No more teacher's dirty looks!

A little earlier today I went to my last class and submitted my final assignment for graduate school. I have one more day of internship left on Friday. Then, a week from Saturday I graduate with my Master's degree in social work (MSW).

This most recent semester was much less stressful than the Fall semester. This time I only had 3 classes and the workload seemed significantly lighter overall. It was quite a relief because I really thought I was losing my mind last November / December.

This year my internship has been at an urban Detroit hospital where they have a therapy program for children and adolescents who had either been witness to or been victimized by physical or sexual abuse or they had witnessed the death of a loved one. Along with conducting therapy sessions I was also responsible for interviewing families who had a child in the hospital for medical reasons. In these cases I had to determine what, if any, additional resources the family might need. I also had to ferret out possible child abuse and neglect.

Overall I filed about a half dozen cases with the local Child Protective Service agency. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm glad if I helped remove kids from dangerous situations in their home. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that these same kids won't face equal or worse abuse/neglect in foster care. There are very few good options for children in this situation.

This was a very different internship from the one I had last year. Last year I worked with adults who were violent offenders with schizophrenia. This year I worked with children and teens who were victims of violence in some way and with families dealing with difficult medical situations. Both were great internships, but this year's was more emotionally draining.

This year I saw dozens of families in moments of absolute crisis. In therapy I worked with kids who had witnessed terrible things at home, ranging from arguments and chair throwing between parents all the way to witnessing one parent murder the other and then commit suicide. On the inpatient units I worked with families who were living through nightmarish scenarios, such as a child's severe spinal injury or the diagnosis of a horrible disease.

This year I saw some people be unwaveringly strong and others demonstrate incredible stupidity. I talked with parents who showed admirable bravery in the face of Hell, and I called security on parents who couldn't control themselves and who started fighting in the hospital hallways. I worked with successful middle class, two parent families from the suburbs and I worked with impoverished, unemployed, homeless mothers with as many as ten children and no family or friends to help out. I saw the system work sometimes and I watched helplessly while children were taken away from their mother for no other reason than that they were poor.

All in all my classes were pretty good. Some of the classes were kind of a joke, and some were very difficult, but it was at the internships where I got my greatest education. It's been a good couple of years.

It may sound corny or schmaltzy, but one of the things I learned the most this year was sheer gratitude for Barb and the kids. My family is intact and not affected by divorce, violence, illness or poverty. After spending all that time at the hospital this year, things like divorce, violence, illness and poverty started to feel like the norm. It's easy to take our happy and pleasant life for granted.

Now I have to find a job. I have a couple of irons in the fire, as they say. I have my resume out to an outpatient adolescent medical clinic where they want to have a mental health therapist on staff and another resume out to an adolescent HIV/AIDS clinic. Barb's sister knows people at the local V.A. hospital and sent my resume to them yesterday for work with traumatized and/or addicted veterans.

So, that's it. The only thing left between me and my Master's is the graduation ceremony, which I wasn't even going to attend, but Barb is making me... and my mom is flying in for it as well. Even Simon is excited about it.

Until then, I just get to hang out, goof off, be lazy and play with the kids.