Post 5: My future job

I would like to work as a psychologist, keeping a flexible job in which I do not have inconveniences due to misunderstandings or things beyond my control. I imagine my job as an instance in which I will enjoy despite the responsibility and stress that it may generate, having a comfortable place to serve my patients. 

In the beginning, of course, I would work for some entity or some specific boss, within the corresponding building, but if life allows me I would like to have my own practice after working for several years. In the same way, my work (at least as I imagine it) must necessarily be inside an office, so being outdoors is out of the question. 

I do not aspire to have a lot of travel within my job nor a very high salary, as I study psychology out of interest in the subject rather than thinking of earning a luxurious living for my degree. I think about helping people with their problems and accompanying them in the process of overcoming and/or understanding their complications. 

Also, I think it is important to note that I am interested in getting a graduate degree before I try to venture into some sort of freelancing. As I progress in my career I will decide what I can specialize in.

Post 4: What's like to study...?

I study psychology. I chose this career because it always caught my attention. The psyche has always captivated me because I am interested in knowing how people see the different issues of our existence. 

Sadly, I have studied the career in online mode, and it has been quite frustrating. At the moment, I am in my third semester, and I still can't feel like I am in the race despite all my efforts to achieve it. This causes serious uncertainty about the quality of my education because I feel that I have not learned anything, which in turn generates a lot of anxiety. 

This causes serious uncertainty about the quality of my education because I feel that I have not learned anything, which in turn generates a lot of anxiety. 

The career is quite interesting and every time I face a new subject I am surprised, but studying online has not been a good experience, perhaps this has been influenced by the pandemic context in which we are because everything gets worse; I mean that if I studied online but I could live normal, maybe I would not have all these negative feelings.

Studying this career online has become quite a burden for me and I know that many of my classmates must be going through similar situations. I look forward to being able to attend college and leave all that behind.

Post 3: Mental health problems related to a lockdown

 I think a general problem we have all faced in the pandemic is that we have felt deprived of the freedom we were used to. Personally, I have felt very stressed and have evidenced how the traits of my anxiety have become more present. Being locked up has taken away a lot of the things I used to do, like going to the stadium to watch "la U", playing soccer with my friends, or going quietly to my girlfriend's house.

In addition, studying in this context has become overwhelming. In the second half of 2020, I was diagnosed with depression and, although I got better at one point, I am currently feeling just as bad. Because of all this, I believe that the pandemic has come to teach us that there are a lot of issues that are assumed to be common when in truth they can be seen as a privilege.  At the moment, to cope better with the pandemic, I distract myself by playing video games and seeing my girlfriend when it is possible. 

Finally, my plan for when this is all over is to do a lot of things I enjoy, and one of the first will be going to the cinema. 

Los de Abajo in 2019, when it was possible to go to the stadium

Post 2: The best holidays ever

 I honestly have more than one vacation as a favorite, but I'll use one from about 2012 when I was 12 years old. My memory is very fuzzy, but I know we went down south. I don't remember where exactly. Along with my mother, father, and sister, we stayed at a sort of resort for a week. The place had its own business, small green spaces, swimming pool, and about five cabins, but only we were renting at the time so we were alone. Since there were no other people, it was just us in the pool, which was great because we could take advantage of it. That week more people only arrived when we were 1 or 2 days away from leaving. Another activity I did was to go fishing with my father to places near our cabin that made us have a characteristic memory of that vacation because, looking for where to fish, we came to an area of very high vegetation that didn't allow us to see much and we were about to fall down a ravine of several meters because we didn't know the area. All this that I have told makes those vacations one of my favorites.

example of the ravine we almost fell down

Post 1: A country you would like to visit

I like would to travel to Canada because it's the closest place to Chile where I can see northern lights. The other options are more distant destinations. About Canada, I have heard that the standard of living is very good, especially for issues such as excellent education of the population, a high level of security, or great access to quality health. Likewise, I know that it's one of the coldest countries in the world (even more so in places where it's possible to see northern lights), but that isn't a problem for me. If I travel to Canada, apart from seeing northern lights, I would like to go sledding, snowmobiling, or hiking in its snowy forests. On the other hand, my trip would be only for tourism purposes, neither to study nor to work there and I would prefer to stay in Chile to live because I wouldn't like to move away from everything I love, such as my friends, my family or not following my soccer team.

Post 6

I believe that the career of psychology is a difficult path because the study it entails becomes very heavy, besides in many cases what happened to me must happen: at the beginning, my parents were opposed to me studying this because they wanted me to choose a career where I would earn more money, they also said that my abilities were to study something much more complicated (as if psychology were easy) and sometimes these things can discourage the student. Fortunately, this did not happen to me. 

On the other hand, I think that this career is undervalued due to the little importance given to mental health in Chile today. A psychologist can be a great help in a person's life, can even be that much-needed salvation, the hand you hold when you need to get out of a hole and you don't know-how. 

Finally, as it also happens in other careers, the professional life is quite sacrificed for a psychologist because he or she is constantly internalizing problems, and many times it becomes impossible that these do not affect him or her, having to attend therapy. As one professor said last semester, "there are psychologists of psychologists". 

Post 5

 

The story behind the photo is quite profound. That day was when my parents came home with Tyson, my dog, which is the same one in the photo. Two weeks earlier my previous dog, Charlie, had passed away. 

My little sister felt overtaken by the arrival of a new pet as she was still grieving over Charlie's death. For my part, I took Tyson in without any problems. 

That day there was a mixture of emotions; a new puppy (Tyson arrived with barely 2 months of life) made it inevitable to remember Charlie and relive the pain of his departure, but at the same time he arrived as a small and tender light that illuminated our home with love and mischief (in fact, in the photo Tyson is lying on the grass of my patio, the same that later had to be replaced with synthetic grass because he made holes and destroyed it in the form of a game).

When we welcomed him, we immediately noticed that Tyson was quite good at sleeping and drinking water. Interestingly, he maintains those characteristics to this day, at a little over two years old.  

He is a very tender and affectionate German Shepherd. In my house, we all give him a lot of love and when visitors come they are usually surprised by his great size. One of his favorite visitors is my girlfriend. Tyson loves it when she comes home. He goes crazy when he sees her and starts jumping up and down to kiss her. Also, whenever she comes, we take him out for a walk, so he associates his visit with going out in the street.

This is Tyson today

Post 4

 Hi! In this free topic presentation, I will talk about Tom Clancy's R6, the video game. I chose this topic because I have always been linked to the world of consoles, so video games are something I always have in mind. Tom Clancy's R6 is a title available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. It is a first-person shooter that seeks the confrontation of two teams, each composed of five players. The teams rotate between attack and defense, being the "cops" and "terrorists" respectively. The game consists of an offline mode for training and other online modes, among which the multiplayer mode by ranks and the casual mode stand out. This last one is to have fun and to pass the time, while the games by rank become extremely competitive. Personally, I never play casual games because I like to play competitively, in fact, I have participated in tournaments and several amateur teams have wanted to have me among their players. I play on PlayStation. 

Post 3 - My favorite piece of technology

 Hello! My favorite piece of technology is the PlayStation. I have this console for many years and I renew it when the new version comes out. I have played from first to the fourth, that is to say, the last. The way to use it is through control of two levers and several buttons, with it you can play on the console and even visit Youtube, Netflix, or surf the web. The truth is that I use the console little time compared to what  I would like, once or twice a week and for a short time in each use, this for having other things to do. I like to use it because I'm very passionate about video games, especially those that are online because that is how I feel the competition with other people. My life without PlayStation would probably be a bit boring because I wouldn't have one of my favorite hobbies.

Post 2 Week 4

Hello!

In the past, my dream job was to be a soccer player and the truth is that I focused a lot on this, that I never even thought about what I should study. For the same reason, psychology was the only university career that caught my attention. The reason is that I always liked what was related to psychology. 

So far, my university experience is not very broad for logical reasons; the pandemic has prevented me from living everything that university entails, limiting many aspects. However, within what I have experienced, I can say that I have liked my career and that my homework has been very strong at certain times.

The type of work I would like to have is the type of clinical psychology. I hope that I can perform professionally in a way that does not affect my personal life or my own mental health in trying to help others.

Regards!

My autobiography

Damián Alexander Villarroel Grê was born in Santiago, Chile, on May 5, 2000. In terms of education, he studied in Santa Juliana Lyceum from elementary education to secondary education. After that, he studied for one year in pre-university Pedro de Valdivia, in Recoleta. Then, in 2020 he entered Universidad de Chile, the first year of Psychology.

Damián has also worked on different things. He worked running errands for an accounting firm, has also worked administratively in his father's company, and also with him, has sold beer at summer events. At the beginning of 2020, Damián worked at the Paris multistore

In actually, Damián lives in Conchalí with her parents and young sister, but before that, he lived in Independencia, also with her family, although first of all, he lived in Recoleta with her grandparents, aunts and mother.

Since November 2019, Damián has a girlfriend. He spends most of his free time with her. He is someone who enjoys a lot when he doesn't have a single responsibility pending. He plays a lot on his Play Station and also likes to spend time on soccer, both playing and watching it. He is a fan of the Universidad de Chile club.

Photo of Damián and his girlfriend