The Newbie

Soo...mom left Ft. Worth last Thursday and I've been fending for myself for the past almost week. Everything has been going smoothly thus far for the most part. Before orientation started last weekend I was able to attend an overnight retreat with a staff couple from Campus Crusade and get a vision for their ministry this year. That was exciting and made me want to be a part of their movement this year! My only problem is time and I am still discerning what I will be able to contribute. I'm still not sure what my first semester of grad school promises! I also got to know another grad student and a few other people that are all very nice and welcoming. We stayed at a HUGE beautiful ranch out in the country of TX and shot a shotgun, went four-wheeling, and went swimming in a natural pool thing. SweeT!

This week I started orientation. So far so good! It's a little weird being the "newbie" because 7 of 13 are from TCU's undergrad SLP program and are therefore very familiar with the faculty, clinic, city, etc. They already all know each other and on the first day all of the new students just kind of sat there and listened to the other students talk amongst each other. It's slowly getting better and I am sure that it will be fine shortly! We are all going to know each other very closely! There are moments when I feel myself becoming overwhelmed, but I just say to myself "not yet!" and I can usually calm down and move on. :-) I am one among 6 bilingual students and although I am "unofficial" and "a special case" according to our clinical director, I am confident that I will be getting lots of cool experiences with bilingual populations. I am so excited! We start Monday with classes and the following week we start clinic. However, this week we are doing a diagnostic on a child with a partner, which includes administering speech and language tests, a hearing screening, language sample, and parent interview. Talk about jumping right in!

Dr. Watts, our clinical director, said on the first day that we had "made the best decisions of [our] lives" by coming to TCU and he was completely serious! I'm not sure about the "of my life" part, but I am confident that I've made a good decision!

And good news! I have no night classes, which frees me up a little bit to do some ministry with Cru! :-) Ask and you shall receive!

Love you guys, keep me posted.