Living life and figuring it out, one little piece at a time

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Winter Placements

I'm finished 2 out of 3 of my winter placements.  The last of my third year is coming up in the next 6 weeks, and then we go through the summer into our senior year.  Senior year.  Me?   Senior midwifery student?  Do I actually know enough to be able to call myself that?  I sure hope so.

I'm looking forward to being back in midwifery placements.  Now that I'm feeling better about the move that we're facing, I'm letting myself look forward to what I'm looking forward to: easy access to babysitters and daycare, an elementary school that's walking distance from our house, a CLINIC that's walking distance from our house!~  And the opportunity to start giving good midwifery care again, after a full year away from it, having been in so many different kinds of settings.



Our soon-to-be new house in Guelph.  We move in April 15!


This semester has, though, been a very nice chance to breathe.  In January, as I mentioned before, I spent the month doing research for the policy committee at the College of Midwives.  I almost wish that this placement was a required placement, and I think you (you! midwifery student!) should do a placement there too.  It was very good learning, and very good writing practice.  I learned more in this placement than I did in most of my other midwifery courses, and helped the College with some really important admin work at the same time!

This month, I've been doing "Virtual Placement".  This means that the first two weeks of the month, we're studying pharmacology modules, and the second month, we are in a pseudo Midwifery video game world where we pick our own adventure to see the outcomes from various challenging scenarios.  It's pretty neat.  It's kind of weird.  Mostly I like that I pulled 4 twelve hour days in my first week, finished it all, and now have this week free of placement duties!

Next month I'll be placed at a naturopathic clinic, where I'll also get to work with a registered massage therapist and an osteopath.  I'm looking forward to seeing how these different modalities work and gleaning some tips that I can take into my midwifery placement.


And admist all of this, I've been spending a LOT of my time on completely non-school related things (such as writing this blog post).  Most importantly, I've been helping my partner Jamie (a professional West African drumming performer and teacher)  build up his website, and organize a Drum Dance, and Yoga retreat that's sure to blow even our own minds.   People, you have NO IDEA how much work it takes to organize a retreat!  I think I've put 20 hours a week into this thing since the New Year!  But its really paying off now, we're a month away from the date of the retreat and its looking super.  Mostly, I'm just excited that with all the work I've put into organizing this retreat, I'm going to be able to sit back and enjoy the fun while Jamie and our other instructors work their magic.  Self care, people!  For me, comes at the cost of 20 hours a week for three months in exchange for one weekend!  :D
So there's my little plug about that.  I highly recommend checking it out (I'm not biased or anything) and registering before March 1st to get a $50 discount. 

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Our family begins a new journey

The senior placement lottery has been the bane of my existence since the minute I started considering the Midwifery Education Program.

There is a lot of unpredictability in this program.  We relinquish a lot of control of our lives to the greater purpose of our schooling and the future that it will hold for us.  In second year, we awaited results from our first placement lottery with bated breaths.  But that placement only lasted 16 weeks.  16 weeks is do-able anywhere, really, given the necessity. 

This one, though, is the whammy.  The senior placement lottery is a placement that we're in for a whole  year.  And for many of us with families, the idea of not being placed in our home community is absolutely terrifying.

For at least a month before we found out our placement choices I had become obsessed with the "what if's".  I've lived in the same town, on the same property, since I was 19.  The entire history of our family is in this place.  Its the only home my kids have ever known.  My son was born here.  And as much as our family was growing out of our little cabin in the forest, it was in the forest (what better place?) and we've been surrounded by a loving and supportive community. 

But then I got the list of placement choices, and it did not include any options that would allow us to stay living here.  I knew it was going to be a possibility because I'd talked with the  midwives here in the last few months, but I was still clinging beyond hope that something would change.  In a way, finding that out then was a good thing.  We had the opportunity to pull out the map and really think about what community we wanted to move to (with a lot of restrictions, of course, since many practices in many communities don't always take students). 

And so, after debate and deliberation, we put in the "Top 4" choices, and I got my first one.  Of course, it wasn't my first choice, because my first choice didn't even make it on the list.  But it was my first choice, and so I can't complain too much.  Our family will be starting a brand new adventure in Guelph, Ontario for a year (or permanently....at this point, who knows?). 

At first, I was terrified.  I don't want to leave the forest. Rent is easily double in Guelph what we're paying right now.  I don't know hardly anyone that lives there. I really don't want to leave the forest.  My husband is going to have to basically re-start his business as a professional jembe player and teacher from scratch. I don't know anything about the midwives there.  I don't want to leave the forest! 

Aaah but the ideas are settling in.  A classmate emailed me the day after I found out where we were going about a friend's rental home and it is turning out to potentially be an absolute match made in heaven.  The landlords seem like very cool people, the local school is one of the best in the area, the house is absolutely us and it is a 3 minute walk away from my new clinic! We're going on Thursday to have a "real live" look at it and sign the lease.  I have never, ever lived so close to my work before.  It's going to be a real treat to entertain the notion of coming home on lunch breaks.  I think it's going to free up a lot more time for me to be with the kids and do mom stuff that I felt like I could never do when my workday didn't end until the end of my long commute.

We'll definitely have some adjusting to do, being on a main street in a city when we're used to silence all around us, but I think the trade offs are going to be worth it. 

And after all, the forest isn't going anywhere.  I'll make sure to come back and visit it often.  <sniff>