free books, internship

i've been picking up free books here and there over the last few months. i found lance armstrong's autobiography in a pile of reading material in the trash room. a charles baxter award winning novel was up for grabs among other free books at sacred heart. most recently, i found amy tan's the kitchen god's wife in the free section at king's rare and used bookstore, the largest used bookstore in michigan. i tell my mom about the second hand books i'm reading and i can hear the "aiya" look on her face as she tells me to wipe down the covers with a wet towel.

so right now i'm reading the amy tan novel. i've never read amy tan before, but i have seen the joy luck club movie. so far the kitchen god's wife seems to be exploring many of the same themes: mother-daughter relationships, the clash between first and second generation chinese immigrants, etc. but the coolest thing about the book is that one of the main characters, pearl, is a speech-language pathologist. how cool is that? excerpt of a description of pearl by her mother:

But Pearl had a good job, a speech therapist for retarded children, although she told me never to say that. A few years ago, she said, "We don't call them retarded or handicapped children anymore. We say 'children with disabilities.' We put the children first, the disabilities second. And I don't do just speech therapy. I'm really what's called a speech and language clinician. And I work only with children who have moderate to severe communicative disorders. You should never call them retarded."

I asked her to tell me what she did again and she wrote it down: "A speech and language clinician for children with moderate to severe communicative disorders." I practiced saying this many, many times. I still have those words in my purse. I still can't say them. So now maybe Pearl thinks I'm retarded, too. (p. 94)

isn't that cute? by the way, the new buzz word for MR is "cognitive impairment".

i've been thinking about where i will work after i graduate. and i mean that in terms of both setting and geography. it's still pretty up in the air. i thought i knew i wanted to work with adults in a medical setting in toronto, but i'm much less sure of that now. maybe i do like kids. maybe i will go back and work with kids who have autism again. maybe i will work in a school and reap the vacation benefits. maybe i will stay in detroit for at least a clinical fellowship year. but this is not something i am worrying about. i know when the time comes i'll go where i'm supposed to. for now, i'm just applying for my final semester internship (next may-august). the children's hospital at the detroit medical center is looking pretty good to me right now : ) who knows?

edit: besides, it's a sad fact that the demand for speech-language pathologists is so high right now i could get a job almost anywhere. last week i had a meeting with the department chair, alex johnson, during which he took a phone call. he explained to the caller that there are 600 vacant SLP positions right now in michigan. there might be 150 new graduates from the five programs this may. that still leaves 75% of those positions unfilled. crazy.

References

Tan, A. (1991). The kitchen god's wife. New York: Ballantine Books.