Philly

I had an interview at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia last week and being so close I decided to go drive up and do an in-person interview instead of over the phone. My brother's fiance' is doing an internship in Virginia as well so we went up for the day. We stopped for a Philly steak while we had some time in the morning at Pat's.

 Apparently it is the ORIGINAL Philly steak but the one across the street also claims to be the first.

 Don't worry, I changed for my interview.

None the less we experienced getting Philly steaks in Philly. It was fun. There is a special way to order and you know it's a legitimate place when they only accept cash! Then I went for my interview. The interview went well and it was a great (one of the best in the country) hospital but Philadelphia is a FILTHY city! There was trash everywhere and it smelled bad. There was no parking anywhere so people would park on the median in the middle of the road. Quite the adventure!
After the interview we went to see some historic sights. After finally finding parking we got there right after it closed..5:05pm. Since when do historic sights close at 5PM in the summer? They obviously are not as great as DC. So we got a few shots through the window.

It was nice to visit Philadelphia but I had my fill of the city after one day. I am glad there were other internship opportunities for me elsewhere.

The Verdict is in...

After weeks of interviews and a LOT of faith I have a plan and an internship! I will be completing a Therapeutic Recreation internship this fall at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. It is still in the D.C. metro area so I will still be in D.C. and I could not be happier! NIH has an incredible recreational therapy program and they have created an internship specifically for me so I can work with kids. I am thrilled to be in a well established recreational therapy program where I can do what I am really passionate about and work with the population I want. About have of my patients will be oncology patients and the other half is a mix of unknown or rare diseases and disorders. I am thankful for really trusting in the Lord and allowing Him to guide my life and having the faith to let Him lead me. I could not be happier!

The Intern

Living in Washington D.C. you hear this phrase all the time. Almost everyone here has been the intern at some point. I am looking forward to the last time. Being the planner I am, I started working on internship applications last August. I have spend hours researching, willing out applications, doing pre-interviews, editing and revising countless times, and finally submitting my applications for the May 5 deadline. I think the hardest part through it all was putting all of my work of the past 10 months on these things in the hands of the postal service. I applied to four internships and within the first week I heard from three of them informing me that they were no longer doing a dual internship. This was probably the most nerve racking thing! But I know the Lord has a plan for me and is teaching me to trust in Him. I called my professor to update him on the situation and see what counsel he had for me. He said he had talked to a Recreational Therapist from the National Institute of Health and they really wanted a BYU intern and since I was out there it might be an option. If I were to take a child life internship I technically wouldn't graduate from college until I completed a TR internship so I decided I really wanted to get this college degree thing out of the way and went full steam ahead to working on this NIH internship. They have the best recreational therapy program in the country and would be an incredible thing to have on my resume. The whole application process to apply for them too the lesser part of an afternoon and everything was submitted. (Much easier than the other internships I was applying for!) I have an interview next week with them and hope things go well! (It's four hours!) If all goes well Washington D.C. will be my home for even longer! :)