It's been a crazy last few weeks. I have applied for a few jobs and grad school. This is the week that I should hear back about school. I am so nervous to hear back. I want to know so badly, yet I don't, because that means that I will have to face my future, weather or not I get in. Three days last week I was working three jobs, and I normally work two. I was supposed to hear last week about school, and it was postponed until this week. Friday to be exact. I have applied twice and taken the MAT three times. I really do hope that I get in. I guess that if I don't I can't say that I did not try, because I did. I tried my very best. I have given it my all, and all that I can do now is sit back and wait. Wait anxiously for Friday to come along.
I last three weeks I have been working in the LDS Employment center and loving every minute of it. I wish so much that they would let me stay there. That is where I want to be. Helping people find jobs. It is a gem of a place. No backstabbing, none of the typical work environment things happening. I keep being asked how I like it over there, and I give the same reaction. I love it. Let me stay! Even the people over there have said that they want to sign a petition to keep me. I think that doing that or working as a Job Coach are my dream places to be.

Veggies and me

I just bought a juicer and veggies. Yup, a juicer. I love it. It is fresher than buying pre-made juices. I love it. Just put the fruits and veggies in the juicer the night before and ready to run out the door the next morning. The biggest problem? Figuring out how much nutrition is being lost in the pulp and finding some great recipes. Suggestions?

Personal Statement #2

So I need to resubmit my grad school application this week. WooHoo. So, here is my rough draft...

To whom it may concern:
My name is Jamie Luthy and I am applying for the Masters’ in Rehabilitation Counseling program for Fall of 2011.
Helping people has always made me happy. I am very much a person who thrives on the success of others. I currently work as a job coach aiding a woman with a developmental disability hold a job. I also work in an employment resource center helping others find jobs.
I have a great since of who I am and where I want to be. I have wanted to be a part of the Rehabilitation field for many years. I have a great tenacity and an inner commitment to myself to go after my dreams. After learning about this program I studied hard and did not pass the Miller Analogies Test the first time. I took it two more times and passed on the third try. This shows that I am not willing to give up when things get tough.
For the past three semesters I have appeared on a panel of people with disabilities for and introduction to Special Education course to help raise awareness of disabilities. I want to continue to do so, bringing to light that they may have a disability, but that does not make them any less of a person.
I worked in an internship position during the Spring 2011 semester, that of my final semester while earning my bachelors degree. I worked forty hours a week as a job coach for two men with disabilities, putting together six different schedules- one for each day of the week, Monday through Friday in fifteen minute increments showing what they needed to be doing throughout the day. I also helped look for work and strengthen their job skills. I did this while taking Dr. Smart’s course Psychosocial Aspects of Disability.
I plan to work as a Rehabilitation Councilor and help those who need some extra help and encouragement. As someone who has spent my life surrounded by some who believed in me, and others who did not, I know both sides and want to be the one who believes. To know that there is help available in this world for those who need it is exciting to me.
I know that the techniques which I will learn in this program will be able to help generations. I firmly believe that everyone has their own innate set of strengths and that sometimes we loose track of our own strengths and need someone to help us find our way. This is what I hope to do; help people find their way.
Having been raised with several people who have varying disabilies and friends with disabilities ranging from cognitive to physical and psychological I feel that there is much for me to learn, and a lot that I can bring to the program. I have had family members who have had Alzheimer's’ disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, neuropothy in their feet, hearing impairment, Attention Deficit Disorder, bipolar, depression, Dyslexia, apnea and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have had friends with Aspergers, seizures, cancer and acquaintances with depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, diabetes, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita and many other disabilities. Having a brother with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result from the war has made me more determined to help those who need a little more love. Having watched the way that society approaches those with disabilities can be saddening and harden society. In a world full of anger and hate, I feel that having a loving face to encourage them along just might be what is needed. They have been beat down enough, let’s work to lift them up.
Thank you for considering me for the Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling program. I hope to do great things with the education which I will be afforded.

Rejuvenated and ready to go

I have been meaning to update this for a while now, but clearly have not. I re-took the MAT this last Wednesday. I prayed, I studied and I got a priesthood blessing. I went into the test knowing that if I did not make it this time, that I was going to call it good... at least for a while. There were many questions which if left to my own knowledge I would not have known. Gratefully I was not left to my own devices. The first time that I took it, I scored in the 22%, the second time was 34% I needed to be at 40% or above. I neglected to study the night before, but surprisingly was not terribly nervous. I took the exam, finished in just around an hour. Generally you get 60 minutes, but because of the fact that I am ADD, Dyslexic and have test anxiety, I got more time for which I am grateful. I did not feel rushed or anything, just confident that I had done my best. I finished with a score of 402. The proctor said that that was a good score, so that made me feel good. It was in deed a good score, good enough to get me a 46% and beat out my boss. I currently work two jobs, and I had to go to one shortly after finishing the test, but first I had time to run home and ask my roommate "Who has two opposable thumbs and just passed her test?" We were excited together. I then emailed the school and asked what I needed to do to reapply. I was so excited. I had prepared myself either way, weather I did well or not, knowing that I could not just call in to work. When I went into my second job, the one with the boss who had also taken the exam, he asked how I had done. I just grinned and said I PASSED. I then started jumping up and down saying that I had done better than he had. Everyone was so excited, it was even mentioned in our store meeting on Friday. I am so excited to move on with this chapter of my life. The school did say that if my letters of recommendation are more than a few months old then it would be in my best interest to change them. The crazy thing is... I feel good about them all... still.

Surroundings

I had posted on a social networking sight that I had graduated from a fully accredited university and in a way was rubbing it in the face of those who never believed that I would make it. To which, a friend made a comment that got me thinking. Within the community in which I live, this crazy phenominon happens. If you are male and you do not serve a full two year mission for the LDS church, your prospects decrease dramatically. If, on the other had, you are female and serve an 18 month mission, your prospects go down. To compound that, if you graduate from college it goes down even more. I am also planing to attend Graduate School, which means that my prospects will go down even more. I would like to some day marry and have a family, but at the same time, I am not willing to stop my dreams just to keep my options open.
Keeping all of this in mind, with all of the wonderful people that I am surrounded by I have been able to see some wonderful men and find some great qualities that I want in my future husband. Most recently, I want for him to have a sence of urgency with respect to his testimony and responsibilities. I want for his family to be the center of his world. I love my family. We have our querks, as all families do but when it comes down to it, we love each other. And when my future husband and I start our family I want for us to be the center of his world. While having a sence of urgency I also want for him to have a great respect for women and all at the same time, I want for him to be able to have fun. Is all of this too much to ask for? Again, I have been blessed to be surrounded by some great men and each of these things are drawn from one of more of these men. For those of you who are great men who understand the greatness of a woman, wonderful. For those of you who do not, perhaps you should learn.

Dyslexia?

At work we have this great thing where we do mock job interviews. Yup, we get paid to find another job and it is great. I have so many resources at my disposal that I can not even describe. I went into one of these interviews one day, and we are supposed to treat them like a real interview, dressed up, resume in hand, the whole nine yards. So I went in and one of the questions was about a weakness that I have over come, and the first thing that came to my mind was dyslexia. To that I got a slap on the wrist. Not literally, but pretty close. One of the boss' was siting there and he said something that struck me. He said that in all of the time that he has worked with me, and in everything that I have written, if he did not know that I was dyslexic he would not have known. I thought that that was so great. It truly is a weakness that has become a strength and I am so proud of it, but not something to be brought up in an interview.

Take 3

Well, now that I have graduated the next step is to take the Miller Analogies Test.... again... for the third time. It has been so frustrating to take the test again and again and, yes.. my score has increased significantly, but three times. Good grief. One of the managers that I work closely with took the same test once, four years out of school and passed, barely, but passed. I am fresh out of school but I can't manage. I am studying hard, and hoping that I can do it this time. I know that I can. I was given the advise to get through the end of my last semester and then study my little heart out. I was banking on having a few weeks to study. As it turns out, I found out today that the latest that I can take the MAT and have the score go in on time is next Wednesday. For those of you counting, that is less than a week from today. To say that I am slightly freaked is an understatement. I called my mom today and all she said was "Well, at least you do not have much time to freak out." Again, I don't get tragedies, I get hiccups. Which, is ironic because at the time of this writing I have hiccups and if you know me, you know that I may be little but my hiccups and sneezes are anything but little.