did with my other bachelors degree but I am, oddly enough, okay with that. Since this is the field that I want to work in I want to make sure that I am getting as much information as I possibly can. It is a lot, especially with being a mom of 3 and homeschooling, but I am making it work.. like always. I do my work when I can during the day which is mostly at night once the kids have gone to sleep. It is way easier for me to focus once they’re asleep.

Now, I would like to touch base on a couple questions that I have gotten recently about hospice and “why in the world would you want to do that?”

Hospice.. whenever I tell people that I want to work in hospice I get this look of “why would you want to do that??” And then I always get the “that’s a tough job” talk. I know that I have wrote about wanting to work in hospice and gave a little information on what that would entail ( you can find that post here) but I thought it couldn’t hurt to talk more about it.

Hospice will not be an easy field for me, or anyone, to work in. I know that. My internship was more than enough for me to see that it would not be easy, in numerous aspects. However, I felt an overwhelming feeling of calmness when I was meeting with the patients, talking with their families, helping with all of the documentation, and everything else that I did during my internship and the time that I volunteered with the patients once my internship was completed.

It was not easy meeting with patients who had just been diagnosed with a life threatening disease or with those who have had it for years and are now in a place of wanting to be done. I had no idea the types of conversations that I would have with these patients and nothing could have prepared me for that. I know that in the short time that I worked with patients I still have not had even a small dip into what my future will look like as a medical social worker for a hospice agency. But I am ready to accept that as my future.

Hospice is a very sad, many many emotions rolled into one, field. That seems to be the comment/question I get the most. Will I be able to handle it? Honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to handle the internship that I had because I am an emotional wreck of a human being but I made it through with a whole new meaning to life, especially life in those last moments.

I learned so much in those couple of months in my internship and I was not expecting it at all. I learned how selfish I had been during the loss of my grandparents, and how selfish I still am about it. I learned that the people living with the life threatening disease are also going through their own grief. I learned that people ask to die so that they don’t have to deal with their pain anymore.

So no, it won’t be easy.. and I won’t have the answer every time but I am ready to learn as much as I can so that when I am to the point of applying to these positions I am as ready as I can be.

If you have any other questions you’d like me to answer about hospice let me know in the comments.

Homeschool Update

We are now done with sixth grade and kindergarten! Summer 2020 has officially started, if you can call it that. We finished last week and I am more than glad it is over.

This quarantine and shut down has completely fucked my mental health so the last couple months of homeschool were rough.

“But you already school at home…” “nothing has changed for you…”

Those are just two of the ignorant comments I have received recently. This is NOT what homeschool looks like for us normally. We don’t have restrictions on where we can go, who we can see, we have extracurricular activities that we can no longer do… yes.. shit has changed. This is NOT our normal. This is NO ONES normal.

So while, yes, I do normally school at home this has still very much changed our daily lives.

This stay-at-home order did not affect our curriculum since I don’t deal with the school for that.. but it did affect our day to day lives.

*deep breath* BUT I made it through. My kids made it through. We did it. We are done.

Hallelujah!

Now onto as much of a normal summer as possible.. and then first and seventh grade.

As always, thank you so much for reading. Leave any questions in the comments.

Xoxo.