Can you believe that the New Year is fast approaching? It honestly feels like it was just summertime. It’s amazing how quickly time flies. Sigh…
This is the time of year when most people (myself included) look back on the year and take stock in where they stand in life. Are you happy with your job? Did you hang out with your family and friends enough? Did you tackle any of your health resolutions? There are a lot of questions and reflections that come to mind.
I don’t make resolutions. Instead I prefer to look at the as goals.
Once thing I’d love to do in 2020 is go back to school and finish my degree. I need about 4 or 5 classes to complete my bachelor’s degree.
I was going to school to be a Forensic Psychologist. I’ve always been fascinated by the criminal mind. I’m curious to know what makes them “tick,” and what causes seemingly “normal” people to do criminal acts.
Originally, I was going to school to become a counselor. In this day and age, I think there are a lot more counseling jobs available than Forensic Psychologists.
When I was in high school, I liked the idea of being a school counselor. I like the idea of helping children.
I work with children (9-12 year old). Some of the children have pulled me aside to talk to me about things that are upsetting them. Most of the time it has to do with things that happened during school (and not with our program). There are times issues do arrive between children in our program. Regardless of when the events occurred (during school or during our program), I do my best to help the children.
I believe that it’s important to let the children express their thoughts BEFORE offering suggestions. I feel like children need to be “heard.” In this day and age when people prefer to communicate via text message, I think children are often not being truly heard. I think if parents took the time to sit down with their children as ask them out their day is going; it might help resolve some issues children are experiencing.
Just the other day one of the kids at work approached me and asked if she could talk to me. I pulled her aside and she told me (while crying) about a fight she was having with her best friend, and how her friend was spreading untrue rumors about her. It broke my heart to see her crying (she’s such a sweet girl).
It made me feel good knowing that she trusted me enough to talk to her about what was bothering her. It made me feel even better when we came up with a viable solution (having her and her friend meet at the school counselor’s office to mediate their disagreement). She was also laughing and smiling after our chat. That made my heart smile.
People have always come to me for advice and suggestions. I think it’s because I am a good listener. I also don’t judge people. We’re all only human and no one is perfect.
I think people like to come to me when they are having problems because I also think “outside of the box,” and I’m able to come up with ideas from another perspective.
Helping people makes me feel better about myself too, so it’s a win-win situation.
I do hold a degree (Associates) in “Community Mental Health Assisting.” To be honest, I don’t think that degree is worth much. Exactly what is a community mental health assistant?
Maybe my degree, and the classes I have taken thus far toward my bachelors degree, could help me redirect my current degree path (Bachelor’s) to one of these options instead;
- School Counselor
- Mental Health Counselor
- Substance Abuse Counselor
- Career Counselor
- Marriage and Family Counselor
- Rehabilitation Counselor
One of my favorite symposiums I took in college was about art therapy. I loved it. Maybe I could work that into a counseling career too.
Changing my career path is just one of my goals for the new year. I also want to do the usual ones – drink more water, get more sleep, eat better, move more. I also want to be more organized and come up with a better routine when it comes to keeping our condo clean. Instead of spot cleaning during the week, and doing a “deep clean” ever two weeks, I want to do a bit more to avoid having to do the deep cleaning and wasting a whole Saturday that could be spent doing something FUN (I hate cleaning).
So what are your plans for the New Year? Do you have any goals or resolutions? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts. I always love to hear from readers.
Kimberly