I am so excited right now (and exhausted) but mostly excited. I can't write long because I'm about to leave for the FIRST HOUSECHURCH OF THE SCHOOL YEAR (Holla!) But..first day of interning was oh so fantastic.

I'll boil it down to this:
My whole life I've wondered why I am the way I am, why I think the way I think, why I befriend the people I befriend, why some things make me tick, and others do not...why I never seemed to fit in with the "norms" of life as I knew it (and when I did fit in..it lead to massive amounts of trouble.) I never understand why everyone looked at me like an IDIOT (aside from my family and close friends) when I decided I was interested in social work, and I never understood why I didn't know about social work earlier. When I started those classes, I spent my classes wide eyed and with a heart about to leap out of my chest at the perfection that was this field of study. I totally fit in, and it was a WHOLE different world of Clemson and college I never knew before. The students, the professors, it's a different universe of strangely like-minded people. I totally fit in and I totally dig it. (This is a major accomplishment for me considering I grew up beating myself up for EVERYTHING and never fully felt as though I belonged in a certain "crowd"..I also felt like I was basically mediocre at everything. This is really sad as I type this because God and my family were shaping me to eventually discover things about myself that I am really proud of.)

Well.
If DSS is the "dirty-work" of the social services world (which it is known for), then I am in for a treat. This position, the workers, the supervisors...they are some rockin' people. Their work is the bomb, and I hope that my experience there will allow me to clear up the very common and very incorrect misconceptions people tend to have about DSS and social workers in general. I can't speak on the behalf of these positions everywhere across the US, but I can speak for where I am now. This work is hard, it's emotionally challenging, and it has it's dark days..but it is NECESSARY, and the goals and protocols set in place are REALLY positive and really focus on rehabilitation..not handing out checks and slappin' a bandaid on the situations. These people are IN the communities, IN the homes, IN the families using every resource, every idea, every theory, and every amount of energy to get these families on track. And they love every minute of it. (Why else would you get payed so little to do something so crazy. Come on.)

More to come!