Rachael's Blog

Wow! Can you believe it?! I sure can’t, my freshman year of college just flew by!! Francis Marion was a great school to start at! There are, unfortunately, some people I will greatly miss after I leave for Clemson. It’s mostly sad I have to leave one friend in particular that has become one of my best friends!
I did much better than I was expecting in school this year. I was able to keep better than a 3.0 GPA for the whole year, which will allow me to continue receiving the LIFE scholarship. South Carolina gives to students who are able to keep a 3.0 or higher some scholarship money. This was not at all an easy task to achieve! Especially with the Biology classes that I needed to take for my major, science is not my area.
I am very excited yet scared about living in Clemson. I assume that I am just going through many of the fears most go through before leaving their homes. Leaving home may be a little more difficult for me after these past two years because I grew so close to my family. Luckily, my oldest sister and her husband live in Anderson which is only about thirty minutes away from Clemson. Having two family member close by is small in comparison with living close to seven. The difference between living with family members and friends is a big one that I will have to adjust to also.
As you all should be aware of, I'm unsure about how clear I made it in my last blog, I had “pretty major” surgery on my foot and ankle on March 7th. The doctor who preformed this surgery for me and did a great job! I was very skeptical as to what they would be able to do to help me but when I heard his plan I became very excited! Dr. James removed most of the knuckles in my toes, fused my big toe, and split the tendon that was causing me to only walk on the side of my foot. He then connected the tendon to both sides of my foot so that the pressure would be distributed evenly. I was in a cast with pins in my toes for quite a while but I now have advanced to a “boot”. My walk greatly improved already!! I only have a few more weeks in the boot then I get to walk free!!
This summer will be some what of a busy one but I am very excited about it all. For the first half of the summer I will be staying at home. I am again attending therapy but this time only to assist my leg to heal properly. Two of the girls I will be living with in the on campus apartment are also from Florence so I assume we will be planning for the fall. I will be spending much of my time with the friends I've made in the past year and old friends returning for the summer also. In addition, I will be busy shadowing two Psychologists as they work in Carolinas hospital. I am very excited about doing this. I will be lucky enough to watch them as they diagnosis the various patients and also be able to receive feed back from them as to how they came to that conclusion. I can’t wait to begin learning from these established Psychologists.
During the second half of my summer I will move into my sister’s house in Anderson and attend one class in Clemson’s second summer session. I will also be volunteering at the place Rose works, Anderson’s rape crisis center, to gain some additional psychological experience. I will most likely be doing things such as posting fliers for others to see around the town. I will also be taking a Statistics Class during summer school. I have heard things implying that either you love this math course or hate it. Let’s pray that I will love it! Haha
While my walk has greatly improved, there are still a few minuscule things I am uneasy about. The land around Clemson is very hilly. Which is a big difference from here and I worry that will be a problem for me. Also, I continue to walk at a very slow pace and have not been able to improve. I think being able to pick up the pace would help me greatly in college. My arm/hand will continuously need prayers. There are many things that I still have trouble with now that may cause me problems in the future. So if you could continue to pray for me in these two areas I would greatly appreciate it.
Above all else I would like you to praise God with me for all the wonderful miracles he has given to me so far!! He really has showered many upon me! Thank you so much for your prayers!
Rachael