Days like these make me love my job...

Ok, so tonight at work, I decided to give out some stuffed animals to all of the kids. They went crazy over them. It was great to see them all happy. About an hour later, one of the girls comes up and asks for a high five (see post before .. I'm not a hugger) and thanks me for the stuffed animal. She was the only one to thank me. It's not that I wanted to be thanked but it's always nice to see the kids exercise polite manners. So I went and found her mother and let her know that out of all the shelter kids, her daughter was the only one to thank me. The mom then told me that she needed to speak with me. We walked out of the office and she told me that she appreciated everything that I did. She said that I'm always radiant, have a smile on my face, and am positive. She said that I'm the one person that her kids are always talking about and that she is just really glad that I'm there. She said that I need to do this for a living (which I assured her I was) because I have "it". She then told me not to have kids because she apparently doesn't want me missing work. Ha!

Side note: This is written on my new pair of TOMS which I love!!

If the world was a village of 100 people:

- 1 has AIDS

- 3 are slaves

- 14 are illiterate

- 2o are malnourished

- 23 drink polluted water

- 25 have no shelter

- 30 are unemployed

- 33 have no electricity

- 40 have no shoes

- 43 live on less than $2 a day

- 48 have no sanitation

- 58 have parasites

Just something to think about!

Respect my bubble!

Pretty short post here but I need to rant. Ugh, I hate to be touched. Seriously. At work, when the kids run and try to hug me, I quickly tell them that I'm a high-fiver and not a hugger. I don't mind hugging little kids that I'm watching or my nephews or my mom or Mandy but my list of people I hug is really short. I just like my space and don't like it being violated ... MUCHLESS BY COWORKERS! Oh yes, yours truly got a back rub/pat today from a person at work. This person has already been informed that I do not like to be touched but she did it again today! I need to start working on how to handle this. I just don't think it's right for people to think it's okay to touch people in a workplace setting and I don't think it's okay for people to say oh, so and so's harmless or doesn't mean anything by it. It's inappropriate. PERIOD.

trying to let go and let God...

Ok, so yesterday I got an email from Johns Hopkins about my upcoming internship there (yes, I am interning at THE Johns Hopkins Hospital!!) and whoa did I ever get information overload. I decided to just close the email and go back to it later because I do not need to start worrying about it now. That didn't work. I got an email today from my research professor this fall saying he wants us to get a headstart on our research projects. The same research projects that we have to present to the community in May and basically determine whether or not we graduate. Yikes! So of course I haven't begun to think about the research project because that's completely overwhelming in itself. I sat down tonight and read through the email again and sent off a ton of questions.

I know that I wanted to come back to graduate school and I really want to be a social worker but oh my goodness is this ever stressful beyond belief. I don't know how people do this and not freak out. I'm trying not to but it really is hard. I think the whole problem is that I have always been the type to just take the backseat. I stress out way too easily over things so I have always tended to avoid the "hard" things. I've been thinking about this for awhile now. I really need to stop sitting on the sidelines and letting life pass me by because it's stressful or too much change. Johns Hopkins is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I really can't pass up so I need to suck it up and do whatever it takes to make this happen. I really need to start living my life instead of watching it pass me by.

I used to blog a couple of years ago but it was pretty random things. I'm kind of hoping that this time around I'll be able to try and figure out where I am going with my life. A lot of things have been happening to me lately and I haven't taken the time to reflect on them. I can't say that 2009 has been a particularly good year so far. It's definitely been a rollercoaster ride, that's for sure. It's had some pretty phenomenal highs (Johns Hopkins!!) and some pretty rough lows. But even with all of that going on, I feel like I'm slowly rediscovering who I am and what I want out of life. This time, I'm not settling for anything less. So let's see where this road leads me ....