See no evil, Hear no evil...

Hello, hello! Since the end of the world did not occur this past weekend, thought I'd start back up again with blogging. Okay, bad joke. ;-) I know I can be uber cheesy, but that was just bad. Guess I gotta find my groove again so bear with me.

I started this blog back in late Summer 2008 around the time that I was starting the four-year journey to earn a clinical doctorate in audiology. Then in Summer 2009, I became a Student Blogger for A.T. Still University (ATSU) where I'm attending grad school. Unfortunately in Summer 2010, the Admissions and Communication & Marketing staffs collectively decided to discontinue the blog initiative for ATSU's website. Thank goodness I had the foresight to not transfer all my blog entries here from 2008 on to the ATSU Blogs site and write from ATSU Blogs. Instead I had written one ATSU Blogs entry that contained a link to this blog. The ATSU Blogs officially ended in December 2010 (http://blogs.atsu.edu states "This website is no longer available").

The termination of ATSU Blogs in no shape or form had anything to do with my recent hiatus from seemingly being "Hear 4 U Always". You may or may not have noticed that (1) I have not written a blog entry in almost five months and (2) my blog had not been accessible for awhile. I had considered no longer maintaining this blog. I know that the marginal note states that this blog is a place for me to "sound off". However if I did just that, I'd be writing a book. I know e-books are now in ;-), but no one wants to read the mad rantings of a former military Officer/current doctoral student/future audiologist. And mad I had been.

Being a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with six years served on Active Duty in the Air Force, to include a combat tour doing convoy sercurity missions in Iraq for half a year, I am no stranger to extremely difficult times & daunting challenges. But to sum up the past 18 months in my "professional" life, things on a few occasions got to be so bad for me that I seriously considered quitting this journey to become an audiologist. And I'm no quitter. I'm also not a public whiner, and thus I did not share every devastating disappointment I faced since the latter half of Year 2 from people to events. As the saying goes, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Or as I titled this blog entry, "See no evil, Hear no evil". *sigh* For too long, I lost the heart & passion for this pursuit. There was no one to turn to and help me reignite the fire.

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason...the good AND the bad. Life happens as it should. Hindsight is 20/20.  And no man is an island, but sometimes you are the only person you can turn to.

Two months ago today, I left Arizona for clinical rotations out of state. New city & state, new apartment, new clinic site, new preceptor, back working with & helping the pediatric population -- it's been so refreshing! It's still been a trying quarter with not moving into my new apartment until the middle of the academic quarter, increased hours & days in clinic, juggling three on-line classes, and getting sick a lot more than usual. But I'm determined to turn over a new leaf and enjoy the journey.

The reason why I started this blog was threefold. One, when I was researching various healthcare routes to pursue as a second career back in 2007-2008 from getting a second bachelor's degree in nursing to getting into medical school, I remembered Googling "audiologist+blog" in hopes of finding a personal perspective to this career field which the U.S. Department of Labor publications couldn't provide. ;-P There were none...well, none that talked about the experiences of an audiology student or clinical experiences of a practicing audiologist. Two, it was intended for family & friends to keep them apprised of my audiological/grad school experiences. And three, it was also for me -- to act as an academic/professional journal to refer back to years from now...and see how far I've come. I had never heard of audiology until Spring 2006 when I became a volunteer Neonatal Hearing Screener at a local hospital. Even then, I thought audiology was a specialty you picked after getting into medical school. I didn't know that becoming a doctor of audiology had its own route. So like a baby getting his/her first tooth or taking steps for the first time, I'm like a baby in that everything in audiology was a new experience from doing a pure tone hearing test to taking an ear impression (now those things are old-hat to me...wink wink). And unlike actual babies, I could write about and share the experiences via this blog.

So peek-a-boo, I'm back.

If I have to, I'll grab a bull by its horns.

And if all else fails, I'll pray that this is my magic bean like Jack & the Beanstalk.

I guess I'm one bear that overslept my hibernation this past winter. ;-P I'm "Hear 4 U Always"...but no longer in Chicago if you could discern that from the pictures. I was in the Windy City in April for AudiologyNOW! 2011, the annual convention put on by the American Academy of Audiology. It was my first time in Chicago, so I had to take a day to go sightseeing & totally be the camera-wielding-and-snapping tourist. :-) Gotta go study & take three final exams so ta-ta for now. It's good to be back. May is Better Hearing (and Speech) Month.  The month is coming to a close, but efforts to maintain better hearing shouldn't take a vacation.  Don't forget hearing protection (yes, ear plugs!) if going to one of the many summer concerts.  Even when doing yardwork (the noisy kind, not just pulling weeds...).  Happy Almost Summer!