Excelsior and Schtuffs

Hello family and friends!

My, oh my, the past few weeks have been absolutely insane.

In early March, I started a new job which was also fulfilling the role of my practicum site. The job was not at all what I expected it to be. I work at a (mostly) inpatient facility for youth with behavioral struggles, mental illnesses, and/or chemical dependency struggles and it is always an adventure. It was a serious dose of culture shock coming into work and expecting to be called names that I wouldn’t repeat in front of my grandmother, and understanding that at any moment a client had the potential to actually physically injure you. (Thankfully, I haven’t ran into that yet.)

I was told when I was first hired that there was a cycle that happens when you first come on, and I definitely underestimated its trueness. For the first 2-3 weeks, I hated that place. I came home pissed off and went back trying not to appear to be. There also seemed to be a miscommunication with scheduling at first and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I worked 47 hours one week… it was crazy.

But I am now about to start my eighth week and I couldn’t be more content with the job. Now that I’ve been able to learn the ropes and receive necessary trainings, working at Excelsior feels incredibly natural to me—it’s awesome. Here’s where the fun part comes in…

On Friday night, I was working an overnight shift as a floater. A floater basically means that I pick up kids who call in the middle of the night asking for a ride back to the facility and/or hop from unit to unit giving other overnights breaks as needed. Friday night didn’t really work that way for me. It was a pretty chaotic night and being in the wrong place at the wrong time threw me into the mix as well. I’m not going to go into too much detail but long story short a client took my keys from me and stole my car… it was awesome. (ßThat’s sarcasm)

The police found Padmé (that’s my car’s name) within an hour… I think. I hadn't talked to them until a little bit after they had arrived. Apparently the client drove it into a shallow ditch, but on the bright side “It looks like it’s just a flat tire” is what I was told. Well, Mr. Officer, I appreciate you trying to keep my spirit lifted that night, but that is not the case at all. I went to the repair shop that it was towed to today and the mechanic told me that he couldn't say for sure until he finished a full inspection, but he was guessing there was around few thousand dollars worth of damage. So, now I’m playing the waiting game and hoping there’s not actually a few thousand (or more) worth of damage to it, because I’d really prefer for it to not be considered totaled. Prayers for good news to come out of that would be greatly appreciated.

There is some good in this story, I swear. How Excelsior handled this has given me a great glimpse at the kind of place this really is. I’ve had multiple people check in on me since it all went down, one calling to let me know that she had found a replacement for my shift the following day if I wanted to take a personal day (which was amazing), and I’m pretty sure all of the damage, towing, rental car, and whatnot is going to be taken care of. A couple of people have asked if I’m going to quit, but honestly, after all of the experience I’ve gained and tackled, I would be ashamed to throw it all away out of discouragement or fear that something else may happen. I am really excited about this opportunity that I have been granted to work in a field that I am passionate about and I am actually excited to go to work tomorrow.

I've also been thinking a lot about my post-Whitworth plans lately and am starting to get excited about the thought of grad school and all of the different roads I can take. Thankfully, I have some time until the big decisions have to be made in that department, so I have time to be excited about everything before it turns into pure stress. :)

That’s really been all that I’ve been up to. I requested for a cut in hours, so I’ve had a little more time to see friends and get stuff done, but other than that, I’ve just been living the dream. I am feeling really good about life and all of its contents right now, so that is a true blessing.

Thanks for taking the time to catch up on what I've been up to!

-A

Energy drinks have basically been my lifeline lately.

This is the front view of the damages.

Most of the damage is to the right side's internal mechanics (suspension, tie rod, etc.)