21

My senior year of college was a turn-around point for me. I was in a good groove, had a great circle of friends, liked all the psychology classes I was taking, and generally stopped feeling sorry for myself.

 

Freshman room/dormmates all grown up!

 

This was not senior year, but you get the idea.

I should have more photos to include here, and I am fairly certain I have a spectacular collection of photos still on my Compaq Presario desktop. The monitor broke shortly after my senior year and I have been lugging it around with me every time I move. It's only been 8 years. One of these days I'll get the data off it.

So, senior year was awesome. I was accepted to study abroad in Spain for the fall semester and turned it down after a lot of soul searching. I think it was the best choice. I was able to enjoy all my "last times" and make major life decisions about what to do after graduation without the added pressure of not being in the country. I would be graduating with a Bachelor's degree in psychology. I had started college with the idea of completing a multi-language (Spanish, German, French) major with a global studies minor. I had a vague idea of working as a diplomat or in some international capacity. I took courses towards that, but the summer after my freshman year, I started working with adults with developmental disabilities in a residential program in my hometown. I worked with adults with "severe and profound mental retardation," who were in community-based homes, most as a result of deinstitutionalization. Some of the full-time staff had actually gone to the institutions to pick up residents when they were transferred out. The conditions were deplorable and people barely received basic care, much less any kind of therapy, treatment, or education. Most of them were totally removed from their families. I worked there every summer and vacation for four years and to see the end result, I often wondered how the outcomes would have changed for the people I worked with had they had better care earlier in life. Dun dun dun... I signed up to do some tutoring in a local special education classroom while at SLU and upon graduation, was leaning toward education, but was still a little undecided. I definitely felt I had to have some more work experience before I pursued additional schooling. I applied for a Student Travel leader position, Teach for America, and at a Boston-area school for children with autism. I had interviews with all three, but will only discuss the avenue I ultimately chose. I had never been to Boston before, so my brother was nice enough to make the long drive over and back with me for my interview at the New England Center for Children. I remember we stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Southborough and we ended up with a room with one bed, which we shared on opposite sides of a carefully constructed wall of pillows. We got terribly lost on the way back (like "hours driven out of the way" lost), but made it. I was impressed enough that back at SLU, I signed my contract, graduated college, and prepared to move to Boston.