The time of year in which I can come home from work and do nothing but play video games is at an end!
Instead, my spare time has been replaced with more work. Game time must now be balanced with papers, reading, group projects, presentations, and study sessions. Reading for fun? Ha! No more of that. Comic books and fantasy novels have been replaced with journal articles and dense textbooks. I couldn’t be more disappointed or happier, all at the same time. If that makes any sense.Â
Loving what you learn can make all the difference, but school has its own special way of becoming tedious no matter how enjoyable you find the subject matter. For me, this semester holds an extra dose of promise. This is the semester that I have found my focus.
In my counseling theories course during my first semester I was given the task of writing a paper on the subject of what theory or theories I was leaning toward and why. Pretty standard paper, right? I wrote a few truthful sentences about CBT and attachment theory and filled it with a lot of fluff since I had some idea of my theoretical orientation, but still wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to commit to anything on paper yet. I definitely wasn’t ready to start thinking about my thesis.
Fast forward to today and I am bursting at the seams, ready to jump headlong into a pool of theoretical mess and put a nerdy twist on it all. I have found my focus, everyone!
Or have I…?
See, my program is very small. My professors are super supportive as well, but I am not too sure I could find the right help to make my thesis as epic and well, me, as I want it to be.
How do you go about creating something from nothing, when the expectation is to find support for your focus of practice? The current research of these topics is lacking. Most of my instructors have probably never even opened a comic book, let alone thought about using them in their practice. Without the proper support, my new found excitement and passion might find itself fizzling out.
It would be wonderful if I could attend Dr. O’Conner’s class on Geek Culture in Therapy at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
While the information on geek culture would be review for me, the application of it to therapy would be significantly useful. Unfortunately, I am not a doctoral student, and I am no where near Chicago.
I continue to hope that someone will have a training or class on these topics out here on the west coast. For now, I’ll be checking for updates on websites and listening to podcasts, soaking up all the information I can get.
Until the epic purple journal articles start to drop, that will have to be sufficient.