Welcome to My Bumpy Ride.......

Before you all read on, I guess it is best to introduce myself to you and let you know a bit about myself. I am Susan, and first and foremost, I am a mother to a wonderful young man. Though he is grown, he will always be that three year old little boy, that asked all those questions and expected answers to them all. Though I will tell you much about myself in this blog there is no one or nothing that is as important to me as him, even if I don't discuss him much, because he kina likes to remain private.

For years I was actively trying to find myself, but that was a big waste of time, since by doing so I was not living. All my life I have always known that I was "different", but was unable to know why that was. I first thought that perhaps it was because I was adopted, but that was not the case. Turns out, I am bipolar and pretty much have been all my life. This was explained to me about nine years ago when I had a major melt down. I tend to be more on the depressive side, but have on occasion been quite manic. My last episode was early thru mid 2008, with full blown depression. For five months, I bearly left my house, let alone my bed. Why am I telling you this? I just want it out in the open and let you understand that I discuss my illness from time to time.

Present day, I am currently a full time student, studying social work. At the end of 2011 I was approached by a mentor of mine, who mentioned a new program that was going to launch here in Rhode Island. This new program called the Peer Wellness Coaching, was something that I had always wished would become a reality and to add even more excitement was the fact that this mentor was inviting me to train for a position as one of the Peer Wellness Coaches.

So currently (spring 2012) I am part of the three phases of training and should be employed by the fall of 2012. What is even more excellent about this program is that they are aware of my education goals and are willing to work with me on maintaining those goals.

Also you might hear me mention NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), because I am actively involved with them. I am a facilitator and state trainer for the NAMI Connection groups (peer run support group) here in Rhode Island, and I also help teach high school and college students about mental illness through NAMI RI's Inside Mental Illness program.

So with all that being said...I hope you read on to my daily activities and thoughts and such.



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 14, 2011 Run Down of Classes


Middle of the week for me in school.  Officially I have been in school for a full week now and let me tell you that this semester is going to be full of work.  I didn’t realize that I could end up with more than I had in the previous semesters, but that is exactly what it seems like.  Even though it looks like I am only going to have one final exam at the end, which is excellent by the way, I feel like the other two classes are going to hit me hard.

In Biology each week I have to do a PowerPoint presentation and a 25 question quiz.  Of course there is also a lab each week, but the good part about that is I don’t have to do a lab report.  One thing that is great is I have thirteen weeks of the semester and only have to do ten presentations, quizzes and labs.  What this could mean is that I will be done with this course at the end of November and only concentrate on the other two classes.

Physics is not too bad.  There will be homework after each class and of course reading the chapters in the book.  I have to take a total of four exams and basically those are my grade with only ten percent of my grade being my homework and attendance.  Again I have to attend the labs, but I don’t have to do lab reports.  So that is not too bad.

Intro to Social Work has no quizzes or exams at all.  I will have to do three 5 to 8 page papers, which I am actually looking forward to.  The first one that I have to do is the history of Social Work.  I get to pick a concentrated subject, and I have decided to discuss the asylums of the past.  Since I chose that area I get to continue through for the other two papers.  The second is on Social Policy and the last will be on the Social Work Profession.  The great thing is the concentration I chose will be great for all three.  Attendance is a part of our grade and we also have to write a journal entry each class about the material that we went over.  Being that I blog, I think I have that area covered.  If you miss a class, you lose out on the points for attendance and the journal entry, so being there is very important.  If you miss more than three classes, you are automatically dropped from the class.  Pretty scary stuff if you think about it.  What if I have a semester like the last one?

This past Saturday I went to the Rhode Island Rally 4 Recovery.  I hope you all have them in your states, because it is a great resource for information on recovery from addiction and mental illness.  I brought my camera and took a few pictures.  Here check out the shot I got of some balloons…



I didn’t stay long though.  I really don’t know why I didn’t. I guess it was because this year the event was packed with people and I was beginning to feel anxious, and I really try to go with it and avoid taking Adivan.  Guess it was getting much and actually I left the medicine at home.

Well I am going to head out because I have less than an hour before I have to catch the bus.  TTFN
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