Nearing the End...

Wow! It has been a while since I last update this, but now that I feel like I have more time maybe I'll write in here more frequently. Its funny that the last entry I wrote was about going to start school, and now this next entry is about the end of my first year of didactic coursework for occupational therapy. It's been a long and difficult journey that went by quickly, and I just have one more final tomorrow before I start my summer of fieldwork!

At the end of the month I will be going to various (pediatric, mental health, physical disability)clinical sites to get some first-hand experience! Its really exciting, all of my assigned locations nearby and the fieldwork educators are very nice. I can't wait to experience all the reasons why I chose to pursue OT! And the increase in free time doesn't hurt either ;)

This past year has been quite a blessing... I think I got into graduate school around this time a year ago, Tina went to church with me for a while, school began a few months later, Joshua moved back :), the ongoing supportive family/friends, and new friendships that were formed. Thank you for being a part of my life!

Of course throughout all this God has been supporting me, I'm very grateful and thankful.

Stupid Books!!!!

So I just finished purchasing all my books recently and I've been slowly receiving them... All these book sellers give their books a better condition rating then the actual condition of the book... Its so irritating to receive books that are not in the condition that I expect them to be in! Yes, I am a picky person... but if I'm going to pay more for a better conditioned book then I want it to be in the right condition! HAHA!!

Aside from that I bid on this set of anatomy books on ebay a month back or so, and it just so happened that the day I decided to look up my books I found this great deal on a set of books I needed. I was super excited because I found these books 2 hours before the bidding was going to end, I thought it was like a God given gift!

Weeks have passed, I have not received the books and there was so response from the seller regarding my purchase so I filed a claim with ebay... after that the seller responded and wasn't even willing to work things out with me and said he wouldn't be able to go through with the purchase due to a family emergency... I was really irritated at first, but eventually the seller said that he was away from home because his mother had fallen ill. I was still irritated, and said something along the lines of 'Ok. I'll be expecting my refund."

But as the days passed the Holy Spirit kept encouraging me to say a pray for him, but I really didn't want to because it would make me feel awkward since that person was a total stranger to me... eventually I gave in and wrote a pray in my response to the seller and he responded 'Its hard to say how this made me feel. Thank you is all I can say.' I'm not sure if this was positive or negative, but I can be hopeful that he felt the love of God through the prayer.

The moral of the story: God might put you in uncomfortable situations sometimes, but everything He does is according to His will and purpose, so just trust Him to know whats best for you and for others whom He loves :)

Back to School

So I'm going to be going back to school very soon, and I'm rather excited and nervous at the same time! I really like preparing for school; knowing what my schedule will be, seeing/buying the books I need before school starts, and just having all the other necessary basic supplies. Whether I actually read all the books and use all the supplies is another matter.

I checked out my scheduled classes for Fall 2011 and I'll be having classes all week long, 3 hours a day, except for Wednesday which will be 6 hours. I'm pondering how many hours I'd have available to work since it would be good to make a little extra money while I'm falling into debt... but at the same time I'm worried about having this hectic course load and being employed at the same time. Work is not recommended while attending school full-time, but it seems manageable if I only work 1-2 days a week and take off time to study when I have exams or projects.

I woke up thinking about what books I needed for school, so I looked up the the required books for my 5 classes. There are 14 required books!! And these textbooks are not cheap... Of course the school book store sells the book at inflated rates in comparison to if you search it out to purchase it on the internet, but I know I'll be spending at least $500 on these book even if I'm purchasing at prices below the school bookstore rate.

All this gets me thinking about school loans and the debt I'll be in after I'm finished... I'm about 10k in debt from my undergrad loans currently, but after I receive my Master's I'll be about 150k in debt. Its absolutely crazy how deep in debt a person can get within a few years! Time to make sure I know how to manage my finances!

Financial Headaches

I was recently accepted into a Masters program for Occupational Therapy at a private university... so of course the cost of attendance is sky high. I've gotten my financial aid paper work that is full of loans and now I'm just trying to crunch out the numbers that I need to fund my entire school year.

Of course tabulating the mandatory things like tuition and student body association fee is easy, but then I have to alter all the other expenses to not incur way too much debt since 2 out of the 3 loans are not subsidized. Okay, back to work I go....