Thursday, April 22, 2010

one more day

~one more day of Practicum left to go. Woohoo!!

~Tomorrow is my last day at the high school and I only have one student left to meet with. Oh yes, I am excited.

~I met with 3 students today, 2 of which I have been meeting with regularly for the past 3 months. I'll kind of miss them.

~It's been interesting, to say the least, working at the high school. I never realized all the drama that goes on in high school, I guess I was lucky that it either didn't exist (doubt it) when I was in high school or I just happened to steer clear of it (more likely).

~Just to give you an idea of what I've been working with this semester...

~Girl #1: a few weeks into our sessions, she announced that she might be PG (she's a sophomore). Honestly, I never thought it was really the case, but more that she held on to the possibility for the drama and attention that it brought her. At least 4-6 weeks went by w/o her finding out if she was or wasn't!! No sense of urgency at all. Her boyfriend (who is a junior but has not been in school since February for some reason) is a dirtbag, treats her poorly and they fight every other day. As bad as I want her to dump his dirtbag a$$, I can't come out and tell her to do that, but I am pretty excited that today she revealed that she was pretty close to calling it quits this past Monday after yet another ridiculous argument with him. Sounds like she's considering it more than ever. A step in the right direction I say.

~Girl #2: her boyfriend is getting a medical discharge from the AF after being gone only 4 weeks or so. We spent the majority of our sessions discussing their relationship (she's a sophomore) and prepping her for his departure. She has great potential for success in school if she didn't miss so many days of school. She's dealing with truancy right now and missed 3 days last week. She claims to me that she won't miss as much school next year...i'd be silly to believe that.

~Girl #3: we have only met 4-5 times. major family dynamics issues going on here. she likes to talk and she said meeting with me has been helpful for her, just having someone to talk to, even if we didn't have a whole lot of time together. just last week she revealed to me that she may be PG (she's a junior) after impulsively going against her long-standing belief in abstinence. she was supposed to go to a doctor and find out last week so I anticipated either a very stressful session today or one full of joy and relief...her mom canceled her doctor appointment last week for some reason and so she still does not know if she is PG or not. her mom (and by default, this student) doesn't have a lot of faith in over-the-counter tests so it's doubtful taking one would give her any relief if it came back negative. This girl has potential if she doesn't end up PG. And I kind of hate that I may never know what happens with her.

Friday I will meet with one last student...she is 19 and is at least 3 credits short of graduating. I've been meeting with her in more of a "cheerleader" role, not true counseling, but still the job of a school counselor. Sadly, I discovered last week she's a bit of a fibber, you know, telling those little white lies, like she's already finished Unit 2 of her on-line course, but in reality she hasn't finished Unit 1 yet...and she's been enrolled in this on-line course since November. She needs it to graduate. There are four weeks left. You do the math. Should be an interesting session tomorrow.

4 comments:

Beatriz said...

Interesting working with teens isn't it? You know I have to disagree, I think a lot of the problems faced today by teens really weren't there for you or me. Sexting? Designer drugs?

Sex may not have changed much but these teens sure know how to up the ante with new twists!

justem said...

Yay! You made it. What with all these pregnant teens. Holy man.

k said...

SA - oh that is for sure!!

Em...and get this...this particular school typically ranks #1 for teen pregnancies in the district. they are #2 this year.

Anonymous said...

Wow intereting! My friend who has 19 year old daughters who are involved in youth work has said that this age group seem to have a passion and yearning for drama that is incredible. Too much reality tv or something I guess. I think when I was that age I wanted things to be as simple as possible.