Day 12: Most Recent Achievement

I am 20 years old. I live in a different state than the rest of my family. I am in college. I have goals. I have dreams. I have a lot to be proud of, and a lot of achievements to be had. Learning is something that I'm just good at. If someone can intelligibly explain something to me and I'm awake enough to pay attention, I will learn what they tell me, and probably keep that information in my head for a long time. There are some things that I learn better than others, though, because I really want to learn them. I have wanted to be a speech pathologist for eight-and-a-half years and I am finally getting to really see that career and learn about speech and language! It's definitely a big achievement for me, and I am really excited to continue on that path. But I've been learning something even more awesome that I've wanted to do for even longer, and am really really proud of myself for:

Pictured are just a handful of the words I have learned to sign!

I never knew you could fall in love with a subject, or a language, but I've done it. I absolutely love ASL, Deaf culture, Deaf people, and all of the friends in class with me. It has been such a great experience and I've learned so much, besides the vocabulary and grammar. Interpreting is now something that I want to pursue, along with my Cs (the term for certification from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, ASHA) for speech pathology. I am experiencing so much frustration with learning the language because I want to use it all the time, but I really don't have the vocabulary yet to do so. I do experience a lot of funny situations, though-I used the sign for "I don't know" with someone today who doesn't know any sign language; and sometimes people who talk with their hands unknowingly use dirty signs, which is always entertaining. It's been great and I am so excited to continue learning and meeting more Deaf people.
I could talk about this for days, so if you have any questions please please please leave it in the comments or send me an email! And let me know if you know anything about ASL or what kinds of relationships you have with deaf people (there's a reason that one isn't capitalized. You should tell me if you know why!)
I am so happy, even just writing about this! I love it so much!

Hump day tomorrow! And then it'll be the weekend, and then I'll have just 5 weeks of school left (and that's including the two-day week of Thanksgiving)! :]
L