10 June 2009

After a long talk with M last night she agreed that the Business College is not going to work for me and my plans on getting the eventual Occupational Therapy degree somewhere down the line.

She did bring up some good points for me to consider though. Dealing with the public is not one of my strong suits, and as an occupational therapist I would be doing that every day. Well, I shouldn’t say it’s not a strong suit, because I do work well with the public, I just don’t like to do it. But I think working at the VA would be different. And it would be mostly on a one-on-one basis and not in groups.

M works for the VA right now and she says that the Veterans are usually grateful for the care they get and don’t act like fools like most people do. That’s what makes working with the public a pain in my butt. (I was a bartender for many years, long ago, and I’ve seen the human population at it’s worst!)

M made a second suggestion and I think it would be a good idea if I did this one right away.

I will go to the VA next week and ask if I can do a “Ride-Along” (like civilians can do with the police sometimes) with an OT on the staff at the VA for a day. I think that they will let me do something like that. And if I keep up on them and keep my nose in the OT department over the next year or so, when my time comes to apply for the training through the VA… Maybe someone will recognize my name and know that I’ve been into this for a long time and approve it!

I know I’m pretty much banking on being hired into the VA. The college that has the OT Masters program is a private Christian College and I can’t afford to go on my own. This place is really expensive and it’s the ONLY college within about 200 miles that has a Occupational Therapy program.

So the plan is to work on the local college transition program to the Christian College until I get it all done. Hopefully by then I will be in a position to jump straight into the Christian College with the VA’s backing!

I won’t lie to y’all and say I’m not a bit scared by this. Because I am. Scared. Very.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a good student, because I can be, it’s just that I have to work harder at it than I think most people would. M says I have adult ADD, which is always possible. But studying is very hard for me to do when I’m alone. I need someone to study with to keep me on track. To tell ya the truth, I should be studying right now, but here I am doing this instead. I have two finals tomorrow and one Friday night. So I had better get my butt in gear and finish this up before I go on about other things, eh?

I’m Alive… So Far…