Internship: The Grand Finale (Week 15)

Friday afternoon marked the end of an amazing, intense and extremely educational internship.  In my final week, I ran the floor all by myself, feeling competent and confident the whole way through.

I had one last shadowing experience this week -- just a few hours, not a whole day -- in the Child Advocacy Center.  This center is housed adjacent to the hospital, and is affiliated with it, but provides services to the specific population of children who have been abused (physical and/or sexual).  There I witnessed two forensic interviews, and the accompanying physical exams.  I can't write about any of what I saw or heard, for obvious reasons.  I found the experience intense, heartbreaking, and eye-opening.  Some of these cases go directly to Advocacy, and some go through the Emergency Department first.  I think that in the course of working in an ED I could handle these cases as they came.  But to see nothing but abuse cases all day, every day, week after week, would soon see me suffering severe compassion fatigue.  This is the one venue I've seen child life in that I can clearly say:  This is not for me.

My last day sailed along smoothly until about an hour before finish, when suddenly I got called for three procedures back to back.  Looking back, it kind of seemed like an impromptu final exam.  My teacher said I handled the intense pace with aplomb -- organized, calm, efficient, and effective.  My final review came back with flying colors, and offered praise so generous and sincere it brought tears to my eyes.

 The coming weeks will see me handing out a lot of resumes and hopefully doing some interviewing.  I won't be posting updates about the job hunt process, but rest assured that once I land a job, you'll be hearing all about it.  Matthew has reaffirmed the generous offer he made when my internship started -- to move if I get a job out of town.  So, please keep our family in your thoughts/prayers as we travel through this next transition period in our lives.  All in all, I feel ready for this transition.  The internship provided me with a strong foundation that will serve me well in whatever child life job I find myself.

Meanwhile, you can expect to see lots of updates to the website with all the pictures I've taken of Malcolm in the last 15 weeks, yet failed to get around to posting.  The coming weeks will also see lots of other "catch up" -- like house projects, mountains of laundry, penpals to write to, etc.  Somewhere in all the work, there will be some lazing about, watching of movies, and maybe a yoga class.  And some Starbucks treats.