I had a very exciting week last week, and I thought that I'd share some of it with you all.

Friday at 3pm, I had to present my research to proposal to my faculty mentor, Dr. King, and to two experts in our field. I asked an OT faculty member who works and researches in cognitive rehabilitation (rehab of things relating to thought and processing in the brain), and a staff member with his PhD in education.

I cannot tell you the number of times that I've been discouraged for my project. It has had its fair share of failure and/or setbacks in the eyes of others. Trust me...at times, it has not been easy. But, with my mentors implicit approval and encouragement and my determination to do nothing more or less than my best effort to help adolescents with sickle cell disease, I have been bullishly persistent in the idea.

I stuck to my research project. I cannot tell you how glad I was that I wore a blazer to the event...I was sweating jugs before we began, though. I felt like there was even more at stake here because one of the committee members had recruited me for a focus group on the program. I provided a lot of feedback (they are literally integrating almost every point in the new curriculum and teaching expectations, according to the staff member). I wanted to show that I also walk the talk about being engaging, hard working, thorough yet concise, and fun! And that acquiring knowledge can be gratifying in and of itself!

THEY LOVED IT! They loved my manual. They loved how it was written. They loved my protocol. They loved that it had real world application. They loved that my presentation used humor (this is rare in OT, believe it or not). They barely had any suggestions for improvement. They also loved all 3 components. I think they liked that I brought in jelly doughnuts and croissants for them to eat, too, after explaining how red blood cells and sickle cells were like each, respectively :) I was really worried that they'd have a lot of feedback, and I'd have to completely revise my write-up for IRB approval. Thankfully, that is not the case, and I can aim to have it submitted by the end of the semester!

As DK and I were leaving she also said "You should consider teaching." I said that I was considering it on my list of goals. When we got down to lab she said that I was great and called me "The Professor"/"professor Joyce." DK is not the type of person who lightly gives praise. Ashley and I practically come out giddy and giggling when she tells us to "keep up the good work," because she sounds impressed and is implying that we did good work. I like it like that. It means that it's legit what she's saying. She's also intelligent, fun, hilarious, and quirky. I just LOVE my lab in general. Definitely another example of why picking the right place for ME matters.

I really feel like I humbled myself before that experience, and I now also have the encouragement to help sustain me and keep me going through whatever the next drought may be. I can still honestly say that I am motivated 100% by the adolescents and my desire to give it my all and learn whatever I'm meant to learn from this experience. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. The goal now is to still work diligently and with pure intentions.

I came home and did nothing all weekend that was related to school. I caught up on 4 loads of laundry, packed up part of my room, cleaned, went to the zoo, taught Rheanna how to play baseball, went to church and a luncheon after, organized WUSOTA minutes, watched a movie (Surf's Up:), and went out to a cool bar, called Hair of the Dog. They have board games and free pinball and stuff there. Blast.

I have my moments/days/weeks of feeling like a failure, or like my actions are misunderstood or misinterpreted, and a whole host of other things. Without grace, I wouldn't have gotten through this past year. It's not over yet. There's a lot left to do, but I'm going to do it!