I'm... done?

I now have my MSW.  It's not quite official yet -- no diploma and no transcript yet -- but I actually made it through the program!  I mean, it wasn't that bad (honestly, I found undergrad to be harder), but it's hard to believe that 3 years have passed since I started the journey into social work... and bada-bada-boom, here I am now, Addison X., MSW.

From mbanews.co.au

I'm one of those people who doesn't really like change that much... transitions have always been hard.  Although this transition from being a part-time grad student to being a Real Adult™ with a Real Job™ isn't going to be as difficult as similar transitions could be, it's still a change. (When I say similar transitions -- for example, to me, a bigger/more difficult transition would be graduating from undergrad if you've lived in the dorms the entire time.  Compared to that, I have a lot of Real Adult Stuff™ under my belt, like paying rent/bills, making meals, managing money, coping with car maintenance, etc., since I got married 6 years ago.)

But yes... the biggest transition will be to working.  Actually having a degree that is worth something is a little mind-boggling.  I mean -- I valued my undergrad degree, but the job market is such now that a Bachelor's in psychology barely gets you anything (unless you are super lucky and/or have previous job experience related to the field).  But a MSW is pretty damn versatile, and I'm really kind of excited to see what the future will hold for me.

I am most likely going to be working two part-time jobs, at least at first, but I'm not entirely sure.  The majority of social workers that I've talked with who have their Master's work anywhere from one to four jobs.  The job I will (hopefully) be starting at, is at the agency where I interned from September last year to the end of April this year.  However, I will need to find another job because there are certain expensive things that my husband and I are going to need to buy at some point.  Like a 4WD car, because with the part-time job I'll (hopefully) be taking, I'll be driving all over and in the winter, well, roads around here are less than pleasant (and also, less than predictable!).

But there's another set of things that I'll need to focus on, now that I'm done with school (and can therefore no longer use grad school as an excuse... haha).  This "set of things" includes working on socializing again -- for the sake of socializing!  It sounds sad, but I realized last night that I actually haven't met people/had to interact socially just for socializing for a very, very long time.  For the past 3 years, the majority of my socializing has been either in classes, or online.  So yeah, I'm going to need to start, you know, meeting people with similar interests.  Not necessarily social work, but music, and books, and gardening, and all of the hobbies I used to have but haven't really spent much time with since... well, since I started grad school!

Photo credit not mine.

Here is my current list of things that I want to do or begin to do now that I'm graduated (and once we get a bit more money that can be spent on "frivolous" stuff):

1) Get involved on NetGalley again, reviewing e-ARCs of books (kinda already started that). ♥

2) Start taking some kind of dance lessons (I've been thinking something like jazz or expressive dance...), or if not dance, then vocal lessons.

3) Teach instrument lessons again (and actually advertise teaching).

4) Write more.  (Which involves doing NaNoWriMo every year if I can.)

5) Figure out how to record better quality audio tracks.

6) Look around on MeetUp and see if there are any groups I'm interested in being a part of, that are NOT related to social work.

I'm sure I will add to that list as time goes on... but it's a start! :)

Cheers!

~Addison X., MSW.