Currents thoughts and concerns of the week

So since last Saturday, a sad event has taken place. My family and I discovered that my cat Rascal, of 8 years old had lung problems that were more serious than we thought. We took him to the animal clinic and by the time he got to the vet, he wasn't much better. The vet put him on antibiotics, took x-rays, and tried to figure out if there was something more they could do. There was a procedure where they took some air out of his lungs, and it worked temporarily, but then he kept getting worse. We got our hopes up, hoped and prayed he would get better, but on Tuesday, we decided to put him to sleep. We wanted him out of misery, and hopefully, it was the best thing for us to do. It's sad and we miss him, but now he's not suffering anymore.

On a more positive note, I went to a graduate program session for psychology this week, and I decided I am going to apply for the counseling psychology program for next fall. It was between that and the school psychology program, but I decided that counseling was more for me. With a counseling degree in psychology, I have choices of working in jails, prisons, schools, psychiatric hospitals, or the Providence house or Gingerbread house. I want to specialize in marriage and family therapy, mainly dealing with divorces in the family, problems in relationships, and premarital and postmarital counseling. So I figured out everything I have to do to apply for graduate school, and I'm excited! Just one more semester of just 12 hours left, and then I keep going. So we'll see where I end up.

the answer

Something caught my mind this week in one of my psychology classes as we were discussing distorted thinking. One particular style of distorded thinking was interesting to me because it sounded like something I would do: personalization. Personalization is when you think that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you, and you also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking, etc. And that sounds like something I would do because I sometimes tend to compare myself to others, and I'm too hard on myself when I don't meet other's expectations or my own. Well, this style of distorded thinking reminded me of the sermon my preacher talked about last Sunday at church. He talked about "No Guts, No Glory," saying how a Christian shouldn't strive to impress others, that you should just try to make God happy. He said that human glory is not what a Christian should strive for, it's the Glory of God that matters. And I think that that's a some good advice because many people today, including myself, try to make others happy and try to live up to other people's standards and expectations, and that's not the answer. It's living up to God's standards that matters and what is important; at least that's what I think, and I have some work to do.

http://www.slate.com/id/2203911/

Today's random thoughts

Well, we all know that it’s the fall season, leaves are changing to pretty colors, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming soon. It’s the time to fall backward, so we get an extra hour, and this always makes me excited. It’ll be dark sooner, and hopefully it’ll start getting colder and maybe it’ll stay that way this time because today…it was too hot for November. I mean it’s only the first day of November, but I’m ready for coldness. I know it’s unlikely, but I hope it snows again this year, even if it’s just a little bit.

Enough about that, though, because another event takes place this time of year. It’s the State Fair! Now, some people don’t get excited about his event, and some don’t even like it, but I get ecstatic every year when the fair comes around. I’m starting to realize, though, now that I’m about to be 22 that maybe I shouldn’t get so excited. And I have to admit that while we were there today, I was ready to go after only about 2 hours when many people spend all day there or at least half their day. The rides are still fun to me, but with it being hot, and getting all stinky from the rides and germs and food, it’s just not as fun anymore. Plus it started getting really crowded, and I hate lines. It also may not be that fun anymore because nobody wants to go anymore. My sister didn’t even seem that happy to be there this year, and she’s the one who insists we go every year. But it’s not as fun because my family doesn’t go anymore, and my friends I used to go with didn’t go this year. My boyfriend finally got the chance to go with us this year, but he didn’t ride a single ride; he just watched my sister and me and made fun of us. We still had a good time, but I think it’s to a point that maybe we need to bring some kids next time.

Another thing that happens around this time every semester is class scheduling for next semester classes. I only have 4 classes left (assuming I pass all my classes this semester), and I’ll be graduating in May. That’s not the stressful part, though; it’s the deciding what graduate program I want to apply for, studying for the GRE, and getting done the list of things I need to do for graduating and then applying to graduate school. I’m at the point where I need to decide between school psychology and counseling psychology or if I want to do something else. I need to decide by January because that’s when the application is due for graduate school. I have to decide all that, on top of studying for the GRE, doing work for my current classes, while hopefully improving my grades, trying to get together everything for my scholarship from Chick-fil-A, and getting ready for the holidays and end of the semester. This may be an exciting part of the year, but right now, it’s a stressful time for my life, not to mention a few other things that are going on. While I’m trying not to pull all of my hair out, don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour!

The animals we love

My sister volunteered at Petsmart last weekend for Adoption day, and my boyfriend and I went to support her. My sister told me she was going to persuade my dad into getting this rat terrier, and I'm thinking, of course not, they already have a dog, 8 cats, and a wild bunny. Well, they ended up getting the dog anyway, named Dixie. It's like a zoo at my parents' house. Our other dog is a mixed terrier, and his name is Milo. The new dog, Dixie, is 6 years old, and Milo is only like 2. Dixie is very interesting though, I guess because we've never adopted an animal a pet as old as she is; not that 6 is old, but it's older than most of our animals. We've also never adopted an animal from Petsmart, we've only adopted animals from the pound. But either way we're saving a life. The good thing about Dixie being older is that she is already trained, set in her ways, which may not be such a good thing, and LISTENS, unlike Milo, who is not so trained well by my parents. Milo likes to do his business in my parents' house. When Dixie is taken outside, she has no problem doing her business, so obviously she was trained well; she acts like a real dog, unlike Milo, but that's also the trainer's fault: my family.

It's clear, though, that Dixie has never been that close to cats before. She likes to chase them around the house, but that's after the cats have hissed at her, so she probably feels threatened. She likes to bark loudly at them if they try to run away, but that's just what animals do, especially when they're not used to each other. One of my kittens, Bootsie let Dixie get close to him, and at first it was going good because Bootisie didn't get scared like he did before. But Dixie was shaking, and stared at Bootsie for what seemed like an hour. It was weird but probably because I'm not used it. Milo is much different with the cats. He cuddles with them and acts like he's a cat himself, but of course he was the only dog with 8 cats, so I can understand that. It's so cute because as soon as we got the kittens, he acted like he was supposed to protect them, as though they were his babies, and other times we would find him putting his mouth over their entire head. Anyway, I'm sure it's because Milo started with cats from the beginning, and Dixie is already 6 and probably hasn't been around cats before. We're certainly not going to give Dixie up like her previous owner did, so she's stuck with us, and we're stuck with her.

Everything changes

I can feel the holidays coming around, and I'm so excited. I can definitely feel that the weather is changing, and it's getting colder because my allergies are going crazy. Other things keep changing such as the stock market fluctuating, and gas prices are almost a dollar less than they were in just a month. Elections are coming up, and it's my first time to vote for president, and things will definitely be different after the election. It may be the first time to have a black president or the first time to have a female vice president. It's just amazing how our world can change so much in just a few months. My life will change a lot in just a year. I'll be graduating next May and hopefully will be in graduate school by this time next year. My boyfriend and I will hopefully be getting engaged within the next 6 months. My boyfriend's sister is having a baby girl in about 5 and a half months, and I'm super excited! I'll be an aunt! Well, sort of....These changes are good, but it seems life keeps getting more and more complicated every few months. In about a month and a half, instead of receiving an awesome birthday present, it seems I'll just be losing my insurance, and I'm not too happy about it. It seems we have to grow up so fast these days, and I know that sounds negative, but I miss being a kid sometimes when we didn't have to worry about as much.
Do you remember the time before computers and cell phones and all this other new technology stuff? Can you imagine what it would be like to not have a computer, your blackberry or an Ipod? My boyfriend just turned it to "Little House on the Prairie" for some reason, and he told me he wishes we could be in those times because life seemed so much simpler. The way we live today is much different than how they lived back then, and the more advanced technology we come up with, the more complicated and confusing things seem, and it's hard to keep up with all the new stuff. But that's just my opinion. I often think of that country song where she sings, "Life's about changing, and nothing ever stays the same," because those words are so true. Life is also changing, and sometimes I wish I could go back in time to those special times that are gone now, and just press pause.

Work troubles

I work at Chick-fil-A, and I had to close twice this week at work as the closing manager because one of the other closing managers was on vacation. I closed on Tuesday night, which is my regular night of closing, and I had to send two people home because they just wouldn't listen. I had warned one of them, and gotten on to them for a few things, and they didn't get it! So I didn't want them there and sent them home. So that was Tuesday night, and I also had to close Thursday night, which is spirit night for a certain school, and we were pretty busy. Thursday night was special because we had to do some extra cleaning due to the fact that corporate was coming the next morning to look at our store. The store needed to be spotless, basically, and most of us stayed there until almost 1:00 a.m. when we usually get out at about 11 p.m. Well, we worked our little tails off, and yes forgot to cut and squeeze lemons, but we still did a lot considering how many people we had closing; obviously, the manager doing the schedule needs to relearn how to make schedules.

I felt a little guilty for not doing lemons and getting out at 1 in the morning, but my crew and I worked hard. Naturally, though, we, excuse me, I got criticized for leaving so late, and not praised for doing extra cleaning, which needed to be done for a while. As soon as I walked in to get my check today, all I heard was we got out too late, we shouldn't have payed attention to so much detail, and my boss asked who made the list of extra "chores" for us to do, and one of the other managers just said that I wanted the list made, so of course it was all my fault, and I just kept my mouth shut and left. So I realized I just don't get paid enough to deal with all this mess! Things such as babysitting a bunch of kids, it feels like, trying to get the store cleaned, and dealing with all the money and of course the rude customers who have nothing to do but complain. People just don't appreciate things anymore! And I think to myself now, I am so looking forward to finishing college and getting a "real" job, and how much my job now is just a little fraction of my life because there are more important things in life than this cruddy job, and that I won't have to stay there forever. Thank God!

Society's expectations

We were discussing the topic of gender roles in educational psychology the other day, and my teacher brought up some very interesting points. She brought up a point of how we treat boys and girls differently. Most societies have expectations of how boys, girls, women, and men "should" think and behave. For example, in the U.S., men are expected to be strong, aggressive, and decisive, and traditionally women are expected to be weak, passive, and indecisive. Well, I think that is crap! These expectations or stereotypes combine to form gender roles, which are the set of social norms that dictate what is socially regarded as appropriate female and male behavior (McCammon, 267). Well, today of course traditional gender role stereotypes are changing because women are now more expected to be more ambitious in seeking a career, and men are now more expected to be more caring and nurturing. In my opinion....I think it just depends on the person, not whether you're male or female. Each individual has a different personality, different wants and needs. It should not matter if a male is sensitive or if a female is decisive and takes charge.

I often notice how some males try to be a macho (including my lovely boyfriend) probably that is the stereotype that society labels males. It's the way we raise our children, that is the problem! Now think about this...if your little girl fell and hit the coffee table, a lot of parents would be like, "Oh honey, are you okay?" and they baby their precious little daughter, and sometimes it gets as ridiculous as the parent saying, "bad table!" as if it's the table's fault, and there's no way their daughter could have ran into the table. But if a little boy falls down or runs into the coffee table and starts to cry, then usually parents say, "Oh, you'll be okay, you're a big boy, don't cry." Or a parent will go as far as saying, "Don't be a baby, show me those muscles." It's the way we raise our kids by treating them this way. You expect a girl to act one way and the boy to act another way, and thus begins a whole new cycle of stereotypes and gender roles. Society's gender roles influence pretty much every aspect of our public and private lives, and that's just sad.