Faking It

I had an epiphany. I've just figured out what Psychology means to me. Sounds weird right? I love Psychology, every aspect of it, and I've known since my first day in Psych 101 that I would be a Psychologist and why I wanted to do it but I could never come to terms with something. And it's this. People say that the reason people become Psychologists is to figure out why they themselves are so screwed up. I'm not perfect, but I'm not screwed up. I have learned a lot about myself by going through all of my schooling, and will continue to in every encounter professional, academic, or personal, but I'm not screwed up. My research interests include (but aren't limited to although this is my primary interest) female offenders, crimes committed against women, gender and crime, domestic violence and sexually motivated crimes, differential Criminal Justice System outcomes for offenders with mental disorders specifically those related to reentry and recidivism, especia...

...I have a really great friend. And I'm extremely lucky. I've been thinking about friendship a lot lately. It's actually been a topic that's consumed my mind for the last couple of weeks, it doesn't help that I'm currently reading a book all about female friendships or watching all the seasons of Sex and the City for the past couple of weeks. But however it started, it's something I've been contemplating. Friends are important; they share your life, they notice you. But more on that later. And by that I mean I've started writing again, on a regular basis, and I'll probably start sharing. But my good friend is my Name Twin, Megan (we have the same name...) who sent me a fantastic package in the mail. While she considers it "the fail box" because it includes presents from the last couple of holidays and my birthday and sat in her car for a while before she got it to the post office, I consider it the best surprise of the week and validat...

This is long overdue as the last day of AP-LS was last Saturday but it went by in a blur and once I got back to El Paso I was horridly sick. I woke up on Saturday morning and knew immediately that I was sick. No warning other than an inflamed soft pallet but for me that's the beginning of the end. And I was right. I deteriorated for the rest of the day. Me and a few of the girls had decided to just go balls to the wall and stay out all night and drink and live it up on our last night and I had to buy drugs from the hotel convenience store as soon as we got out of the taxi. But I managed to hang in for the entire last day of the conference and I actually saw some of my favorite talks and I'm so glad I was there. Still. We got up early, again, and I went to a talk on juror decision making about forensic science which I actually found pretty fascinating. I'm taking a class right now that deals a lot with forensic evidence and even though I don't care about jury decision ma...

It was way harder to get up this morning than it was yesterday. But we managed and made it to the hotel in plenty of time for the first talk. My advisor Jennifer is on a committee for Professional Women and helped to organize a talk from Karen Wyche about how to balance having a personal life with having a professional life and I found her very professional and inspiring. It was wonderful and I want to be involved in this group. It's something Jennifer's looking into at the moment, this new phenomenon where women comprise the student section of AP-LS and the intro professor jobs but are rarely seen in the higher tenure track positions and she's looking into why that is. Why are less women sticking it out? What's happening to make them leave their careers or stay stagnant? Even after my first year, I'm positive that 1) this is exactly what I want from my life, and b) no way is anyone making me quit. Ever. I'm fortunate to have Jennifer as a mentor. We went to a c...

So today was day 1 of the AP-LS Conference. I'm completely overwhelmed at what I've just been through. I loved every second of it! My roommates and I got up at 6 a.m. to get ready, eat our free hotel breakfast and get a cab to the Miami Regency Hyatt by 8 a.m. for the first workshop of the day. One of our professors is working with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the next couple of years and he's here at AP-LS and presented some information about grant writing and being what's known as an "Early Career Professional" which is someone with their Ph.D., usually on tenure track at a University but is still in the early stages of their career, or before they become an associate professor. But it's beneficial for us to know this stuff because they also fund graduate student research, dissertations, all the things we need to do what we do and continue to eat. And it was good to see him. I've only met him a few times and now that he's working out...

I just spent, literally, the entire day traveling from El Paso to Miami, Florida for the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) Conference. The first plane was delayed an hour, and then we had a short layover in Dallas Fort Worth that turned into a 2 hour delay, but, FINALLY, I'm in Miami!! And it is 10:41 p.m. and 70 degrees and icky humid. By icky I just mean, humid...it's not that bad. But I don't like humidity. And because we were so late getting in, didn't really get to see any of Miami on the drive between the hotel and the airport. But there's tomorrow!! And tomorrow is day 1 of the conference!!! I'm having a big nerdy Psychology moment here. It's my first conference and I cannot wait to see what it's like!! Tomorrow kicks off at 8 a.m. with a workshop on grant writing from one of our professors at UTEP who has a monster grant that pays pretty much everyone except me so I'm going. And I picked something from every time slot. I don't know ...