Today I got my official Grad Check and Graduation Application completed; it's official, I only have 7 more required credits to complete and I have finished my Bachelor's degree in Audiology and Speech-Language Sciences!
I'm very excited to be getting to the end of this chapter in my life, for I know that Grad School will be a whole different experience. But I must say that I'm a little disappointed with the way things panned out for my college classroom experience. The classes didn't feel any harder than my high school courses. The writing assignments were graded with less than half of the rigorous attitude my previous instructors had applied. I had a job, which took away all of my social life and nearly all of my study time - yet I still managed to keep up my grades and keep most of my sanity along with it.
But while I feel like a few of the professors in my major understand my background and like how I pick up on the major things easily, half of the professors outside of my major all told me that Audiology shouldn't be what I'm doing - and it completely baffled me. Why not? I love it! I do well in it! So why should I not pursue it?
They echo the words that I wish were not so true - "You should be a lawyer, that's why."
Augh. I'm becoming a doctor. Isn't that enough?!
How do you feel about the program you're in? Have you found it much easier to get a Bachelor's degree than you thought? I know that when I was in high school, all of these things were "college prep," and they were scary. They were also, as I found out, unnecessary. At the end of your undergrad college experience, does it scare you that a Bachelor's is now the equivalent of a high school diploma in the 70's?
I both hate and love that my degree requires a doctorate to work in the field - but it also seems exhausting. Why is it our higher education institutions require a standardized test for entry that doesn't even show real skills as a student?
How do you feel about the college experience? Good, bad, neutral? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Amber =D
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
There is no greater relief -
I truly have learned that there is no greater relief than to wake next to someone you love, and know they will still be there when you get home later that day, when you fall asleep that night, and when you wake again tomorrow.
I choose the word "relief" because, to me, that is exactly what it is. I will never forget the night I slept in the same bed with someone else, we didn't "sleep" together in that sense until nearly a year and a half later (when I married him.) But waking up that next morning, and still feeling his arms around me, as we tossed and turned all night pretending to be asleep but our hearts were both racing with excitement - - it was sweet, and perfect. Groggily crawling out of bed in the clothes we wore the night before, and having him put on his glasses that I hadn't seen in years just to drive me the block and a half home so I didn't have to walk.
It was a perfect morning.
I'm so grateful to have a perfect morning every day. =D
::feeling uber lovey dovey, sorry everyone::
Amber
I choose the word "relief" because, to me, that is exactly what it is. I will never forget the night I slept in the same bed with someone else, we didn't "sleep" together in that sense until nearly a year and a half later (when I married him.) But waking up that next morning, and still feeling his arms around me, as we tossed and turned all night pretending to be asleep but our hearts were both racing with excitement - - it was sweet, and perfect. Groggily crawling out of bed in the clothes we wore the night before, and having him put on his glasses that I hadn't seen in years just to drive me the block and a half home so I didn't have to walk.
It was a perfect morning.
I'm so grateful to have a perfect morning every day. =D
::feeling uber lovey dovey, sorry everyone::
Amber
Friendship
Today I learned a lot about how "friendships" develop in a child's mind while in my Sociology of Childhood and Adolescence class. It was interesting to reflect back on the way I used to make friends when I was in Elementary school; it was difficult for me to immediately adapt to everyone when I first came in, because I missed my old Preschool friends. I had no neighbors, no one to really cling to. Most of the kids in my Kindergarten class had friends from the local Preschool, and had known each other through church, and through their families.
... I admit I struggled this morning to remember some of the people I loved in Elementary school, but I did eventually remember! I didn't have any girlfriends until first grade, when I met my dear Amber Schad, and we were almost inseparable for about 8 years until she moved away to Pittsburg.
Ahem. She is now a lesbian. But moving on ...
I do know my first friends were all boys - and not the popular ones. I don't remember if I approached them first or if they approached me, but I do know that I stuck by them like glue. I was never romantically interested in any of them (though as we got older, the opposite happened ... and it was a little heartbreaking to say the least when I still wasn't interested) but they were the best friends I could have asked for.
Girls were always the biggest issue. A girl in 1st grade came to our school from England, and she and I were fast friends. I thought she was so cute, with her little blonde bob, and everyone just loved her. She was the most popular girl I'd ever known, and that is including all the high school cliques that are so well known. She was fast friends with all the cutest boys, all the teachers, all of ... everyone. She could draw, she could sing, could do pretty much everything. I don't think I'd ever felt jealousy before I met her - but I still yearned to be one of her friends. I like to think I was one of them for a few years ... but in retrospect, I'm not sure that I ever really was.
I was always gone from school, too, because I was sick a lot as a kid, so making steady friends in my classes was always pretty hard.
I remember feeling awkward and left out at a very early age. I don't really know why I didn't fit in - but I know I didn't. I started to become a "good student" after second grade (where I was a little delinquent) and I started to change my attitude a little. I became a kid of trends, and I always wanted the "hot new thing." Which was not easy on my parents, I'm sure, which I became very sorry for. But I was trying really hard to become "one of the crowd," and as time went on, I was STILL one of the guys - and that never really changed, I guess.
My girlfriends as I got older were more sporatic. I will say I never felt like I belonged to any specific group in high school. There were a few people on my speech team that I spent a lot of time with, but after Freshman year, I started to distance myself a little after I found out everything they said about me when I wasn't around. Of course they denied it (and still do) but I was no idiot. I caught one of them red handed and never told her that I heard it from her own mouth - she still denies saying what I accused her of.
Sometimes you have to learn to be careful.
Anyway, what I learned is that in elementary school, children learn how to ask questions, and edge their way into friendships. Children are very protective of their groups, and it turns out - there is scientific proof that friendship cliques are hard to break into!
Who knew science could prove what we all know from experience?!
My wedding taught me a lot of things about friendship - it taught me that there were a lot of people who showed up and worked hard to show me they cared, and there were a few people who left me feeling very disappointed. Heartbroken, in fact.
The point is that our friendships are fragile, both as children and as adults. That it's difficult to break into social groups not just when we are "new kids" and don't know anyone - but if you think about how hard it was to be included if you ever came into a new play group and had a new idea (and were immediately shunned because of it) then compare that to a new group at work not letting you eat lunch with them because you changed a spreadsheet formula in your first week. People like routine, and they don't like change - if you are going to break into their group and bring change with you, they're going to resist you as much as possible.
My dad taught me a very important lesson when I was younger - find one thing you have in common, just one thing, and that's all you need to make a friend. Proof of this is all the friends I made on Speech - we had nothing in common, but we loved what we were doing, and it was like finding instant Soulmates. I never knew Sami prior to my Sophomore year of college - but I think she will agree with me that if we hadn't had a few mutual friends, we wouldn't be as close as we are now.
Which I am incredibly thankful for, because she's been an amazing support to me since this year has been a hard one. She offers me great words of wisdom and comfort when I feel my worst - which is the absolute definition of a friend to me.
Friends should stick by your side in good times AND in bad - and not split when things get rough just because they may not like how you react.
My friends are all very dear to me, and I love them with all of my heart. I am so grateful to know that I have good friends that I can depend on, and that know they can depend on me.
I am so blessed. Love all!
Amber ♥
... I admit I struggled this morning to remember some of the people I loved in Elementary school, but I did eventually remember! I didn't have any girlfriends until first grade, when I met my dear Amber Schad, and we were almost inseparable for about 8 years until she moved away to Pittsburg.
Ahem. She is now a lesbian. But moving on ...
I do know my first friends were all boys - and not the popular ones. I don't remember if I approached them first or if they approached me, but I do know that I stuck by them like glue. I was never romantically interested in any of them (though as we got older, the opposite happened ... and it was a little heartbreaking to say the least when I still wasn't interested) but they were the best friends I could have asked for.
Girls were always the biggest issue. A girl in 1st grade came to our school from England, and she and I were fast friends. I thought she was so cute, with her little blonde bob, and everyone just loved her. She was the most popular girl I'd ever known, and that is including all the high school cliques that are so well known. She was fast friends with all the cutest boys, all the teachers, all of ... everyone. She could draw, she could sing, could do pretty much everything. I don't think I'd ever felt jealousy before I met her - but I still yearned to be one of her friends. I like to think I was one of them for a few years ... but in retrospect, I'm not sure that I ever really was.
I was always gone from school, too, because I was sick a lot as a kid, so making steady friends in my classes was always pretty hard.
I remember feeling awkward and left out at a very early age. I don't really know why I didn't fit in - but I know I didn't. I started to become a "good student" after second grade (where I was a little delinquent) and I started to change my attitude a little. I became a kid of trends, and I always wanted the "hot new thing." Which was not easy on my parents, I'm sure, which I became very sorry for. But I was trying really hard to become "one of the crowd," and as time went on, I was STILL one of the guys - and that never really changed, I guess.
My girlfriends as I got older were more sporatic. I will say I never felt like I belonged to any specific group in high school. There were a few people on my speech team that I spent a lot of time with, but after Freshman year, I started to distance myself a little after I found out everything they said about me when I wasn't around. Of course they denied it (and still do) but I was no idiot. I caught one of them red handed and never told her that I heard it from her own mouth - she still denies saying what I accused her of.
Sometimes you have to learn to be careful.
Anyway, what I learned is that in elementary school, children learn how to ask questions, and edge their way into friendships. Children are very protective of their groups, and it turns out - there is scientific proof that friendship cliques are hard to break into!
Who knew science could prove what we all know from experience?!
My wedding taught me a lot of things about friendship - it taught me that there were a lot of people who showed up and worked hard to show me they cared, and there were a few people who left me feeling very disappointed. Heartbroken, in fact.
The point is that our friendships are fragile, both as children and as adults. That it's difficult to break into social groups not just when we are "new kids" and don't know anyone - but if you think about how hard it was to be included if you ever came into a new play group and had a new idea (and were immediately shunned because of it) then compare that to a new group at work not letting you eat lunch with them because you changed a spreadsheet formula in your first week. People like routine, and they don't like change - if you are going to break into their group and bring change with you, they're going to resist you as much as possible.
My dad taught me a very important lesson when I was younger - find one thing you have in common, just one thing, and that's all you need to make a friend. Proof of this is all the friends I made on Speech - we had nothing in common, but we loved what we were doing, and it was like finding instant Soulmates. I never knew Sami prior to my Sophomore year of college - but I think she will agree with me that if we hadn't had a few mutual friends, we wouldn't be as close as we are now.
Which I am incredibly thankful for, because she's been an amazing support to me since this year has been a hard one. She offers me great words of wisdom and comfort when I feel my worst - which is the absolute definition of a friend to me.
Friends should stick by your side in good times AND in bad - and not split when things get rough just because they may not like how you react.
My friends are all very dear to me, and I love them with all of my heart. I am so grateful to know that I have good friends that I can depend on, and that know they can depend on me.
I am so blessed. Love all!
Amber ♥
Thursday, September 17, 2009
My Old Weekly Advice - rediscovered!
An old friend of mine told me yesterday that she still had all of the Weekly Advice emails that I used to send my Junior year of high school; it really touched my heart that she still had them, and even moreso when she sent them to me today.
I'll probably be posting them in one big blog sometime soon - right now I'm just trying to remember what I was alluding to in most of them!!
Have you ever found an old journal and asked yourself why you decided to hang on to what you did? I love discovering old poems, and heal myself from old wounds over again by remembering the strengths I had back in the day. It's comforting when I remember all I have gone through, to remind me that nothing I face could ever be THAT hard.
Love to all,
Amber
I'll probably be posting them in one big blog sometime soon - right now I'm just trying to remember what I was alluding to in most of them!!
Have you ever found an old journal and asked yourself why you decided to hang on to what you did? I love discovering old poems, and heal myself from old wounds over again by remembering the strengths I had back in the day. It's comforting when I remember all I have gone through, to remind me that nothing I face could ever be THAT hard.
Love to all,
Amber
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
While working out - proper attire?
Is it really necessary to wear a regular bra, a sports bra, a tank top AND a loose T-shirt while working out?
Today while I was at the gym with Steve, I saw at least three girls in this kind of attire. Is it really necessary? If they're trying to burn more fat and sweat more, why not just wear ... umm .... a sweatshirt and sweatpants?
Isn't that what they're for?
I may be a little out of the loop when it comes to my personal fashion and what I like to wear - I have an extensive closet, but I don't like to wear what's in it because I have this totally irrational fear that I'll somehow spoil my good clothes if I wear them. BUT this doesn't mean I don't know what looks good (and what looks ridiculous) on someone else.
It's the gym, and I won't judge overall appearance - but isn't the point of a sports bra to act as a bra AND a tank top? Why wear double of either of them (especially the bra part - wouldn't the straps falling down as you flexed drive you crazy?)
On another note - planning to laminate the strange fortune I got last week. Hopefully it's still where I put it last!!
Love to all, and goodnight!
Amber
Today while I was at the gym with Steve, I saw at least three girls in this kind of attire. Is it really necessary? If they're trying to burn more fat and sweat more, why not just wear ... umm .... a sweatshirt and sweatpants?
Isn't that what they're for?
I may be a little out of the loop when it comes to my personal fashion and what I like to wear - I have an extensive closet, but I don't like to wear what's in it because I have this totally irrational fear that I'll somehow spoil my good clothes if I wear them. BUT this doesn't mean I don't know what looks good (and what looks ridiculous) on someone else.
It's the gym, and I won't judge overall appearance - but isn't the point of a sports bra to act as a bra AND a tank top? Why wear double of either of them (especially the bra part - wouldn't the straps falling down as you flexed drive you crazy?)
On another note - planning to laminate the strange fortune I got last week. Hopefully it's still where I put it last!!
Love to all, and goodnight!
Amber
Monday, September 14, 2009
Should relationships be "hard" ?
So often lately, I have been hearing so many people talk about how their relationships are hard - and they should be. Elements include the necessity of arguing, altering how you see things to align with another person's views, general headbutting, and the very vague term, "hard work." I've even been told that my relationship should be questioned because I don't ever define my own relationship as "hard."
I'd like to know what you think - should you be skeptical if you get along with someone better, or consider your relationship more satisfying if you fight frequently? Would you define your relationship as difficult, and in general believe they should be? Please let me know what you think!
Amber =D
I'd like to know what you think - should you be skeptical if you get along with someone better, or consider your relationship more satisfying if you fight frequently? Would you define your relationship as difficult, and in general believe they should be? Please let me know what you think!
Amber =D
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Craziness of Insomnia, and part two on Fortune Cookies
Ever had a night where, no matter what you did, you just couldn't find yourself falling asleep?
Doesn't matter how tired you are, how upset, angry, happy, elated, horny, etc, you are - you just can't get to the peaceful REM cycle.
Personally - I hate that feeling.
I wonder what to do with myself when the night gets longer and longer, my day creeps up on me in front of my eyes, and I just can't close them long enough to feel comforted by sleep. Instead I just stay up, research the most random things (tonight, part of it was human chimerism, a very interesting occurence where two embryos within the first four days of fertilization fuze together into one fetus, literally accruing two DNA sequences into one, normally functioning body) and try to expand my brain power while it's running at that "just asleep enough to remember everything I couldn't earlier in the day" stage.
That, and of course, listen to obscene Robin Williams jokes and Stephen Lynch songs, and recall the punchline so I laugh two minutes too early, making Steve look at me with that "you are very strange to have found that funny" look he gets. =D
My favorite is listening to "Superhero" by Steven Lynch, the 12 minute, two-part YouTube clip of it. Hilarious!
Do any of you have better ideas of what to do with your time when it gets too late to focus on a book, but you're too awake to eat or play a game?
The second half of my research tonight is part two of the Fortune Cookie post -
How a fortune cookie is made:
Some cookies are made with so few ingredients that they are incredibly soft and plyable when they are first removed from the oven; since Fortune Cookies are only made of flour, sugar, oil and eggs *nothing that would cause the cookies to change or rise other than cooking the egg to keep it all together* they are simply the four inch rounds they were when they first went into the oven.
Because they come out as essentially their "raw" state, they are able to be moved into the classic fortune cookie shape, and that is when the fortunes are placed within the cookies.
Boy - that would be an interesting job, wouldn't it? I would want to be a fortune cookie folder!!!
Love to all - I need to snuggle my kitties and try my hardest to go to bed.
Amber =D
Doesn't matter how tired you are, how upset, angry, happy, elated, horny, etc, you are - you just can't get to the peaceful REM cycle.
Personally - I hate that feeling.
I wonder what to do with myself when the night gets longer and longer, my day creeps up on me in front of my eyes, and I just can't close them long enough to feel comforted by sleep. Instead I just stay up, research the most random things (tonight, part of it was human chimerism, a very interesting occurence where two embryos within the first four days of fertilization fuze together into one fetus, literally accruing two DNA sequences into one, normally functioning body) and try to expand my brain power while it's running at that "just asleep enough to remember everything I couldn't earlier in the day" stage.
That, and of course, listen to obscene Robin Williams jokes and Stephen Lynch songs, and recall the punchline so I laugh two minutes too early, making Steve look at me with that "you are very strange to have found that funny" look he gets. =D
My favorite is listening to "Superhero" by Steven Lynch, the 12 minute, two-part YouTube clip of it. Hilarious!
Do any of you have better ideas of what to do with your time when it gets too late to focus on a book, but you're too awake to eat or play a game?
The second half of my research tonight is part two of the Fortune Cookie post -
How a fortune cookie is made:
Some cookies are made with so few ingredients that they are incredibly soft and plyable when they are first removed from the oven; since Fortune Cookies are only made of flour, sugar, oil and eggs *nothing that would cause the cookies to change or rise other than cooking the egg to keep it all together* they are simply the four inch rounds they were when they first went into the oven.
Because they come out as essentially their "raw" state, they are able to be moved into the classic fortune cookie shape, and that is when the fortunes are placed within the cookies.
Boy - that would be an interesting job, wouldn't it? I would want to be a fortune cookie folder!!!
Love to all - I need to snuggle my kitties and try my hardest to go to bed.
Amber =D
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