Holy Goodness it's July!

I have survived almost a month of my internship and half of my first rotation! Crazy!! 

So this week was full of fun, new, exciting, and nerve-wracking moments for me as I started doing more things on my own. Right off the bat I lead the weekly group session by myself. I got to plan for it, so I planned about a billion activities and ways to do them for all different age groups... and I ended up with a 2yr old and a 3yr old. Which was awesome, because they were great and I got to try out a bunch of things with the younger crowd. I got to see one of them the next day for an individual session which went fantastically. It was awesome. Because of that awesome session with my nonverbal little one, I have decided to share an activity with you all. But more on that later. I also ended up leading a whole session just sort of on the fly and made up some pretty good songs, but alas, as quick as they cam they went, and I have forgotten all. :( I have 2 kiddos to see on my own on this lovely 4th of July!

This week (and the coming week) was Camp Sunshine back in GA, and it's the first time I have missed it since I was 8 years old. Since 1997!! It has been pretty tough not being there, but the pain was softened a little because this week I had the chance to observe a session with one of my people! (kiddos with cancer) woohoo! He was a cutie, too. And he loves Music Therapy.

One of the things I learned this week was that sometimes, it's okay for a session to not really involve any music. Sometimes that kid needs someone to talk to, and you as a MT are that person. Music may get you in the door, but it's okay if every once in a while that's all it really does. And, sometimes it's okay to just jam with a kid who knows what they are doing, which brings me to the next thing I want to talk about: my new personal goals. They are:

1. Learn more about the bass guitar! Sometimes that is the instrument that really gets you working with adolescents, and I need to be able to at least look like I know something about it when working with them.
2. Brush up on my Spanish. There is a pretty decent Spanish speaking population here, and word got out that I took Spanish in college, so if we ever should meet someone who does, I better get it together. I wrote down a couple of helpful phrases that I will use when talking to a pt or caregiver who only speaks Spanish, because that translator is not always going to be there!

Those are just the latest additions to my goal list. Now the fun stuff, the activity I promised will be coming at a later time. I really feel it deserves its own post!