Putting the RAD in Grad School

Ecstatic to report I took one step closer to my dreams yesterday and started grad school to get my master’s in counseling. As a huge nerd, I about peed myself buying books and school supplies and yesterday at 4pm I started Introduction to Counseling.

Right off the bat, the professor had us go around and tell the class about ourselves, and I was first. I said something along the lines of “I moved to Denver from Omaha, Nebraska three weeks ago and I want to be a sex therapist.” My professor loves to use sex therapy as an example of a concentration because I was very open and clearly very excited about it. I am so excited to begin to write papers using my access to scholarly sexuality journals.

Perhaps this is what it feels like to be taking a course you truly belong in. Oddly enough, the seven-hour-straight structure seems like a couple hours at most.

I am usually the student (or was in undergrad/high school) that procrastinates until last minute, but I started the paper that is due tomorrow yesterday and finished it today. For a while there, I was worried hell might freeze over because being ahead on an assignment is NOT my style (At my worst, I was “fashionably late” every once in a while in classes I didn’t care about).

Instead of taking pre-medicine classes like I did in college that were passive lectures, we have thoughtful discussions and share about our own lives. Every time this happen, my professor thanks us for sharing. I don’t remember that, empathy or any personal emotions allowerd in my 300-level biology classes.

Just to add some depth to an otherwise extremely peppy, geekfest, I will share a truly uncomfortable period of my life from today: the30-minute counselor role play we did today. Digitally recorded. Have you ever heard yourself on voicemail? It’s WORSE than nails on a chalkboard because you genuinely wonder how people stand your voice all day… but whatever, it happened and now I have a cringe-worthy recording of my first attempt at counseling that I will try to forget ever happened (after the assignment due next week, that is).

GO, GO COPING MECHANISM, REPRESSION!!