How do I even begin to reflect on the most influential summer of my life? I want to write a million words to explain how I feel about my departure from my first "year" in graduate school but I don't have the slightest idea how I could even begin to formulate what I want to express.
Today we terminated our program in a healthy way, sharing our feelings about each other, social work, our teachers, and ourselves. We talked about what we learned and how we learned it. We shared deep stories. We laughed a lot. And we cried a lot. We played basketball, ate homemade food and ice cream, and wrote each other notes. We sat in a circle. We stood in a circle. We communicated one-on-one.
Looking around the room today at the people who I began this program with just under two months ago makes me realize the importance of relationships, understanding, accepting, and learning from differences, and the true value of experiential education. We have changed so much both individually and as a group and I know that without the people in my program, I would never have grown and learned as much as I did.
Words cannot begin to express how meaningful this summer was for me at YU but I am so thankful for every moment I had.
