Graduation! and next steps

After 66 credit hours over 4 semesters and more hours spent staring at a computer screen than I care to count, I've reached the end of the classroom portion of the occupational therapy program. Even though we won't get our diploma until sometime in July, we went through a graduation ceremony. My memories of the day include being the 2nd to last of my class to arrive. At least by then they had figured out how to attach our "ink" colored hoods to our gowns. The one-size-fits-all mortar boards fit none of us. Ben felt like it was so small it would pop off his head while most of the rest of us thought it was too big. The speaker agreed with us that they were rather silly and eventually removed his. I barely recognized some of the professors in their academic garb. The most joyous part of the afternoon was as we went to line up and high-fived each other all down the line as we whooped it up. I will also remember the sense of pride most of our family members expressed as they knew better than anyone else how much work had gone into reaching this point. I say "most" because when I asked one of my classmates 7 year old son if he was impressed with his mom he responded, "No," with a look that said, "Why should I be? She's just Mom." Later that evening I was honored to celebrate at a nice restaurant with people from the significant parts of my life: my parents, friends from my time in France and a family from here. I've been blessed in so many ways.

So what's next? Though I'm done with the classroom part of my program, I still have 6 months of level II field work which entails working under the supervision of an OT who will help me transfer the learning from the books to real life practice. I will be at the hospital in Fergus Falls from January - March and the VA in St. Cloud working in the area of mental health from April-June. In August I'll be able to take the national licensing exam so I can begin working. (It is possible to get a temporary license before that if I have a job offer.) I hope to be able to get a job in Sioux Falls so I can be closer to family. All of that means leaving the Twin Cities. Saturday morning we loaded a trailer with my things. Mom shook her head wondering where this would all fit in her house while Dad calmly said there was plenty of room. As soon as they pulled away and I had cleaned up the dust bunnies, I had a two hour nap. I'll be staying here until the 24th to finish up peak at my UPS job, wrap up things here, and get a chance to spend some time with friends.