Penultimate day of work :-( and :-)

Today was the day before the last day of work. I felt :-( and I felt :-). Once again, a bittersweet moment. All week I've been thinking 'this is my last Monday, my last Tuesday, my last...' you get the idea. I cleaned out my desk today of all my stuff, way more than I ever thought I would accumulate at any job. I said goodbye to a few people today because I knew I wouldn't see them again tomorrow.

Yesterday I spoke with a person who went on and on about money and Occupational Therapy and their curent position and flexibility and how I'm never going to have this and that and the other while in OT. You know, basically trying to discourage me by saying negative things when what they really want to say is 'I'm better than you. I won't come out and say that but you know I'm saying it and I know I'm saying it. But wow, even though I think I'm better than you I'm amazed that you're following your dreams and going to school full-time.'

So I punched them in the face.

Ok, I didn't do that because that's not in my character but I wish I could do it and get away with it. I also wish people would just say 'Congrats' and keep negative thoughts to themselves because I don't really want to hear anything negative. This is a positive time for me so let's think happy thoughts. It would be better for me if you just talked about me behind my back. I mean really, just do it because I would never know. This way you get the satisfaction of making yourself feel superior and I get the satisfaction of continuing to think positively. Besides, the whole time this person was talking to me I was thinking 'What if I smacked you silly right now? What would you do? Would you realize you know nothing about OT? Probably not. You'd probably just keep talking.' Sigh. As terrible as this sounds 99.5% of the people are completely supportive and that's the group I focus on and talk to most. I think yesterday's conversation really bothered me because I wanted to say something but it was the penultimate day of my penultimate day and I really don't want to leave on a bad note. Not good.

My wonderful coworkers treated me to an awesome lunch at an incredible Chinese restaurant. The restaurant, which shall remain nameless because for the first time in history we were treated very poorly there (but if one of my co-workers wants to comment below on the name be my guest!!), has an all you can eat option for groups of 6 or more. There were 9 of us but we ate like there were 15 of us. I almost believed there were 15 of us because the food went so fast. I kept looking around for the other 6 people. The food at this restaurant is excellent. My coworkers all chipped in and paid for me and I was so happy I wanted to kiss each of them. This was their second time doing this...they did this once before at the same restaurant (when the service was actually good) for my birthday. I didn't kiss them but I almost did. Didn't I tell you they're awesome people??? I'm really going to miss them. Great food, great company, what more can a girl ask for?

Three of my co-workers buy their lunch everyday and there was a conversation about how inefficient it is to prepare a lunch everyday. One coworker contested that it makes more sense for one person to fix lunch for 5 people then for each of the five people to fix lunch for themselves. I thought this was hilarious because while they purchase lunch everyday, I bring my lunch every day. It's second nature for me to prepare my lunch, I don't think much of it anymore. So, I made them a deal. I told them that if each person contributed $5, I would prepare the lunch and provide drinks. Hey, what can I say? As of tomorrow at 5pm I'll be an unemployed grad student. I have to get creative with streams of income. Maybe tomorrow I'll offer to stop by once a week and clean their apartments and their work cubicles. I'll keep you posted on that :-)

Anyway, the two pictures I've posted are of me at my desk and of my desk without me. It's kind of like now you see her and on Monday you won't. Tomorrow is my last day. I can't believe it. I've only been working at this super top secret company for a little over a year but I've met some really interesting people and I actually had FUN at work. I'm not kidding, I genuinely like my coworkers. And I'm not just saying that because they may be reading this. And if they are reading this, then I'm telling you now, I genuinely like you! (insert thumbs up and kool-aid smile here) I always had fun with them, they treated me well and they're all really interesting. You're never gonna find a more interesting, lively bunch. I would post photos but then they probably wouldn't be happy and the company would say I put them at risk then they would go down and it would all be my fault. I don't think that would be much fun.

If you're looking at my pics and thinking 'Gosh, she must have had a lot of stuff to move because her desk is messy' you can relax because my desk was ALWAYS messy. And this is after I cleaned it and packed all my stuff. Ha! But all that matters is that I know where everything is, right? Right. And most of the time I did know where everything was. That's important because I'm training my replacement at work and every day I keep asking myself if I'm forgetting something important that she needs to know. It's important to me that we at least touch on the major stuff because my team will be very dependent on her to keep things running smoothly. I just hope I'm not forgetting something. I would feel very badly about that...

On a final note, someone asked me why I didn't choose the major local public university that has like 30 or 40,000 students. They are under the impression it's a better school because it has more national recognition, it's super duper large, has lots of public funding and blah blah blah. Honestly, I thought about it. It's closer to my home and saying I graduated from there would be cool and it would sound good. However, when I was choosing a school to attend for OT and I began researchign programs and faculty and staff this school's program was not very...satisfying to me. I didn't like the way it was structured and there was very little hands on training and support. Plus, it would take me 2 years just to finish their pre-reqs and there was no guarantee I would get in. I felt like they were more focused on research and using their students to perform functions that students should not be focused on. Plus, their staff wasn't the most inviting or friendly. I wasn't interested in spending 2.5 years in a cold, robotic environment. My current school, however, had a very down to earth, supportive, nurturing staff that really stressed responsibility, accountability and learning. And they really wanted to know me as a person! They're program is excellent and focuses on what's important and relevant to an OT; I was drawn to them, the campus and their program. I was also drawn to their commmitment to learning anatomy, neuroscience and physiology and the importance of learning something new, uncomfortable and out of your element. This is what OT is about.

Last week I went to Orientation and I met most of my professors and classmates. I felt so comfortable! And yet, I felt like this would be a real challenge and I enjoy challenges! My favorite part was when Instructor D starting giving the rules and regulations for the anatomy lab. I wish I could have jumped up and kissed him right then but that probably wouldn't have gone over very well. But I probably could have stoop up and shouted I LOVE ANATOMY. I can't wait to get in the lab and dissect the cadavers. This is going to be my favorite part of grad school. And we have TWO ENTIRE semesters of anatomy lab.
OH.
MY.
GOSH. TWO SEMESTERS!!! I'm overwhelmed with emotion right now. Anatomy is soooo interesting! Dissecting cadavers is awesome! I can't wait. I'm doing cartwheels! We have school M-Th from 9-5 and Fridays off. But I hear on Fridays everyone goes to the Anatomy lab to study because you really have to know your muscles and insertion points and locations and so on. We have unlimited access to the anatomy lab. We can come and go at any hour of the day or night. That means 24-freaking-7.
OH.
MY.
GOSH. 24-7!!! It doesn't get any better than this. It really doesn't. I think I might faint.

If I were a few years younger I would try to find some medical degree that is in agreement with my health and lifestyle views and pursue that. Then I could work with people and study the body all day long every day. Not that I can't do that as an OT because I can, which is also one of the reasons why I chose OT, because of the marriage of anatomy and people. I'm great with people! I love anatomy! Life is good.