End scene.

Friday the 13th. A day of bad luck? No! The first day of freedom! Yesterday was the last day of my first year of graduate school. I cannot believe how the whole thing really flashed by. Next year at this time I'll be graduating. What?! If it all goes as quickly as this year did... wow. It was a pretty easy last day. Only one actual exam to take - Social Welfare Policy. Every first year student in the program had to take the same exam so Derek, Mindi, Bex and I ended up getting to school early and doing some studying together.



First class of the day, Human Behavior and the Social Environment II (which I had with the three of them) was a little bipolar. It was the 50th birthday for one of the women in our class so everyone sang happy birthday and people brought in brownies, doughnuts and cupcakes. Yep, it was just like an elementary school class birthday party. That's social work school for you. Then we wrapped up class by discussing death and the dying process. Oy. It was actually a fairly interesting discussion though because our class was so diverse and some people shared the customs of the death and dying process in their cultures. Protestant, Catholic, British, Jewish, Native American, and Buddhist (we had a Buddhist monk in our class -- he is so cool!) were all talked about. To keep us from being too depressed, our professor wrapped up with an inspirational slideshow encouraging us to never lose sight of our social work passion because we can make a difference.

Took the Social Welfare Policy exam after lunch and it wasn't too bad. There was nothing on it I wasn't at least familiar with so I'm feeling alright about that. Ended up finishing with a lot of time before my next and final class (because our research presentations ended last week, that professor cancelled class this week) so I went to the cafeteria and decided to write a letter to a friend I haven't been able to catch up with in awhile (Christy, check your mailbox in a few days!!).

Generalist Practice II with Professor Slater, a favorite of mine, was my final class of the year. We did a creative evaluation on the course. Everyone had to bring in an object or picture of an object that represented something we learned in the course this year. We all put our objects in the middle of the room (we always sit in a circle in that class) and when Prof Slater said go, everyone made a mad dash to pick an object we did not bring and take it to our desk. We had to talk about how it represented what we wanted to learn next year. We went around the class in a circle and each person held up the object they ended up with. The person who brought it spoke first about what they learned, followed by the person who picked it talking about what they want to learn.

Professor Slater ended by speaking about how impressed she was with our class in how much we have learned this year. It's really flattering coming from her because she's one of the toughest professors in our program and so insanely knowledgeable about this profession. I think everyone in our program should be required to take at least one class with her. Since she knows how nervous everyone is about taking the licensing exam next year, she wrapped up by asking our class questions from the practice exam. We ended up getting 90% of them right... and after only our first year! That seemed to quell nerves a bit.

And now, relaxation. Still in the process of finding and applying for internship and volunteer opportunities this summer, but I'm also looking forward to catching up on books I've put off reading because of school, hanging out with friends I haven't been able to see in awhile, attending a few weddings, learning some new songs on the guitar, going down to Coney Island for some fantastic fireworks and enjoying summer in the city. First year of grad school... just a memory now. End scene.