How many years do you have to do something before it becomes a tradition? Well, this will make it three years in a row of having a hare-brained scheme. Schemes are different than yearly resolutions...mainly because they are measurable, public, and life altering.
The first year of hare-brained schemes was in 2010, when I decided to train for a 5k and meet a lifetime fitness goal of running a mile. Bought some expensive shoes, did a couple 5ks and came in last at pretty much all of them....but I finished and that was the important part. It drastically changed my fitness level and outlook of what my body is truly capable of....and reinforced my general sense of awesomeness.
Hare-brained scheme 2011 was to become a yoga instructor. I graduate from the program next month. I also start teaching officially next month (Curvy Yoga!)....and I'll be starting a website devoted strictly to yoga and body awareness in order to let all the beautiful round people of the Salt Lake area have an opportunity to savasana with me. More on that will be announced here on this blog....when I finally have everything in a format in which I want others to see it.
So now.... for hare-brained scheme 2012! I am now volunteering as a victim advocate for Unified Police Department (UPD). At this point, not much has happened except filling out an application and two completely uneventful nights of being on-call. Why this? Mainly because while at UCASA I have been training others on how to be an advocate for themselves and others....I need the experience myself as well. I kinda equate it to learning theory in school and then finally having a job where you can apply all that theory you have learned to the real world. Mainly, if there is a crisis call on nights and weekends where an officer needs an advocate to assist with victims of crime and trauma, I could be called out. I still have alot to learn...police procedures, dispatch protocol, and a little more on working specifically with domestic violence....and I'll be shadowing other advocates for a while before I will be ready to head to a scene on my own. Rather than volunteering for hospital response at the local rape crisis program, I would be responding to victims of a variety of violence not just sexual. And I will have the added ability of learning after the initial contact about what happened to the victim if I want. I don't think that I could emotionally handle working with a victim on the worst day of their life during the worst medical exam that they will ever get and then having no contact with them. Working with UPD gives me more of an option for followup, which I think will help me better handle any vicarious trauma I might experience.
That's that... the scheme has been announced!
Now go back to your regular business.
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