Life is starting

Play this and read along!

Wow, so much going on.

Well, I'm finishing up my fifth week of school right now.  Let me explain quickly how this works, because I know it's a little different.  I need thirty credits to graduate.  The semesters are done as sub-semesters.  Each sub-semester is eight weeks long, and during each eight weeks I take two classes.  Therefore, I'll be done about december.  I'm taking 2 classes now, so 6 credits this semester, and then 12 over the summer and then 12 in the fall.   Point is, I'm doing a lot of school-work in a very short amount of time and I'll be done with grad school in about 8 months total.  I'm loving it.  I love being in school and learning things.  I'm especially loving what I'm learning right now because it has so much to do with how people work, and people fascinate me.  I know my calling in life is to get my hands muddy in other people's struggles.  I know my calling is to help people fight through rough times.  This is totally preparing me for that.

I have two 15 page papers due in three weeks.  Almost all of my research is done.  For Human Growth and Development I'm writing about Language Acquisition and how it happens to children their 1st language and how it happens to adults and children for their 2nd language.  For Intro to Human Services, I'm writing about the struggle of being a Latino in the United States.  I'll mostly be covering poverty and discrimination and how those affect Latinos.  Research is always a pain, writing won't be hard though.  I really love how the goals for my classes aren't to study for hours on end, but rather, learn a lot and then apply it to things in my research papers.

Good news, I have something else that might prepare me for the future.  I had an interview at Intercept Youth Services as a Therapeutic Mentor, which is basically a mentor/life-coach/counselor kind of thing... I'm so excited.  Anyway, the interview went great and I was offered the job.  Now, they're doing background checks and checking my references.  I know nothing will turn up bad, but I've gotten my hopes up before about jobs and nothing panned out, so I'm just hoping with the knowledge that it still might not happen.  If it does happen, I'll be giving one on one mentoring to kids and helping them overcome big behavior issues they have.  They told me that if I stay with them until after I graduate they will help me become QMHP certified.  That means Qualified Mental Health Professional.  I found out that it means a clinician in the human services field who has experience and training providing mental health and psychiatric assistance to people with psychiatric disorders.  I will qualify when I have a year experience.  I don't even need the master's to get that certification, but the master's will definitely help me in life. So, that's really good news, and I pray that it works out well.  God always provides, so regardless, I'm going to be fine.


I'll try to write more, even though we all know that means I probably won't.

As of March 11, 2012

Hey guys, enjoy this while you read.  It's called "For all the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti."  I know not everyone is big on banjo, but this is beautiful

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you all an update on life lately.  It's been kind of lackluster.  I have been hanging out, enjoying my last bit of free time until I graduate in December.  It's been boring, but overall, pretty nice.  I've worked hard my whole life, so it's nice to relax and not worry for once.  That's all coming to an end March 19th.

I begin my first two classes.  One class is called Intro to Human Services.  What I can tell from looking at the book, is that it's about: ethics, morals, and what to do with people who experience: substance abuse, child abuse, are elderly and need care, and adoption.  It looks like it will be a very informative and interesting class about the world of Human Services.  My second class this semester will be Human Growth and Development.  It looks like we'll be talking about everything that happens physically and mentally in a person from birth until death.  My semesters are 8 weeks long, so I'll be done May 11th, and three days later my summer semester will start.

This will be really good for me, as I said in this post, I always need to be learning something to feel like I'm doing something good with my life.  It'll be really good to be actively making myself smarter and more useful.

In other news, I'm looking for a part time job.  Before I decided to go back to school, I had applied to nearly 40 professional jobs.  I got really discouraged, but through all that, I realized that I needed to get another degree to get where I need to.  For the first time in a month, I've applied to several jobs.  I applied to Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, La Petite Academy, Aqua Tots, Intercept Youth Services and as a Tutor for Richmond Public School.  As you can tell, I'm clearly open to several different jobs.  I'm not really looking for a career at the moment, just something to make some money and fill time that I'm not doing schoolwork.  Every now and then I look to see what a Master's Degree in Human Services can get me, and I'm always happy to see hundreds of jobs to choose from.

Things are looking up!  If you can help me find a job, let me know!

Where to from here?

I'll be honest, life has been hard lately.  Despite what I said in this post, some days I really don't feel a reason to get out of bed.  Don't get me wrong, I love life and all its fullness.  I have hope that this will pass.

I'm in that awkward stage of life, somewhere between childhood and adulthood.  I have spent about 20 years of my life in school.  Adjusting to life outside of school is difficult, because that's all I know.

I loved the fulfillment that learning brings.  I always felt like I was bettering myself.  I know, that for the rest of my life, I will always be learning something new.

So, here is where I'm at right now.  As my other post said, everything is in God's hands.  The problem is, the places God wants me to be, I can't get to unless I do more schooling.  Now, God is all powerful, and can get me those jobs if He wants, but sometimes He makes us do the hard things.  At the moment, I might be applying to do online college courses to get a Master of the Arts in Human Services.  The school that is looking most promising is Liberty University Online.  This would only take 3 semesters and at the end I will receive a Master of the Arts in Human Services with a concentration in Marriage and Family.

This is hard thing to go forward with, because it will be more work than I've ever done in my life and it will add roughly 15,000 more dollars to my student loans debt.  The great things are: that I will have a Master's degree, I will have infinite jobs options, I will push my intellectual limits and I will have learned new things.

All of the jobs in the field I'm going into want you to have a Bachelor of the Arts in Human Services or Social Work.  Some jobs allow a Bachelor's degree plus 2 or more years of experience, and no one is willing to give me the experience.  The plus side to getting a Master's degree is that, other than experience, I'll be more qualified than a lot of other social workers in regards to education.  Also, don't forget I'm bilingual.  This could open so many doors.

The classes look super interesting:

CORE COURSES (18 hours)
HSER 500 Introduction to Human Services
COUN 502 Human Growth and Development
COUN 506 Integration of Psychology and Theology
HSER 508 Studies in Interpersonal Communications
HSER 509 Multicultural Issues in Human Services
HSER 511 Group Dynamics

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY COGNATE COURSES (12 hours) 
COUN 5011 Counselor Professional Identity Function and Ethics
COUN 5051 Counseling Techniques and the Helping Relationship
COUN 601 Marriage and Family Counseling I
COUN 603  Premarital and Marital Counseling

TOTAL CREDIT HOURS   30 

This looks like a great opportunity, please just pray that I'm seeking God's will and not my own.  I know God has big plans for me and I'm just worried that I won't follow His leading.  Let me know what you think.