I can't believe I am coming down to my last few days as an extension intern! Friday will officially be my last day at the McCracken County office, and I am really going to miss everyone here. Things have really slowed down a lot during the last few weeks of my internship. All of the summer programs I was teaching classes at have ended, the area schools have started back, and new programs have not yet started up yet. Most of my time has been spent with Stephanie, the EFNEP assistant, helping her with her classes and programs. I had a few days off from built up extra time where I had to attended a wedding so some of my weeks have seemed really short!
During the last couple of weeks I have judged the Marshall County fair general youth crafts with Emily, which was really nerve-racking because one of the parents was helping out. I have also continued with a few programs I have been helping with all summer, like cooking classes at the Merryman House and helping with parenting and nutrition classes at Hope Unlimited. The ladies at the Merryman House have really gotten used to me being there, and I will miss getting to see some of them! It is really exciting to get to see some of them move out and be on their own again though. It is hard to see the same people twice at Hope Unlimited. You never know when someone will attend all of the required classes or "graduate" from the programs or just not need to come anymore.
The biggest thing I have done on my own is a sort of project I have worked here and there on for most of the summer. I gave a talk about fad diets, healthy weight loss, cooking with allergies, and reading food labels at the Living Well Support Group last week. I had put together a lot of good information and was really excited to get to share it, although a little nervous too. The night before the talk my work computer crashed and required a system restore that deleted the second half of my presentation. Of course I had not saved the presentation elsewhere for a while so I had a lot of information to redo! I ended up covering most of what I wanted to but didn't feel that the presentation was as good as it originally had been before I had to redo it. However, the audience thanked me for it and said that I did a good job and they really appreciated and liked the information. They had a lot of questions about coconut oil that I wasn't prepared for and ended up looking up stuff about later on. I am glad I have gotten really good at thinking on my feet this summer!
I am very sad to be leaving the McCracken County office at the end of this week. I have a feeling I will be coming back to visit, attending extension events, and going to see them at the Farmer's Market over the next few months while I'm still in the area. This summer experience in extension has been invaluable to me, and I can't wait to hopefully make a career one day after I have finished my training and education in Dietetics!
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