Finished. Over. Complete.

The title of this blog says it all! Semester one (the supposed toughest semester) is in the books! HALLELUJAH! I will be the first to say I love going to my classes because I enjoy the material I am learning, however, four days a week for an entire summer can get old. Real quick. However, with the 25 amazing classmates I have it has been quite enjoyable even through the tough parts.  This summer our biggest task was writing the first three chapters to our thesis. YUCK! Let me just say I feel accomplished after completed those three chapters. To celebrate the end of our first semester of grad school and all of its success we had a cookout at our department chairs home.  Here is a look into this summers semester and celebration:

Here is a fun picture we all took holding up COMPLETED chapters 1, 2, and 3 of our thesis work! I cannot explain the joy that was experienced when turning this work in.

                                                                         

My completed thesis work! Well, the first three chapters.

As you can see karaoke and music as a whole was a big part of our cookout last night! I must say we have some pretty musically inclined people in our class. 

Everyone sitting around enjoying the entertainment.

We had some pretty incredible food!

Sweet Miles wanted his turn at karaoke!

I hope you all enjoyed reading this entry and looking at our pictures from a fun celebration. God has truly blessed me with not only the opportunity to further my education but to be able to share in this time with 25 incredible people! To wrap this blog entry up there is only one thing left to say....

SEMESTER #1 IS COMPLETE! WHOO HOO!

                                           

Full Circle

I have thought about writing this blog post for quite awhile so here ya go! I can remember being a teen and dreaming of competing in Miss Arkansas’ Outstanding Teen but my parents telling me they wished I didn’t get involved in pageantry. I never really understood why, so like the persistent hardhead that I am I kept pushing to compete. Years later, I finally found a way. It was my sophomore year in college and the Miss Arkansas State University Pageant was coming up. Like most all college pageants the Greek system nominates young ladies to compete and represent their organization. I was asked by the gentlemen of Kappa Alpha to represent them that year. I remember making the phone call to my parents to inform them I could not be rude and turn down the invitation to represent these gentlemen and ultimately I would be competing. They were leery at first but it was all down hill from there. I received first runner-up at Miss ASU that year and went on to win the title of Miss Southeast Arkansas.

For the next two years I won Miss Central Arkansas and Miss Greater Jacksonville. Each year my experience at Miss Arkansas taught me new lessons, which vary from learning new things about myself, new scholarship opportunities, and new relationships. I was recently reminded of ALL of these provisions while attending a wedding. Not only was the bride an individual I met through my experience of competing in the Miss Arkansas system, but so were every other individual I took a picture with that night. CRAZY! I’m not joking when I say every picture I took that night included someone I met through the Miss Arkansas system. I say this to point out I may have never won the title of Miss Arkansas and been given a job of a lifetime, but I did win by building friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime, as well as paying for schooling that has and will only continue to enhance my future.

My time competing has also provided me with the opportunity to continue mentoring and giving back by becoming the local director for Miss Arkansas State University and coordinating t-shirts for all of the contestants, chaperones, judges, etc. during the week of Miss Arkansas. Trust me, it is crazy to stop and think this is where I have ended up, but I promise I would not trade one step of the way that has brought me to this point. I credit so much of my growth and success to competing and being involved in the Miss Arkansas system. My only hope is that through not only my years of competing but now as a director and coordinator, I can show others that they too can gain more than just a title and job from their involvement in this system. Allow your journey to take you to where you end up looking back and realizing you have come full circle! Trust me, it will be worth giving back to an organization that gave you so much!

Acts 20:35, "And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Week One of Grad School in the Books

My first complete week of graduate school is in the books and it wasn’t so bad to be honest. I will say that when people tell you all graduate school consist of is group projects, reading, and writing they are NOT lying! I literally turned assignments in only to gain a new reading assignment and paper due the next time we met. Crazy but reality! In fact, one of my classes only meets twice a week and on the second day of meeting last week our professor assigned not one but SIX assignments!!! HELLO! Needless to say my social life is coming to a screeching halt or so I feel.

Now that I have let the cons be known I will tell all of you of the pros! Graduate school is a much more friendly setting in the classroom. Including myself there are 26 students in my class, therefore we all know each other on a much more personal level. Yes, I know we have only been in class a week but we have been stuck in a therapy room, study room, or classroom with one another for hours. It has been a lot of fun really getting to know each other on a personal level rather than just “Hey, that person is in my class.” I know the next 18 months will be hard but also fun because I have some pretty awesome classmates!

Aside from all the reading and writing I have done I also gave my first presentation at the 7^th annual Jane H. LeBlanc conference.  This past year our speech and hearing clinic started a pilot project implementing thematic units for the therapy services we provided. One of our professors asked me to speak on my experience using my thematic unit (ASU Sports Network). At first I was shocked that I was asked to speak however I soon found myself excited! I had a short time to prepare, but with determination I pulled the presentation off! Plus, it made me feel good that when it was over my professor took the time to send me a message saying my presentation was a hit! SUCCESS!

As you can see my first week of graduate school has entailed quite a lot but I have loved every minute of this amazing opportunity! Here’s making another post soon…