Doing the Happy Dance

I am SO doing the happy dance today because at 5:00pm I finished my 100th direct hour with clients!!! All I can say is:

WOO HOO!!!!

So let, me break down my counseling jargon for everyone so you can properly celebrate with me. I'm in the last leg of my Masters program: my Practicum, which is basically our version of clinicals. To graduate, I have to have 200 hours of indirect hours, these are the easy hours to get because they include the paperwork, research, attending training, meetings, supervision and just about anything related to seeing clients without the actual seeing part. I finished this part several weeks ago. The hard part, the part that takes forever for some people is obtaining the 100 direct hours required, which includes the face-to-face time with clients... nothing else! Despite the ridiculous amount of no-shows and cancellations that happened the last few weeks, I have finally arrived! I've completed the requirements of Practicum and can officially apply for graduation. Now the somewhat sad news is that I'm not totally responsibility free. I'm contracted with my off-site placement through the rest of the term, so I'll keep seeing clients until October 15th, but the good news is, other than keeping my skills fresh and getting extra training, every hour I get after my 100 transfers to the next leg of training... the part where I will have to pay for my supervision of my 3,000 hours. So here's to getting the free extra hours so I don't have to pay for them in the future. Here's to knowing I will graduate in October and being one step closer to a big-girl job (this is were Jonny shouts "Amen!!") and here's to the next phase of life! Now its time to study for my licensing exam.....