Therapizing, Researching, and Covering Long Distances

[Disclaimer: I'm missing family, so I thought I'd blog to catch some of them up on my semester so far.]

As it turns out, when the semester begins, life gets crazy busy...

My weekdays have been filled with an internship as a therapist at a non-public school for students with emotional-behavioral difficulties. The challenges facing my clients are profound, transgenerational, and incredibly obdurate.  My role is designed to be a therapist, but by necessity, I am adopting roles as teacher consultant, case manager, and (fill in the blank to whatever is needed at the moment).  I'm making some strong professional relationships, and I am being challenged emotionally, professionally, and philosophically.  With great challenge is coming great reward (I hope!).  In my short time, I have quickly re-realized what an amazing dice-roll I received from God/cosmos (stability, support systems, privilege, etc.).

My weeknights have been filled with research on three different projects. First, I am continuing my own research on person-environment fit and student motivation. I am submitting my first solo piece for publication in the upcoming months! Second, I am working with a local charter school to conceptualize and measure gains in their first years.  Tomorrow, I am presenting our findings to the teachers.  My final project deals with high-schoolers' college knowledge (and I'm finding really interesting trends across SES and racial/ethnic groups!).

My weekends are consumed by endurance races. And by races, I mean finishing the distance in how ever long it takes me.  This month, I ran my first two ultra-marathons (both 50kms), the latter being much faster and more enjoyable.  Lou and Daniel provided some much-needed nutritional and preparation counsel, which benefited me greatly on the second go-around. Tracy has been supportive of these self-indulgent Saturdays. Tracy and I cycled to the summit of Mt. Tam two weekends ago, and this weekend, we are heading to Lake Tahoe for a Century.  Although I have loved my trail runs, I am anxious to get into the saddle. 

Never a dull moment.