In the past few weeks of my life I have gone from seriously planning my next career moves to taking action.
I've always been a creative, artistic soul and so after high school I enrolled in school as a music major. For as long as I can remember I've been singing my heart out, and by the age of 8 I was writing songs and poetry. But after a few semesters of college in the music program at Austin Community College I realized that no matter what document I possessed, I was going to be judged by my talent and ability to sing, rather than how well I did in class. So I took a year off, and in my time away from school I did some exploring, tried new things, and did a reevaluation of my life.
At my current age of 19 I have worked retail, foodservice, birthday parties, nursing homes, and Childcare in the form of being a personal nanny, a mother's day out teacher, and church nursery and VBS helper.
I learned a lot about myself from each job, and with my new found information I started to evaluate myself. My values, likes, dislikes, long and short term goals etc. And as I was doing this I couldn't keep from thinking about where I was emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
I was born and raised in a Christian family of 8. And somewhere in my growing up I hit a snag and began to question my worth and ability to do basically anything. I went through some emotional and mental hardships and struggled with some really difficult things. I don't consider myself a full fledged adult but faced with such things as Cancer in a sibling, judgment from being a pastor's kid, a brother shipped off for Naval training, and personal emotional stress, I often feel older than others my age; Older, or different.
In all of my struggles growing up I was taught to rely on family and Christ which was something I never fully embraced. I should have and wish I knew how to do a better job at that. But I really feel like I could have benefited from a professional counselor. And because of that, as well as my love and desire to work with children and teens I am going back to school to pursue a degree in Social Work. I'd like to specialize in addictions counseling, and trouble kids and teens counseling; To work with the youth of our nation to help them learn how to deal with there problems in safe healthy ways.
My passion for music and the creative arts flows right into that, and I hope to learn more about fine arts therapies.
So what am I doing? Right now I'm researching and participating in as many scholarships and grants as possible to make this dream a reality. Being one of 6 children in a family doesn't really allow for a lot of extra money and with our economy the way that it is, I'm relying on my writing and research skills to obtain enough scholarship money to finish my degree and get started working in the community.
This blog is step 1 and I have to admit, I'm very excited, and very hopeful!
