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!