So far the semester has been shaping up to be just as busy as I anticipated; I'm taking 12 credits, which is the equivalent of an 80% course load. Half of those credits are for my practicum, which is 3 days/wk over 15 weeks, totaling to 315 hours, all for a grade of either 'credit' or 'no credit.' I'm also taking 2 regular academic courses at the 3rd year level. Luckily, only one is super-intense, with 2 or 3 journal articles to be read for each class and 2 major papers. This is an Anti-Racist course for social work practice. My other class is Community Development. The text is an easy read, we are graded on a midterm and an exam (which may be 'take-home' which I think means a paper), as well as a group project. Normally I don't like group work, but this should be interesting - the class has been divided in two, so my group has about 14 members. Large, yes. Unwieldy? I don't know - I already know and like most of my group members, having had at least 2 classes with most of them. The School of Social Work is very small, one could even say 'tight-knit.'
Despite only having 2 'academic' courses, this semester is way busier than any other semester I've taken. I'm busy every weekday, and away from home for 7 hours a day. I'm used to having classes on 2, maybe 3 weekdays, leaving lots of time for at home study. As it currently stands, I have class Monday morning from 8:30 to 11:30, and every other Monday I have my practicum seminar from 11:30 to 2:30. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I have my practicum from 9:30 to 4:30. Friday I have class from 11:30 to 2:30 in Abbotsford, a 45 minute drive from my home. I try to run errands or do research at school between dropping my kids off at school and going to class. Soon I will be trying to fit in some on-campus time to continue with my work-study job as a Social Work research assistant around the school's policy manual and their new master's program. As well, I'm still volunteering for the Surrey Crisis Line for 4 hours a week, but now I have no time during the week, so my shift is Sunday mornings. Saturday is my only sleep-in day, now.
This is a huge adjustment for me. I haven't been employed in the workforce since July of 2008 - a year and a half! I have been really spoiled in that. The job I was at was one I'd had for almost 4 years, and I was quite comfortable with my employers and co-workers, for the most part. Now I have to get used to a whole new set of expectations, as I'm job shadowing a professional, it's a position which requires at least a bachelor's degree. It's a high stress field characterized by burnout in a lot of instances. No one outside of the profession really understands a social worker's role and what s/he does all day long. Because the job is really about managing relationships, it is characterized by "putting out fires," which tend to disrupt the normal flow of work and any sort of routine or schedule which one may have put in place.
Also, the field of geriatrics is something I've never considered or studied in an academic way. Despite my last post, where I noted the theoretical similarities to child protection work and the related ethical dilemmas of consent and capacity, I have no experience with elder care or dementia. Both my grandfathers are still living and both my grandmothers passed quite suddenly. Both lived with arthritis for many years, but I wasn't really associated with those experiences. I don't know anything about diabetes, heart disease or any of a number of medical diagnoses that I've heard medical staff discuss using acronyms I can't catch. I don't know what any of the medications they mention are, beyond Tylenol, baby aspirin and a few narcotics for pain. I don't know anything about the various types of dementia and the stages involved. I don't know how to be with these residents, how much they can understand. It's all so new and unknown.
But I was prepared for all of this. I anticipated the busyness, the lack of professional knowledge and experience, the long days, the lack of time at home alone. Still, anticipating this, being prepared, does nothing to ease the actual transition (except for maybe relieving me of experiences of guilt, feelings of not being good enough, etc...). I'm still busy and overwhelmed and I'm spending a lot of time single-parenting. My husband needs to learn how to drive an effing car now.
So I am paying particular attention to self-care this semester. To me this is mainly time alone, with no demands and interruptions. I am an introverted person by nature, and I need at least an hour to myself every day. Mostly, this is spent reading. I read novels for pleasure and I read numerous online blogs. A lot of my time spent in blog-land is centered around self-sufficiency. Gardening, less reliance on the industrial food system, animal husbandry, cooking from scratch, even 'prepper' blogs focusing on peak-oil preparation. (What can I say? I'm crunchy granola. Why else am I in a field committed to social justice?) However, over the past 2 weeks, this hour has been pushed to 11pm to 12am. I'm not getting enough sleep. Case in point - I slept 10 hours last night, and the kids and I are still in our jammies at almost 4 in the afternoon. It's our day of 'recovery' from the week. (Lord knows the kids need it just as much as I do - they hate school!)
So I've been looking to find other ways of expressing my need for self-care. I've been developing my existing friendship networks. Of course, my family is as awesome as always, but I'm also cultivating friendships with my fellow social work students, many of whom are mothers and are older than the average college student. There have been some fun times after classes this past week. I'm also working on a regular 'date night' with the hubs, even if it's only a movie on the couch. I'm also considering how to work into my schedule more movement and exercise. Maybe a bike ride with the kids or a walk on the beach? Maybe a yoga class? I'm not sure how this will pan out, but at least I'm engaged in trying to find the time.
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