A Winter Adventure!

Actually this should be titled Winter Adventures, but whatever, I'm too lazy to change the title.

So, after getting done with my fall semester of college on Monday, I had four lonely days to spare before the weekend rolled around and all my friends got done with college. So basically I slept away four days. Anyway, when Saturday rolled around, I was very excited to participate in one of my favorite winter pastimes for the fist time this season. No, I do not ski or snowboard...I'm talking sledding, a.k.a. what all the cool people do. So My family packed up the car, I put on my thunder thigh snow pants, and we trekked out to Dryer Rd park in Victor. Don't tell, but it is one of the best sledding hills around, plus they have amazing mountain biking trails for the rest of the year. So we sledded (slid? sled?) for like 3 hours, the high (or low, depending on your viewpoint) point being when my mom and I decided to go down the hill back to back on this tiny but really fast sled. I think you know what happens next. We hit the bottom of the hill at a tremendous speed, and are flung from the sled as it starts to spin. I land face down in about a foot of snow, and as I'm laying there preparing to get myself out of this ostrich-like predicament,I hear my mother wheezing like she's suddenly asthmatic and I pull my head out and look around, worried for my mother's health. Well, it ends up she was wheezing because she was laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. Apparently our near-death experience was funny to her. As I cleared the snow off my face she managed to get this out between bouts of laughter: "My...laugh laugh laugh....feet were....laugh laugh laugh....OVER MY HEAD!!" Anyway, as a result of this, my mother and I had matching whiplash (ok, maybe just a sprain/pull of the left neck muscles) when we went to church on Sunday.

My second adventure began Monday when the twins picked me up to go 'hiking'. We ended up snowball fighting and messing around on the playground more that hiking lol. First we had a snowball fight in which I managed, with my extremely inaccurate throwing arm, to land a snowball right in Nicole's passenger seat. Whoops. Guess that's what you get for showing up late. Then we ventured out onto the frozen river, where we bravely crossed (thankfully without dying) and even made "ice angels". We finished with some dramatic sledding which involved Dan and Joanna spinning around and screaming like lunatics. Overall a very good day.

End of Semester!!!

So, with the semester winding down and only finals between me and a wonderful 2 month break (with some awesome field periods thrown in), I thought I would summarize what I have learned this semester.

1. I learned a whole lot about a whole ton of mental disorders. I loved Dr. Arnolds stories, and they taught me to look a little deeper as to why people are the way they are.

2. I learned that not everyone has the same definition of normal.

3. I learned to see bias from all sides.

4. I learned that having a successful career as an OT does not mean you will make a good professor.

5. I learned what it looks like to others when you 'just wing it' (badly) and aren't prepared for what you are responsible for.

6. I learned that life is short, and life is tough.

7. I learned that everyone is 'messed up' or changed by something in their life.

8. I learned that old people sometimes eat plants, and that you have to find someone to make you laugh during class, otherwise mental breakdown may ensue.

9. I learned that I had learned more than I thought I had learned.

10. I learned a crap ton of information about the brain, and how to think more like an OT.

After 3 semesters of college I find myself thinking from a new perspective. I can now walk down the toy isle in Walmart and think of ways to adapt toys for children of all different abilities. I think I judge less quickly now and I try my best to avoid using those labels that can stigmatize people (my least favorite being 'retard' - see earlier posts about DRIVE program). I cannot wait to do my field periods and get that experience knowing how much progress I have made in college. Sometimes during this semester it seemed like we weren't learning anything - and indeed, in some classes we probably weren't...that 'review' class for our final (which the prof was not even remotely prepared for) was a load of crap - but I think that upon retrospective reflection my classmates and I can find some value from this semester.