We have been so grateful to spend the last 6 weeks with Shelby Watson, our fabulous Australian intern! Shelby was so eager to learn how to teach nonspeaking individuals to Spell to Communicate (S2C) that she packed up her bags, hopped a plane and embraced American life and clinical skills as a participant in our Accessing Community Through Spelling (ACTS) Professional training and an extended internship. Shelby’s internship has come to an end but she has left a lasting impression on our hearts! We are excited for the lucky Aussie kids who will get to work with Shelby! Enjoy Shelby’s write up about her experiences at GKTC and with American culture. ~Elizabeth
From missing home, to eating crickets on my first day, to getting abs and a sore throat from screaming so much in my first ever haunted house to working with children and adults alike who have taught me more than I’ve ever learned before, it seems impossible to condense the last six weeks into one blog post. And yet, I’m going to give it a red hot go.
So, where do I begin… Well, let’s start at the start. I decided a while ago to embrace every opportunity and run with it. Needless to say, when I was offered the opportunity to partake in the ACTS Professional Cohort and internship over in America at Growing Kids Therapy Center, I could not resist. No matter what, I just had to make it work and so I did – 4 weeks later and I found myself on a 26-hour adventure… From car to plane to plane to plane to car to finally arriving in Herndon, Virginia safe and sound. I had made it, phewf!!
I think it would be a little bit too much to explain every adventure that came to follow throughout my little journey. One thing I will mention though is that I got the chance to experience a full-fledged Halloween with carving pumpkins and a ghost tour through Old Town Alexandria, which was kind of spooky and kind of weird but interesting all the same and I also got to explore through the scariest haunted house ever, which frightened the heeby jeebies out of me. And last but certainly not least, I got to see 407 trick-or-treating children knocking on the door eager to receive full-size ‘candy’ bars on the night of Halloween.
And believe it or not, there were many more things that I saw even more incredible than this. I spent day after day in the clinic at GKTC mostly 9am – 6pm days, 5 days a week; observing and learning, regulating and designing, as well as taking one-on-one sessions and leading the way in a couple of groups. In any other setting such a day could be considered boring or long, but not these ones. I would describe them in much a different manner like incredible or mind opening or just WOW. The most amazing thing about it was that every hour was different and every day I got the chance to observe and learn a little more. Many of the days left me speechless and lost for words.
The thing is, as much as society tries and tries, we cannot and should not try to define each and every human with a label for this and a label for that; so often these labels misrepresent people into something they are not. Simply put we are all human and whether we agree or not, we all deserve a voice and we all deserve the right to be heard. I have always had such a mindset but seeing the intelligence and the looks of determination and gratitude in each of the kids’ eyes made me begin to understand that there are no limits to what is possible.
As Ian concisely put it – “EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.”
In the past six weeks the insights I’ve gained are abundant and incomparable to anything else I’ve ever experienced but I think the most important thing that I have come to really truly realise is that this world is totally upside down, but all it takes is a different perspective to turn a situation around. Think of it this way, when the world seems doomed and seems to be coming crashing and tumbling down, remember when we see a shooting star we make a wish. As it soars through the sky on practically a collision course, we see a spark of hope, we see light and we simply wish.
Ryan –
“MY THREE WORD MOTTO WOULD BE
HAVE FAITH ALWAYS.”
~Shelby
