Big Projects, Big Stress

I find it very hard to believe, but it turns out that I’m almost finished with graduate school.  Huh?  How did that happen?  For those of you keeping track at home, I just started my third year of school.  Our program includes three years of coursework followed by a year-long externship in which I will be working full-time under direct supervision.  After that, I will graduate (fingers crossed!) and be an actual audiologist.

So what’s all the stress about, you ask?  I have to find my externship NOW.  These positions are highly competitive, especially ones that include a stipend.  By mid-November I should have interviewed and have something locked down.  The trouble is, I am stuck in this geographical area, and the pickings are really slim around here.  There’s no way I can commute several hours a day, and we’re certainly not going to pick up and move.  So I’m not holding my breath for a position with a stipend.  I’ll take anything at all.  My current placement is making noises about bringing me in there.  But they have to go through the approval process at the hospital and it may or may not work out, so I am continuing to explore other options.

The other stressful thing that’s going on is my Capstone project.  In order to graduate, I need to conduct my own research study.  I *finally* found a topic that I’m excited about, and I’ve designed my experiment, but it keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more complicated.  I didn’t fully realize when I started this process that it wouldn’t be quite as simple and easy as it seemed.  It’s a great project, and I’ll get there, but it’s slow going.  And I have SO many other things to do that I keep pushing this to the back burner.  I should really be writing my stimuli sentences, but I have to study for an exam, or I have a Stats assignment due, or I have to prepare my lecture for my writing class.  Everything else seems so much more pressing at the moment that I can’t seem to build up any momentum and make any solid progress.

Stress much?!