Goodbye CFY!

This is the best Valentine's day ever!... It was the last day of my CFY! This blog may seem a little cheesy and you probably won't appreciate it if you aren't a speech therapist. You will probably think I am just being overdramatic, but this is a really big deal for me. I am officially a Speech Pathologist, no longer under supervision. CFY stands for Clinical Fellowship Year... (For speech pathologists, you have to get your bachelor degree and then 2 years of graduate school madness for your masters, and then we have to be supervised for 9 months, aka CFY, after all that just to make sure we know what we are doing.) The best way I know to equivelate a CFY is with is a residency for doctors (except much shorter and without the 6 digit salary awaiting us at the end).

So I have had a supervisor for the past 9 months, who was wonderful and helped me SO MUCH, but now I am DONE! (after I pay a million fees, of course). I can't tell you how many fellow employees in the nursing home's and even in the hospital ask me, "I've been thinking about going back to school. How long does it take to be a speech therapist? A year? Two?" Try six, and not easy ones, might I add. I think people don't realize how long it takes to certify because people don't realize how broad the field is.

I am so blessed to be working in a setting that is keeping me learning and practicing all kinds of skills in the field. For example, my current caseload at the hospital includes: a 2 year old language delay, a 6 year old articulation client, a 7 year old with Down's Syndrome, a 20 year old traumatic brain injury, and a 50 year old aphasic (language impairment after stroke). Then you go to inpatient and I have swallow studies, bedside swallow exams, and language/cognitive evals for stroke patients. It's crazy! No wonder school is so involved

But Praise God I am done with everything! I never thought I would make it this far. Drama queen, I know, but it seems like not too long ago where the Lord put it on my heart to persue and it seemed so unattainable. I was very unhappy with my education major, and I loved healthcare but could never even think about surving physics and chemistry and all those required courses. And then a random girl in my club started talking to me after a ring ceremony one night about her major-speech path, and I just felt at peace about it. I didn't know much about it, or what it required (probably a good thing), but I just knew it was the answer to the prayers I had been praying asking for guidance. I remember going to Becky Weaver the next day, who explained grad school and the GRE and CFY's and I felt like I was so out of my league, but here I am. I am not an intellect at all, and I remember thinking, "Okay God, I will start this route but it seems like it will be a longshot if I make it." Just another reminder that he will make possible the paths he has for us, no matter how impossible they seem.