#theyre the only thing i can think about if it wasn’t obvious. my every waking moment is consumed

[finnified]

Jo spotted him first. Her irritation melted away as she broke off mid-sentence, face lighting up. She dashed towards it, ignoring the indignant shout from her abandoned opponent.

hi they are literally everything to me, in case you couldn’t tell. i went back ‘n forth a couple times on whether to color this, and maybe i will later but i don’t have the energy for it rn LOL

as usual, joanna is by the fantastic @pacificwaternymph !!

[star-felled]

Cats 2019, but I try fixing the horrible script

Victoria in bag yeah whatever been there done that

Jellicles are and Jellicles do Je

Maybe the Jellicles introduce more of themselves and Misto's like "yeah that's my name lol but I'm also called Quaxo" segwaying into The Naming of Jellicles, OR cut out the song to make room for Pekes and Pollicles. Depends on how much runtime you're willing to have

Have Macavity watching but like not super obvious. He's watching from a distance instead of blatantly talking to Vic this time

Demeter can be worried about trusting Vic but if Munk trusts her then Dem trusts her

Misto's like "oh yeah almost time for the ball" Vic is like "wtf" and Munk explains and leads her to Jenny

NO EATING COCKROACHES

Tugger's still there, Jenny's like "how tf did you get inside my house. stop terrorizing the mice"

Tugger goes and does his song or whatever, Vic's expression is like "wtf is up with him" but Misto just shakes his head and calls him a bore

Tugger go "here Vic lemme show you how to have fun" and Vic lets herself go loose!! (and unfortunately joins Tug's fanclub)

Misto's like "UGH FUCK NO TUGGER NOT ANOTHER KIT (lovingly)" but everything's cancelled by Griz showing up

They do the Griz thing

Maybe Vic tries to touch Griz when Munk gently pulls Vic back, then she asks why Griz isn't cool anymore, but gets interrupted bc NO MORE "WENT WITH MACAVITY" HALF-ASSED EXPLANATION

A local building alarm goes off and Dem's like "MACAVITY" and Vic is like "WHO" and gets dragged off (spoiler alert it wasn't actually Macavity)

When they think they're a safe distance away they start Bustopher Jones but better

Maybe it could be like "ok we get you kits are scared but Jones is a respectful mature man he would take care of you" ((I oh-so desperately want Misto to excitedly agree bc uncle Bustopher hcs are the cutest))

LET MISTO FOLLOW THE MAN AROUND GODDAMMIT

When the rest of the cats are distracted Vic slinks off and meets Jerrie and Teazer. they cause chaos and honestly good on them

I like to think that, instead of the whole Vic getting stuck on bedpost thing, the twins try to bring her through the window but when they land they're caught and get reprimanded by Munk

Misto goes up to Vic like "that was fucking stupid of you now let's go meet ol doot"

Vic is like "uh okay (I've learned not to question things at this point)" and follows them, when she sees Deut she gets that fatherly vibe from him and starts to understand why they trust him

Deut goes "ohoho who do we have here" and when everyone excitedly introduces her he'd like,,, nuzzle her and go "welcome to the clan"

She's mystified and immediately trusts this man with her life cuz who wouldn't

Victoria watches Pekes and Pollicles performance bc it's a bop

Maybe bonding moment between Vic and Deut after the show where he's like "theyre a mess but they try and I love them for it"?

Tugger's like "DAADDDDD CAN WE START YET" and they start dancing,, Vic is all awed and then Deut goes "c'mon you're one of them now" and nudges her forward so she can join

It's a blast but in the middle of it Vic notices Griz in the background, so when everyone else goes to sleep she sneaks off Yet Again, this time Jemima following her cuz curious little kitten

They hear Griz sing and see her try to dance like the others, and they were gonna go invite her but then Deut taps em on the shoulder and says "we gotta wait for the others to accept her" except super vague. the kittens have no clue what he's on about but accepts it anyway cuz it's ol doot

I think keeping the choice be an audition sorta thing is fine, it kinda felt like that in the musical. just no more solos, no more solos ple

They're all just now waking up but Misto and Gus are Extra awake. like y'know when you go downstairs at like 7 am to get cereal, expecting no one else to be there but then There Is. they do that lil talk they do in the movie, dunno what I'd alter there quite just yet? Misto would be less outwardly anxious for sure though, gotta let the boy keep his calm

When it's like "ok who now losers" maybe Misto could start singing for Gus and hand it off to someone else after a line or two? then Gus gets his part and maybe we see some subtle character development coming out from Misto. show don't tell y'know that sorta thing

Gus is like "ok that's cool but I can think of another person to start singing now" and takes a seat when Munk gets the hint to start the next song

SKIMMMBLESHANKSSS THE RAIIILWAAAAY CATTTT THE C

The fake train they build gets fucking destroyed and it's bc MACAVITY

He runs around wreaking havoc, starts fighting with Munk but when Munk puts up a better fight than he expected he kidnaps Deut

Probably would've restrained Deut in some way before running around bc the guy could very easily beat him up

Anyways Macavity retreats and everyone's worried for Munk and Deut

Victoria's like "OH YEAH RIGHT WE HAVE MISTO" and he's like "????? you're asking me to teleport THE HOLY CHRIST HIMSELF??????" and starts mentally panicking

Tugger comes in like "oh but you OUGHT to ask mr mistoffelees the original conjuring cat there can be no dou

Bc he's hyped up Misto brings Deut back first try and gets more confidence in his abilities, we love a character arc

They go back to make the Jellicle Choice but then OH THERES GRIZABELLA and the clan is gonna kick her out but Victoria's like "no let her sing!!" but bc she's new no one cares but then JEMIMA goes "let her sing it's almost time!!! just this one bit plssss" and bc it's Jemima and they love Jemima they let Griz sing

Then she gets picked and cat god takes her away or whatever

Ol doot does the speech but like addressing the clan instead of breaking the 4th wall and then the movie ends and we DON'T have to deal with 10 minutes of end credits

✨ The end ✨

Extra notes / Things I'd change

Add in the bg interaction!!! That's what makes the 1998 version so fun, it allows the chorus cats to have so much personality despite only being bg characters

Pls for the love of all that is holy make the chorus cats more easy to distinguish and recognize, not only do they look different from the costumes of every other production Ever, they also all look the same as one another

If Misto still did that excited thing at the beginning of The Gumbie Cat I'd lose my marbles I think

Let Tugger interact with his dad more!!! Munk got so much interaction with Old Deut in the movie which I LOVED but Tugger got??? Nothing????? I get that Jason Derulo is expensive to keep on set but if you can put that much effort into that audio system you barely even used 4/5 of the functions of, you can spend a little on letting Tugger love his dad

We got so many Misto and Tugger interactions in the 2016 revival, is it too much to ask for that back... . ... .. ..

That's about it I think, I mostly made this for myself bc I've been thinking of making a fic based off this and wanted to give myself an outline :) I really like the idea of giving Victoria a story as to how she joined the jellicles but...... it was butchered so terribly..... .... .........

Anyways!! If you've got anything you wanna say or add on I'd love to hear it :DD (no pressure though ofc ^^)

[e8luhs]

SAGITTARIUS.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY.

tracklist/annotations under the cut! and make sure you check out my other astro playilsts for your moon/rising if you like this one

I. MR BLUE SKY / ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

sun is shinin' in the sky there ain't a cloud in sight it's stopped rainin', everybody's in the play and don't you know it's a beautiful new day, hey hey!

II. DEATH IS A GIRL / MINI MANSIONS

i'm not afraid of the light i never wanted to die i want to live in a world where there's only one day you gotta live in a world where there's only one day so maybe death is a girl and she's only one dance away

III. SILHOUETTES / COLONY HOUSE

are you half empty? why don't you fill up? there's no sense in holding onto something broken did you lose something? or someone you love? you've still got that story tell it every morning

IV. RUN / VAMPIRE WEEKEND

i said, "you know, there's nowhere else to go" but changing roles, it struck me that the two of us could run

V. THIS TIME OF YEAR / RA RA RIOT

it’s been so long as soon as i get myself some savings i'm flying out to see ya i work so hard, i swear sometimes it's not so easy to be gone this time of year

VI. GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN / STRFKR

the phone rings in the middle of the night my father yells, "what you gonna do with your life?" oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one but girls, they wanna have fun oh girls just want to have...

VII. IF YOU WANNA / THE VACCINES

well, i don't want to wake up in the morning but i've got to face the day that's what all the friends i do not like as much as you say i don't want to do things independently but i can't make you stay that's what all the friends i do not like as much as you say

VIII. LIVIN’ THING / ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

it's a livin' thing it's a terrible thing to lose it's a given thing what a terrible thing to lose (i'm taking a dive, dive)

IX. PARDON MY FREEDOM / !!!

oh my god, did i just say that out loud? should've known this was the kind of place that that sort of thing just wasn't allowed should've known by the color of the drapes (oh, my bad, venetian blinds) what the hell was i thinking saying exactly what's on my mind?

X. HANDSHAKE / TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

so what became of love in man? and what became of you? familiar as you shook my hand what was it you meant to do? because all can change for one and all, can change in this new day

XI. TALK TOO MUCH / COIN

you know i talk too much honey, come put your lips on mine and shut me up we could blame it all on human nature stay cool, it's just a kiss oh, why you gotta be so talkative? i talk too much, we talk too much

XII. LONG DISTANCE CALL / PHOENIX

where to go i had no idea about it most of the people do, they're only doing just fine i don't want to stay in place no more, see ain't doing well well well, i am only doing just fine

XIII. HARM IN CHANGE / TORO Y MOI

don't let me hold you down we could be there now and i'd rather drive it through the night it's only one more day til we leave this state and i know she thinks i've changed my mind

XIV. CONSTANT CONVERSATIONS / PASSION PIT

now you're standing in the kitchen and you're pouring out my drink well there's a very obvious difference and it's that one of us can think if there's a bump in the road, yeah you'd fix it but for me, yeah i'll just run off the road but tonight you've got me cornered and i haven't got a place to go

XV. LIVE YOUR LIFE / YUNA

all my life my dreams just seemed so far away and now it's like theyre here to stay i hold it close to me we were meant for something bigger than this don't ever try to dismiss yourself cause you don't have to

XVI. HORCHATA / VAMPIRE WEEKEND

here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on oh, you had it but oh, no, you lost it looking back, you shouldn't have fought it

XVII. ISTANBUL / THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

so, take me back to constantinople no, you can't go back to constantinople been a long time gone, oh constantinople why did constantinople get the works? that's nobody's business but the turks

XVIII. TAKE A WALK / PASSION PIT

practice isn’t perfect but the market cuts a loss i remind myself that times could be much worse my wife won’t ask me questions and there's not so much to ask and she’ll never flaunt around an empty purse

XIX. LET’S GO / MATT AND KIM

i was up in my head for everything i've said caught a million words, they're all made with lead i bought a megaphone you used inside your home forgot the batteries, but that's the old me

XX. SOMEDAY / TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

there is no time for wasting any time this is the end of the line, the definite sign of what we will be someday where do we start if we will end apart? where do we go from here? it's head versus heart it will all be clear someday

[gammija]

The Hollow review/summary/rant/explanation of why i hate the ending I wasn’t sure whether I should post this, but I did enjoy reading others experiences watching this show, so here’s mine under the cut. Edited from a convo with a friend.

(Obviously, spoilers!)

Me: Okay so to properly express my disappointment i gotta take you through the major beats

The show starts with three teens waking up in an almost empty room, finding out they all have amnesia. They quickly solve a puzzle to escape the room, and just as quickly Adam and Mira realize they have superpowers (superstrength/agility and some weird 'speak to animals/know all languages' hybrid, respectively. also she can breathe underwater and swim really fast. its kind of vague)

Kai is already clearly a comic relief, discount Ron (from HP, the movies, no idea about the books) so me and sister correctly predict he'll get jealous of adam and miras relationship (even if there is none), gets pissy and jealous that he has no powers, but then finds out he has powers anyway he does, hes a fire bender. cant say im not bitter about that cause id put my money on invulnerability but eh its alright he has red hair after all hes still fun

Friend: Of course he is

I just feel bad is all aldjs

Me: adam gets a throwaway line of 'maybe were dead' and kai never lets it go

this food might be poisoned but im starving and hey were dead anyway! right, adam

Friend: I love him??

Me: i loved him as soon as he spoke his first dumb words also he puns but basically hes the only interesting char; adam and mira are just cookie cutter 'male lead 1' and 'female lead 1' i mean, he’s cookie cutter ‘jealous 3rd wheel’ but that has more going on than the first two still servicable though

anyway so the jokes are sometimes fun, and superpowers are always my jam. but the REAL reason to keep watching is just, whats going on? ARE they dead? or in some kind of weird gvnmt experiment? some weird magical vampire guide (dont ask) hints they wanted this themselves ooh, intrigue. and the world is very very quirky they start in a gravity falls-y woods and then get teleported to a desert with minotaurs and witches, then get invited for tea by the Grim Reaper and the rest of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse

tbh Grim is the best part of the show but thats neither here nor there

anyway they have a magic map that updates once theyve been somewhere, and it shows them that the hot dry desert and the swampy wood bunker are like right next to each other

so you start thinking, how are they gonna explain that? this is too weird to be handwaved away. theyve gotta be going somewhere

they visit some other exotic locals, like what appears to be the set of Alien (complete with alien) and an abandoned old fair and a floating island with japanese inspired evildoers on it

the weird magic guide keeps showing up and being vague, dropping hints that there are other kids there etc

at some point Mira says "This is no time for games!" Weirdy: "Thats where youd be wrong~" me and sister: Aha! videogame! that connects all the dots, and also makes the tropes clear: small world with all kinds of different areas, quests, fights, superpowers, an updating map, fast travel Adam, a few eps later: guis i think we might be in a videogame me and sister: [high five]

Anyway in the meantime also the second predictable Kai (discount Ron) plot happens: they meet three other kids (boy boy girl) and they act shady but the girl takes an immediate and obvious interest in Kai so obviously theyre gonna manipulate him and have him betray his friends but in the end he'll see through their facade and kick their ass that more or less happens. The other teens also confirm that this is a game, and theyre trying to win. winning is done by bringing the MacGuffin to a tree fights over macguffin ensue situations are dire but our characters persevere

(also Mira kisses Adam and he acts very weird about it, almost as if hes gay and the only reason they didnt make it canon is censors) (no lingering gaze, just him going 'hehe yeah no thanks, its not you, its me', but in a very... he doesnt seem to be saying it with shall we say burning desire in his soul. hes literally just like 'eh youre a good friend.' Cool move, cartoon that made the two main boys have arguments over nothing cause of course the two main guys have constant dick measuring matches)

this all is not the offensive part btw it was all fun and games, its just a flash cartoon i wasnt expecting Shakespeare

anyway so theyre in a videogame, and apparently thats the answer to all the weirdness. A bit of a cop-out, cause thats a very easy answer, but eh, it works. it wasnt immediately obvious.

also something i hadnt mentioned yet: thisd be ideal for making (self-insert) OCs. Unique powers for each person, there are clearly more characters than shown, the world is your playground

and maybe the video game thing could be interesting on its own in the last few eps the game seems to be glitching out a lot they say its breaking apart so they really gotta hurry now maybe they were beta testers for a vr game gone wrong maybe this is part of it but its like a huge experience that you tell all your friends about anyway there are ways it could be cool, could be expanded to a season 2 despite having solved the mystery

but. last episode. our heroes get the MacGuffin, go to a final stage, and fight the Boss Battle (its a dragon). they enter the Castle....

...and the screen zooms out, into a sudden live action stage, where we see the cartoon (literally what you were just watching) on screen. there are 6 chairs, 3 with our heroes, 3 with the other teens, presumably. theres a host and hes dressed exactly like the weird guy (and that was already kind of a clashy outfit in the cartoon). it was all just a game show. but. the worst part is the live action

you. dont. go. from. animated. to. live. action.

other way around? fine, can work. But now? WHY itd still be dumb and dissapointing but if itd been animated too itd at least have been.... nice to look at but the acting.. oh god they didnt even say anything and it was all wrong clearly theyd just picked the first random teens that vaguely looked like the chars and put them in there cause they had no lines so who needs acting?!

the enemy teams girl had, in the cartoon, pink hair. Purple with pink highlights instead of stylizing that into something more realistic or painting the actual hair, they gave some 30-year old woman a wig and called it a day

keep in mind i binged this show in one go

purposely stayed up late to watch the last ep with my sis even tho we shouldve gone to bed and were disobeying our dad cause we Had to Know

and theres more i said they had no lines but i was lying. Kai did have a line. well, his voice actor did they dubbed him also the line was about him having to pee which is already not the most hilarious in animated version but a live action kid whose supposed to be this character you spent 3 hours with but looks nothing like him saying that in a voice that doesnt belong to his throat, as he stands bashfully in front of a live audience, the only words spoken by your main characters in the last moments...

*its actual hell*

oh oh one more thing at the end the six kids stand in a line and kai is next to other girl they glance at each other and as the eyes of this teen and 30 year old in wig cross, her eye glitches for a moment

dun dun duuun

bUT i dont care anymore, The Hollow. You overestimated your own premise. this wont be forgiven. your most interesting part was the mystery, and the answer  to that was "just a normal game show" (which also doesnt make sense on another level smh) soo if you think that im interested in what these two-dimensional (ha) characters will do now about the glitch in the eye of a bitch then i have news for u

i dont

...if they get a second season ill probably check it out though as long as its animated

Friend: Gammi I'm getting the real sinking suspicious feeling that what you saw isn't the real end but bad on purpose because there's more to it

Me: the show didnt seem good enough to be bad on purpose

and yet im still not done, if youll still hear me out

i mean, im an animation fan so ill still watch but if theyd wanted to be bad on purpose they really shouldve done a better job fleshing out the characters thats what people come back for that was a bit of a sidetrack BUT so i said why the live action itself was just terrible in overal quality

but the resolution that 'oh it was all in a game show' doesnt work on multiple levels

first of all, they show a short flashback of "About 5 hours earlier". The kids stand on the stage and are instructed to take their seats in the vr-chairs, and pick their superpower

2 things i dislike about that

1) there goes all the self-insert/oc potential. they werent teens in over their heads, they werent gvnmt experiments, or just some kids who wanted to play a game -they were in it to win it, from the start. thats very specific and not the most appealing to all kinds of characters (goodbye, all the 'im just an average girl whod never step into the spotlight like that' characters).

Also, all the expansion on lore is gone. maybe there were other games simultaneously? eh, maybe, but theyd be all gameshows. Maybe someone ended uo trapped there for way longer? nah its just a gameshow theyre not gonna let anything actually bad happen. Maybe there are other worlds, other areas, other weird creatures? unlikely, they finished the map and familiarity seemed to be a thing for the audience. Now every new idea has to be put not through a 'whats interesting for a player' but a 'whats interesting for a viewer' lens, and whats a selfinsert if not a player in another universe

2) HOW IS THIS A SUCCESSFUL GAME SHOW

who the hell watches a game show for 5 consecutive hours, some of which mustve been just them walking. also, we zoom out of the screen were watching, so implication is that everything up until then has been what the audience has seen. but... we only followed the one team. there were two? why didnt the audience want to see what they were up to? ~reality tv usually thrives on showinf the worst assholes so realistically they wouldve been the focus~

There are also way too many times *both* teams couldve failed, from early on till late in the game. Not a single game i can think of thats played for an audience is set up like that, and especially not a televised one (okay tbf idk if this was televised, i dont remember if i saw cameras, but. it mustve. monetary reasons.)

What r u gonna do if they all 'died' from the monsters in the first ep? Call it a day? boring for the audience. let them restart from scratch? boring for the audience. the existence of an audience messes with everything

AND THEN ANOTHER THING what do you mean, "5 hours ago?" you never get a time stamp to show how long theyve been in there but there are some cuts, when they travel and such. The actual show is a lil over 3 hours runtime. You mean to tell me you sat through 2 hours of the characters just walking?

okay last thing. so. they were clearly second season teasing with the glitching eye thing. i already said this but. theres nowhere to go from here that isnt worse that the first season. your mystery is dead. you clearly know your live action teens cant act so youd have to go back into the game - but why would they do that? how would that be in any way interesting? you explored all there was to explore.

The other, more out there option, is that as you said the 'real world' was a fake-out and theyre still in a game. but. how would- how would you even make that remotely convincing? if youd just left the 'real world' gameshow as animated too this wouldnt have been a problem. but there is absolutely no conceivable reason to justify, in universe, why another meta-level up is 2D animation again unless they were in a game, in a game, in a game. and thats just dumb. yall aint inception

Friend: HONESTLY if they just kept the whole deal animated it'd probably be okay. Not good, but better,

Me: ye me and my sister came to the same conclusion

i couldve lived with that. at least, i couldve just acknowledged the finales existence but chose to ignore it. now however im full phantom planet levels of denial. in fact i dont even know how the show ended anymore, suddenly

Friend: what finale? what show?

Me: also at least now we know why its called The Hollow

it leaves you feeling empty inside

[anneriddle19]

10 Things to know about the social services field

 I know what you’re thinking, “okay, social services is all a bunch of do-gooders” “World changers” “fixers” ect.. Well, while some of that is true, there is so much more to the field of social services and even more to be said about the number of people who had no formal social services training, but somehow found themselves in the midst of this absolute shit storm. Well, welcome to the circus folks, hope you brought some tap shoes and your clown costume because as a social worker you will be preforming in it. Let’s have a look at the field of social services and all of its glory... which brings me to my first point. I know, you’re already thrilled about this read.

1. There are very few ‘Glamorous’ social services jobs.

 I know what you’re thinking, I thought the same thing.. ‘But wait, what about school social workers, they look cute, provide some counseling and get summers off’ WRONGO. If I remember my highschool days as vividly as I believe I do, and trust me I truly wish I did not.. You were either in one of three groups. 

Group 1, the obvious the popular kids..who more often than not were kinda assholes to everyone outside of their group. However, I will say lets acknowledge the ever common exception which is the perfectly beautiful jock who was insanely popular and also the nicest guy on the planet.. right? right. Okay, maybe that was just at my school. 

Group 2, the kids that were neither here nor there (this is where I was) I wasn’t necessarily unpopular, but I absolutely didnt find myself invited to the parties where all the cool kids hung out. The one or two times I was invited I felt like I was being done some type of favor, I remember wanting to ask “did your mom talk to my mom” (this literally stems back to my mom making all of my friends throughout childhood but thats another blog for a day I’ve had a glass of wine or two) After group 2 is the apparent and ever present group 3. Even if most of us dont want to admit it a lot of us might have floated in and out of that one, those were the rebels, the tough kids, the ones labeled as weird and the ones more often than not that may have known the ISS teacher quiet personally. No shame on those kids, I was in there a few times too. Point is, who do you think the school social worker/counselor is working with? The kids who have supportive parents and a great home life.. again WRONGO, those kids that got caught smoking pot in the theater? Yep, those are the kids a social worker is more likely to come in contact with. The kids who did coke off a bathroom toilet? Yep, those kiddos too. Most prominently, the kids that dont have the home life a lot of us were fortunate enough to have, yeah those kids.. I think that sounds pretty tough, I’m sure its an incredibly rewarding job... but just like any other facet of social services comes with some really hard clients. This was just one example. The reality is social workers dont have clients referred to us because their life is perfect. Its often the very opposite.

2. You’re going to get cussed at. 

It will more than likely happen DAILY. You might as well accept that now and just buck up, because this is true in every facet of social work. it does not matter how well you do your job, how great your case notes are, or if you are completely caught up on every bit of your paperwork (dont worry I’m getting to the paperwork) someone somewhere is going to probably call you a dumb bitch, and all you can do is smile at them.. well for the most part. I would highly suggest putting some of that great social work training to use and refraining from smacking that absolute shit out of that person. Take my word for it, that happens to me all the time, I just smile and nod. 

3. Case notes will very literally END you just accept it now

You will NEVER (I’m sorry that’s a little harsh) IT IS INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY that you will ever find yourself sitting in your office.. if you even have one of those amazing private spaces... scrolling through cute pictures of puppies and doing some online shopping because all of your case notes are done. Just go ahead and accept it now and your life will be SO much easier. In the age of technology we live in now, everything has a GIF to describe it. So if social work case notes were a GIF, they would come in the form of an infinity pool. 

4. An acceptance of dark humor is an actual requirement for this job

People are going to say some weird shit to you and around you. Nope, I’m not talking about your clients I am talking.. you heard it here first folks, Co-Workers. Now, let me first say your Co-Workers in social services are your saving grace and should be treated as such 24/7, 365. These people are in this crazy shit with you..so that is why this point has to be made. You are going to have some weird occurrences, and if it doesn't happen on almost a daily basis you may actually be the secretary. BUT, it is so important to remember that everyone copes with things differently, and I’ve found a lot.... I mean A LOT use dark humor as a coping mechanism and that is totally fine. Just know, if you enter the field of social services this is something you will come into contact with. I am always a fan of speaking your mind, if someone says something that takes things a little too far I’m all about telling them to take it down a notch..but if it is a co-worker who is just trying to cope the best way they know how, grin and bear it or walk away. 

5. You HAVE TO learn how to cope with the stresses of this job or you will be eaten alive.

There will be nights (I know because I’ve had them) where you wake up from a nightmare only to realize it was some horrible thing that you heard or saw at work that day. There will be times when a client tells you something that makes you feel like you’re throwing up.. but they may have just gotten started telling their story. There will be long meetings, butting heads with clients and co-workers, lost files, misplaced info, and on top of that there will be more days than not where you bring that all home with you (lets be honest god bless the people who actually date social workers because you are the real MVP). When I say cope, I do not mean go home and go out drinking with your buddies, even though if I’m being honest, most of us have done it that way. You have got to find ways of doing things that bring you happiness and incorporate that into your every day routine. If that means the only thing that really makes you feel better is chocolate ice cream, well I’m sure Sam’s club sells in bulk. If it’s the gym, get after it girlfriend.. WHATEVER it is, do it, and do it often. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had instructors tell my classes that we have to take care of ourselves, and it wasn't until recently that I really started to. It will not only help you feel better but it will make you a better social worker. The more clear your mind is the better you can focus, and we all know this job requires your full and undivided attention.

6. It is perfectly OK to be tired

I mean this physically, spiritually and emotionally. It is perfectly okay to acknowledge that today you just werent as on top of your shit. Maybe you snapped at a client, maybe youre behind on your paperwork, maybe you’re starting a new job and you feel like you’re kinda drowning. Oh wait, that last one might have been me. Just let those feelings exist, notice their presence and move on with your day. No one is a perfect social worker, and quiet frankly I wouldn’t want to be. Sometimes the best thing for a client is to see that their social worker is just like them, we struggle to and remind yourself that is part of this job. 

7. Dont ever forget why you started

Everyone has a reason that they chose the journey of social work. Never lose sight of you reasoning, this is much more than a profession, it is a calling.

8. Learn to love the chaos

Everyone says that a huge part of social services work is flexibility. As a new social worker its incredibly easy to become super overwhelmed when you have a million different things going on, multiple clients at one time, phone calls coming in (the works). I promise you there will be a day where your life slows down and you will wish you could be right back in this middle of that chaos. I remind myself of this everyday. Take a deep breath, you’re fine you were totally made for this.

9. Find what grounds you

For me that’s my mom and dad. Theyre actually the best people I know and my best friends. Isn’t that neat and incredibly cheesy all at the same time? But seriously, whether you are grounded by your faith, friends, family (or anything really) make yourself aware of those things and keep what grounds you close to you because on your WORST days, that can sometimes be the only thing that will keep you sane. 

10. Recognize your worth

Not everyone was made for this field and that’s perfectly okay. Some people love having normal jobs and normal lives with a white picket fence and two golden retrievers. Not us, we love working for little to no pay, with the most difficult of the difficult. Some really tough clients are handed to us and we work with these people to transform their lives into what they had hoped to see their lives looking like. We provide people with guidance and wisdom and hopefully allow people to see themselves how we see them. Worthy. Everyone deserves the right to be treated fairly and everyone deserves to receive help.. and we just so happen to be the people who offer that. You don’t go into social services seeking gratitude, you go into it because you love people, even when they dont love you back, and you believe in people even when they cant believe in themselves.... and that makes you worth quiet a bit, if I do say so myself. Pat yourself on the back every once in a while and smile knowing you are making ‘the impossible job’ a possible one. 

-cheers to my fellow social workers, may your humor be dark, may your people be supportive and may your self care involve a good balance of chocolate and cardio

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