“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
– Arnold H. Glasow I am currently in the process of setting myself on fire (cue Alicia Keys). As painful as that sounds, and sometimes seems, it’s a good fire. A fire of change, renewal, and growth. This is certainly the most challenging semester in graduate school. For me at least. With increased clinic hours, class work, and continuous studying for the test that will determine if I can be a clinician, it’s been a busy semester thus far. One of my professors said that in graduate school “we are all currently in a high pressure cooker for a lifetime of advancement.” It is because of this I say bring on the flames. These flames light the pathway for the rest of our lives in a fantastic career. Sure, I may be ready to be done with the classroom theoretical knowledge and want to get to the application part of it all, but I need to respect the journey. And trust me, I do. I am well aware that there is so much that I still do not know; however, I am more of a learn-by-doing person, so I want to get out there and start doing. Octavia Butler once said, “In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.” I know that this hard work and dream chasing may not be easy, but it is absolutely, undoubtedly worth it. I need to remember this fact when I am not in the mood to go to class or clinic or the library and would rather have a day off watching Netflix and not putting on pants. I need to remind myself how lucky I am to be in the one percent of the world that gets to receive a higher education. It is not a have to situation, but instead it is a get to situation. Can you say blessed? I can almost taste the celebratory beer I will drink at graduation. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is getting brighter and brighter every day. Ladies in my cohort, we are so close. We just have (get to have) a little bit longer in the classroom. Then we will be in the real world practicing what we have spent the last several years learning. This fact is both terrifying and exciting. It’s frisson. For those who would like to gain a vocab word, frisson is the place where thrill and fear meet. It’s a much better word than the combinations I was trying to come up with myself (terrifiting or exhilarary). So, like Fawkes, I will rise. I will rise from the late nights and early mornings spent studying for the Praxis. I will rise from the countless hours working on research and homework. I will rise from the libraries that I have considered my second home. I will rise from the years of academia leading up to my career. I will rise from the ashes from setting myself on fire. While I won’t be a mythological bird, I will be a Speech-Pathologist, and that is enough for me. Okay, okay, it would be really awesome to be a mythological anything, especially from Harry Potter. As for now, I’m taking life advice from the music icon, Usher, and I just gotta let it burn. Always, Molly
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AuthorJust a twenty-something attempting to create the illusion that I have a clue what's going on... Archives
May 2017
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