Mijo Takes a Break

 

I remember having a cold wet feeling on my legs for days before my MSSW Orientation. It was hot, muggy, and August in Knoxville. I was constantly checking if my pants were soaked or if I spilled something on my legs. I was nervous, delusional, and not able to sleep leading up to the orientation. I never thought graduate school was a possibility for me. And there I was in the country’s best sports town entering the program I dreamed about on the road to MSSW and optimistically to LMSW. It felt surreal. Orientation came and went. I was left with swag from the College of Social Work and ecstatic to be a Vol.

Two years later, I would decide to take a leave of absence to have a surgery I’ve been postponing. I learned in graduate school that my body is not as resilient as it was twenty years ago in my undergraduate pursuit or as resilient as it was twelve years ago when I joined the Coast Guard. These past two years, I found myself frequently ill with irritations like strep throat, ear infections, migraines, and issues with my prostate that still need to be diagnosed (I am dreading the diagnostic exams). However, I also found lots of successes in the past two years through my studies at the University of Tennessee. I was hired as a research assistant in the Center of Behavioral Health, I was hired at my practicum as medical case manager/social worker, and I stayed in good standing. In the long run, I left both jobs and made my return to behavioral health where I was quickly promoted. Behavioral health has been my passion since I graduated with my undergraduate degree and reason for pursuing higher education. To quote Charles Bukowski’s poem, The Crunch, “our educational system tells us that we can all be big-ass winners. It hasn’t told us about the gutters or the suicides. Or the terror of one person aching in one place alone untouched unspoken to.” There are people that need interventions that can only be provided by people taught in post-secondary education institutions like graduate school. This is why I am pursuing my masters, I get a kick out learning what I do in the classroom and doing what I do outside the classroom. I will take this leave of absence to have my surgery (fix my loose screws, I literally have loose screws in my jaws that need to be extracted) and recharge because at forty I am not as resilient as I was the day before yesterday.