Halloween Hijinx

It's almost Halloweekend!! And we all know what that means: it's time for another crazy counseling cohort get-together.

There are a few different things going on with the Counseling Crew (my new name for the cohort, or perhaps Kounseling Krew?) this weekend. The first is the Halloween kickback/party tomorrow night, during which we are going to provide evidence that there ain't no party like a counseling party. I think by now it's apparent that you don't necessarily stop having fun once you graduate from undergrad. Because trust me when I say we have just as much fun (maybe more) as the undergraduates do! Even some of the second year students are stopping by the party, which just goes to show that the students in our program are so down-to-earth and easygoing. That's definitely a major part of what made it so easy to fit in here.

The second thing that's going on for us this weekend is the big group trip to the homecoming football game against Brown on Saturday afternoon. I've heard that football isn't as big here as it was at UVA (I think our team sucks, for lack of a better word). But I'm so excited to learn about the football traditions here! At UVA, I learned all the cheers and the songs, so I guess I'm starting fresh by attending my very first Penn game. One tradition I have heard about, however, is the "toast". According to some of my coworkers and cohort members, the students celebrate with a toast, but since alcohol isn't allowed in the stadium, instead they throw pieces of toast (toasted bread, seriously) into the air at the games. I'm excited to see how that turns out...and to throw my own toast(ed bread) into the air.

Last, and the thing that's stressing out most of the cohort, is that we have a big assignment due Saturday night. It's a comparison paper for our interventions class, where we've been learning about all the different theoretical approaches to conducting psychotherapy. For this paper, we have to compare and contrast three different theories in 5-7 pages, APA style. Compared to all of the other papers we've had so far, this is the most objective and research-based. Rather than discussing our feelings toward what we've been learning or the skills we're using in our practicum experiences, we actually have to look up data to support logical arguments about comparisons between these theories.

I guess because this paper is so different, people are FREAKING OUT. Some level of freakout is understandable, of course, because our professor didn't give us a completely clear explanation of what he wanted for the paper, and until now we've just been writing about our feelings. However, I'm so tired of freaking out (which characterized pretty much everyone's undergraduate experience, I'm sure). I'm ready to just chill and write extensive papers while casually sipping on caffeinated beverages, in stereotypical graduate student fashion. So basically what I'm saying is DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY, which I'm somewhat obligated to say by virtue of my being a Caribbean student with dreadlocks.

I'd just like to say Bob Marley was right when he said that "every little thing is gonna be alright."

Homecoming!

HOMECOMING!!

This is my very first UVA homecoming as an alumnus...It's so sad! But I'm excited to be going back to visit my alma mater this weekend. I think it's interesting the difference between how people treat their undergraduate alma mater and how they treat their post-grad alma mater. Will my cohort members be as excited to come back to visit Penn as I am to go back to UVA? I guess since I spent 4 years there, it's easy for that school to have become my home, but being at Penn for only 2 years isn't really going to allow us to form the same bonds to the area or to the school.

Recently, I was having a conversation with one of my friends from my cohort about going home after finishing this program. He's from California, and he was expressing how he's more than ready to go back. It's funny because, as I told him, I feel like I don't actually have a home to go back to. At least, not in the same way he does. My parents live in Trinidad and Tobago, and while I still have a room and a place there, that hasn't felt like home since I left it 4 years ago to go to UVA.

I feel like, and I don't mean to be cliche, my home is seriously where my heart is. So when I went to UVA, far, far away from my high school and the friends I had there, my home was UVA. And when I made friends there, I wanted to stay because that's where my home was. When I came to Penn, I had exactly the same experience. I just sort of adapted and made new friends and Penn became my home.

It kind of makes it so that I don't know what's going to happen next, but it also makes it easier for me to think about going to a new place. Like how easy it was for me to go to Japan and make new friends when I went two summers ago. I'm considering moving out to California when I finish this program in two years, and I can just imagine how much of an adventure it will be, and how great it'll be to meet new people there and find my place all over again.

So I guess that what I've realized is that, although I wish I was one of those people who had a specific and concrete "home base", I'm glad I'm one of those people who can live wherever her heart goes. But for now, I'm happy with my heart (and my home) at Penn.

Halfway There??

So this is just a quick check-in... Yesterday Dr. Thomas, our ethics professor, pointed out to us something that clearly no one in our program had realized: we're already halfway through the semester. She was all excited. She said, "GUYS YOU'RE HALFWAY THROUGH YOUR FIRST SEMESTER! AREN'T YOU EXCITED??!" And maybe it's because it was 9am on a Thursday, or maybe it's because no one really counts the weeks (apparently it's week 8 of 16), but our response was a chorus of "oh yeah?" and "huh, I didn't realize..." and "cool". No one was nearly as excited as she was...

Dr. Thomas was adamant that we should be happy that the first half of the semester is over, but I must say, the end of the semester is going to be SOOO much worse than the beginning was. She mentioned how difficult it must have been to go through the transition phase, but I've gotta say, it was the easiest thing in the world, like a fish slipping back into water. We made fast friends, and I feel like I've been in this program my whole life and known these people since childhood.

So in comparison to the beginning of this semester, these next few weeks are about to be terrible...well maybe that's an overstatement. We have three papers due next week (short papers, but I like to exaggerate) and one due the week after that. Yeah, the second half of the semester is when it all goes down...

But like I said, I like to exaggerate. I think most people in this program would agree that the second half of this first semester is only going to be relatively difficult. I think the real difficulty is going to come in the next few semesters or years, but only time will tell...                                            

Oh God...It's Cold

So as you already know, I was born in New York. And as you don't already know, I was actually born in early February, so yes, I do know what winter feels like, or at least I used to, because when I was 10 years old, I moved to Trinidad and Tobago, and to the warm, carefree life of the Tropics.

Of course, I did come back to the States for college, but even then I spent my four years in Virginia, where we did see snow, but usually the temperature stayed around 50 degrees and never got much colder. Basically, it was quite a bit colder than any weather I ever felt in the Caribbean, but it wasn't the type of cold you feel up in the Northeast region.

This brings me to the question: how am I going to survive this weather??

Today was the first really cold day of the season, and I have become painfully aware that I'm really not ready for this cold. I look through my closet and think, "There is nothing in here that is going to protect me from the Philadelphia cold." I need a new fall coat, and maybe a new go-to hoodie, because my favorite one is riddled with holes through which heat has been escaping,

All this can only mean two things:
1. I am going to die if I don't buy myself some new coats/jackets.
2. SHOPPING SPREE

This is definitely the perfect opportunity to go out and spend some money on clothing! Hopefully I'll find something that will protect me from the cold weather. But until then, this is definitely me...

Now I'm off to fight for survival in the cold. Wish me luck!

We Probably Party Too Much

I say probably because I'm not too sure that it's actually possible to party too much, but then again I'm thinking I probably need to cut back before our program gets hectic and throws a bunch of papers and projects our way.

Earlier this week, I spent some time hanging out with a girl in my program who I haven't had a lot of contact with so far and a guy who's in a different GSE program. We spent a few hours drinking beers at City Tap House even though we had said we were going to participate in the bar's trivia night and had some interesting conversations about things like GSE, schoolwork, going out, and other people in our programs.

I must say, I have loved being in this program and getting to know not only my fellow counseling students, but also other people in GSE and beyond. One big connection I have made that I want to discuss here is my participation in events with other African American students. Last weekend, one girl from GSE hosted a big potluck dinner in her room in Sansom Place and it was a great opportunity not only to eat some home-cooked food (and WOW it was delicious) but also to take some time getting to know other black people at Penn. And unlike when I was at UVA, I actually feel at home with the African American people here. I guess it's that I finally see that I can fit in despite my differences. At UVA, I always felt like I didn't fit in, and now I feel so much more accepted for who I am.

Also, of course, I have bonded so deeply with the other members of my cohort. I feel like I've already made some best friends who I can share everything with. I've also had some wild nights partying with them at clubs and checking out the sights in Olde City...

...and I look forward to more. And I won't even discuss the infamous Game Night...

Having said all that, YES I have been having so much fun both in my program and in Philadelphia, BUT I am wondering whether I'll be able to sustain this level of fun-having when our bigger papers and projects start to come up. That being said, I now remember just how chill our program is in comparison to other graduate programs, so maybe I don't party too much.... But I'll keep you posted.

I Was Born to be a Phenomenologist

So this week in our interventions (theory) class, we learned all about existentialism, and next week we'll be talking about person-centered therapy. It's been pretty interesting because they're all focused on the idea of phenomenology, that the person's subjective view of reality is what matters, not some objective idea of how the world really is.

I love the idea behind these theories! As I'm reading through the foundations of the theory, I feel like I was born to be an existentialist, a person-centered therapist, and a phenomenologist. It just makes sense to me that the individual should be the one making the choices about how their lives should be.

Even based on ethical practice and multicultural practice as we've learned here, this whole focus on the client as the expert on his or her own life seems to make logical sense. We're meant to follow the client's lead, not to impose our own beliefs or values on the client, to see things through the client's eyes. I don't even know how you can do all that without the basic assumption from phenomenology...

As you can see and all in all, I swear this program just keeps getting better. It's funny because I went out to dinner with my sorority sisters last weekend. I'm in Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Inc and my sorors here are all graduate students or professionals in the Philadelphia area. They all talked about how stressful their graduate school programs were, how much work, how they didn't like the other people in their cohort, or how they spent days thinking, "WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?? I NEVER SHOULD HAVE GONE TO GRADUATE SCHOOL."

Needless to say, I WAS SHOCKED! LOL I probably sounded like a naive optimist when I said how amazing it is to be here at Penn, how supportive and fun my cohort is, how chill our professors are, and how laid-back the work has been. I don't mean to sound unrealistic, but for real, for anyone thinking about becoming a counselor, Penn is definitely a great choice, in ways that I didn't even realize before I started talking to other people about their grad school experiences...