This year has been wild for me!

This year has been wild for me, I got engaged, moved out, and started mortuary school. Now towards the end of the semester (with finals approaching much quicker than I'd like them too), I Look back and can’t believe how much I've learned in the past few months. There are so many aspects of funeral service I would have never thought of. I've finished thanatology I, and if I do decent enough on all my finals this month I’ll have passed anatomy/pathology, ceremonies, orientation to funeral service, and management I. Management might be the only class I don’t like, but only because I’m not too great at it. Not passing one of my classes would probably be the scariest thing that could happen to me right now, especially because you cannot move on to any second semester classes until all first semester classes are finished. I also was able to attend “The Evolution of Science and Service Embalming and Restorative Art Conference” in April. It was an awesome experience. It showed me how much embalming, viewings, and meaningful services can impact a family. I was so amazed by Vernie R. Fountain's lectures on restorative surgery. It didn’t seem possible to fix many of the severely injured cases he had shown, but after slide by slide and step by step the finished results were unbelievable, you couldn’t tell the person had been in an accident at all. It was very inspiring to say the least. It was also very fun to listen to Dr. Edith Churchman speak about how to be a more effective arranger and how to market your services (and about her trip to Egypt!). It was really cool learning about the importance of organ and tissue donation and how much it can help someone from the speakers from One Legacy. They also explained what impact it has on embalmers, which I had never thought about. I also liked hearing about high profile cases from Keith Green, especially because it had been brought up in one of my classes a few weeks ago. The whole thing was fun and I'm really glad I ended up going. Well I've got to go and start studying, wish me luck on my finals! Toodles!

-Gaea

6 Comments to This year has been wild for me!:

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Kimberly on Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:58 AM

Gaea, I wanted to wish you luck on your finals, Congratulate you on your engagement, and I hope that your time at school is as rewarding to you as it was for me. Please keep taking advantage of conferences and other educational offerings because at graduation you will walk away with skills you have picked up along the the journey

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Maria Oquendo on Saturday, May 14, 2011 5:42 AM

Hi Gaea, Your blog entry made me smile and at the same time cry. I see the enthusiasm in the tone of your writing and see everything going on in your life and I can only imagine the excitement. At the same time I was sad because I couldn't help but comparing our completely different stories. This last year has been a wild one for me too, but in a totally different aspect. For beginners, I am 48 years old and also started mortuary school in January. I was a research specialist at a major pharmaceutical company and lost my job suddenly as well as my husband. That brought on the need to sell our house, so we moved from a small country town in the north of NY to The Big Apple in order to find employment, but ended up starting school. My first semester was done with a 4.0 average, but at the expense of many sacrifices that I don't regret. I have been wondering why didn't I do this before, when younger. I think is wonderful that you have started at a young age and enjoy it and wish you the best of lucks in this major part of your life.

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	Gaea Bolender on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 7:42 PM Maria, earning a 4.0 is an amazing feat and I think it is a reflection of what a positive career change you are making. Hear are some words from Confucius that reminded me of you. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."

Daniella Marcantoni on Sunday, May 15, 2011 4:05 AM

Gaea, I am wishing you well on all of your finals, and hope you have done amazing! I know them Grande finals can be pretty tough ;) I sent you an email welcoming you (I am your mentor! Yay!) Please let us all know how you did!


	Gaea Bolender on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 12:34 AM I've looked through my email but can't find anything from you! In case you have the wrong email here it is again, athfmonkey@hotmail.com. I'm crossing my fingers Grande will have lots of vocab on her finals and I'll post my grades on my next blog!

funeral directors Manchester on Sunday, October 23, 2011 8:07 PM

Not all females want this kind of job but your are one of the few that I knew who is passionate about this field. Good luck to you my dear.

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