Happy New Year!! 2010

Hey Everyone,
I hope all of you had a great way to bring in the new year. Go 2010!!! Anyways one of my goals for this year is to get better at my major and to learn everything I can about sign language interpreting. I want to become better at interpreting. I am going to strive hard to put my best out there and leave it all on the table when I am done and have no regrets.
So 2010 here I come ready or not!

Christmas Social!

This past Saturday I was able to attend the Deaf-blind Christmas Social. We traveled to Hot Springs. We ate at Red Lobster and then we went to Garvin Gardens to look at all the lights. After we all looked at the lights we were all cold and wanted something to warm us up, so we went to Starbucks.

While we were eating at Red Lobster. I was able to sit with two great guys. One of the is a Deaf-blind member and the other was his SSP(support service provider) and he is Deaf. I was able to interpret for them when the Waitress would say something. In that situation I was able to put to use everything I have learned in the classroom. Also after we were done eating and we were getting our checks. The waitress asked me where the group was from. Then she told me that her brother lives and the school in little rock and that he is bother Deaf and Blind. She told us all thank you for coming. Also as we were leaving the restaurant I was able to put to use some of the techniques that I have learned in the classroom. I was able to provide sighted guide for an individual in the community.

Then we went to Garvin Gardens to look at all the lights. I was able to see how you can use all the classifiers that we learned in all the ASL classes. When describing the lights to the Deaf-blind individual. It was also neat getting to see there faces light up when they were able to touch the lights and get a better idea of what you were describing.

Afterward we went to Starbucks and just sat around and chatted with each other. It was a great experience just getting to go and be part of the community. They are so sweet and just a great group to be around. I love getting to chat with everyone and they all tell me different stories about there past. I just love going to functions and just getting to see all my friends there. I can't wait till the next one!
Merry Christmas!!

Welcome!

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give a introduction to my blog. With this blog I want to just describe my experiences as being a student learning to become an Interpreter. There are so hard times but all the good times I think will out way the hard.

Before this semester I had thought about changing my major and not do the interpreting program anymore. Let me give a little history to why I thought about that. I have been learning sign language since I was in the 5th grade. I was on a sign language praise team at my High School for 5 years. I loved it and wanted to pursue it as a career. I went to college to study Interpreting. Well I started off great! I was passing all the classes easy, but then I got to a class that I had to pass in order to move on. I got told that I didn't have enough non-manuals(face expressions) That just really got me. Then I didn't do so great on test we also had to take. Those two failures just it me really hard. I thought because I was told that. That I could never be good enough to be an Interpreter. But back to this semester. I have had some great people supporting me this semester. One of them was one of my professors, She helped me all the way. She told me that she wants to see me become more assertive and try to put my shyness away a little. That was a great task for me but I do believe that I have began my way of completing the task. I have gained more confidence in myself and also in what I want to do as a career. I went to Deaf-Blind camp this semester and just had a blast. Camp helped me in many ways. It sustained in my head that this is what God wants me to do with my life and this is what I want to do with my life I love interpreting and I love learning more and more about it. I have already seen myself grow so much from were I first began.

I also had another professor believe in me. She asked me if I would like to start interpreting for a young deaf child. I was really hesitant at first because I didn't think I was good enough. Someone once told me that I need to get out of my mind that I wasn't going to be perfect at interpreting. Ever since I stopped trying to be. I have realized its okay to make mistakes just make sure you learn from them. So back to interpreting for the young child. I was hesitant but after Deaf-blind camp I went to meet the family and see how the Sunday school setting was and I have been doing it when I can ever since. I love doing it! It shows me how far I have come and were I still need to learn. As a Interpreter you will never know everything, it is always a learning process.
I am now sure this is what I want to do. Thanks to all those who encourage me!