it is finished

I'm feeling rather virtuous - my last assignment is all sewn up and in the bag, ready to be posted tomorrow! Yay, study complete for the year.

I was going to reward myself with chocolate on completion of the masterpiece but, courtesy of our nice neighbour, we have a Cadbury show bag full of more than $20 worth of chocolate and I grazed on it all day.

And besides, I'm not sure I've really worked hard enough for a reward - this assignment was due last Monday. (don't stress about lost marks - two week grace period remember) I crammed the last three modules of readings into two days. I winged it (wanged it, wunged it, wung it?) through the whole semester really. Does such behaviour deserve reward? I mean, any counsellor worth their salt knows that you don't reward bad behaviour. You gradually encourage people to change by offering incremental rewards for good behaviour, shaping them into goodness. I suppose eating chocolate while studying is a form of shaping. One way or another. Whether it's shaping good study habits or the hips I'm not sure.

On the positive side, I might have scraped through the formal work on a wing and a chocolate, but I learned fabulous life lessons along the way. I discovered that I'm not very disciplined, I'm not as healthy as I like to think, I need to cut out a bunch of stressors in my life, I'm scared stupid at the thought of counselling people, my past will always influence the way I am in the counselling room. OK, so that was nearly all negative, but I feel like I want to go back over all the readings and drink them in slowly and apply them in my own life. I have so much to learn, so much to grow in.

I may never become a counsellor (as I said, scared stupid) but I will never regret studying this Grad. Cert. I am a richer, broader, wiser, wider person because of it.

And you can't complain about that. In fact, that deserves a reward I think!

Hmmm, if not chocolate then what? A new top? skirt? pair of shoes? lingerie? book? CD?

I gave Frank the option... a CD or all of the above. He suggested (dryly) that a CD might be sufficient. (The lack of discipline and all that... sigh)

I FINISHED. WAAHOO!