Thinking to the future...
I've been thinking a lot lately about my future. After talking to a few people and doing some research of my own, I'm looking a lot more seriously at the school counseling thing. Yesterday morning, when I got up, I read the new Postsecrets, and there was a new video uploaded on the site. I started crying when I watched it. Frank Warren is my hero...the things he tells people are just so heartfelt and warm, and he makes people feel safe sharing their secrets...I want to be like that "when I grow up" (lol). Seriously, all I've ever wanted is for people to feel comfortable talking to me. Then, just after that, I watched the end of "In My Own Words: Bobby Cox" on tv. For those who don't know, Bobby Cox is the long-time manager of the Atlanta Braves...and another one of my heroes. He is known in baseball circles for being the kind of manager players LOVE to play for - he treats everyone the same, from the players to the security guards, and his life philosophy is basically the golden rule: treat people as you would want to be treated. So I was inspired, and I think that school counseling could be a great way to incorporate these things I want to be/do into a career.
Realistically, though, who knows when I'll be able to afford to go back to school. Right now I BARELY squeak by paying rent and bills every month, so there's no way I could afford to go to school on top of that, even if I keep my full-time job. Since I've been thinking about getting a new job at some point soon anyway (though probably not until 2009, because the rest of this year is just so crazy as it is), maybe I could wait until the fall and find some way to be able to go to school full-time and maybe get a part-time job then. But then there's the issue of paying rent and everything. One option of course is that we could move to a cheaper apartment when our lease runs out in June. But I love our apartment, and I really don't want to have to move again for a while, haha :-P Also, the only way to get a cheaper one would be to go way smaller/not as nice (and our apartment is pretty small already, haha), or to move farther out of the city (i.e. OTP, or "outside the perimeter" for you non-Atlantans). Moving farther out is definitely a possibility, especially if I found a job out there somewhere, although it would be much less convenient for Marcus to get to work, and also, the only school counseling program close enough to commute to is at GA State, which would be a much farther commute from OTP than from where we live now. So I don't know if it really makes sense to do that anyway. I haven't really discussed this a whole lot with Marcus yet, either...and another thing I could do is talk to my parents about it and see if they have any ideas as to working things out financially. I already know that they won't pay for it, since they told me up front that they'd pay for undergrad, but grad school is my responsibility. Also, since they're still paying off my Emory loans and my sister's graduating next year, so they'll be paying off HER loans too, for the next who knows how many years, I know they couldn't really afford to help out much anyway. Plus I'd rather do it myself, I'm supposed to be financially independent now, and I really want to keep it that way.
So these are just thoughts I've been mulling over at this point, but we'll see if any of it fleshes out in the next year or so. The future is a scary place, haha, I try not to think about it TOO much, but at the same time, I really want to know what I'll be doing...where I'll be, who I'll be with...I need that stability, and right now it's all kind of up in the air (especially as far as school/work goes), which I know is normal for a 20-something, lol, but still, it's unsettling for me, being the routine-dependent, stability-craving creature that I am ;) Sorry for the uber-run-on sentence! Anyway, I should get back to work.
Realistically, though, who knows when I'll be able to afford to go back to school. Right now I BARELY squeak by paying rent and bills every month, so there's no way I could afford to go to school on top of that, even if I keep my full-time job. Since I've been thinking about getting a new job at some point soon anyway (though probably not until 2009, because the rest of this year is just so crazy as it is), maybe I could wait until the fall and find some way to be able to go to school full-time and maybe get a part-time job then. But then there's the issue of paying rent and everything. One option of course is that we could move to a cheaper apartment when our lease runs out in June. But I love our apartment, and I really don't want to have to move again for a while, haha :-P Also, the only way to get a cheaper one would be to go way smaller/not as nice (and our apartment is pretty small already, haha), or to move farther out of the city (i.e. OTP, or "outside the perimeter" for you non-Atlantans). Moving farther out is definitely a possibility, especially if I found a job out there somewhere, although it would be much less convenient for Marcus to get to work, and also, the only school counseling program close enough to commute to is at GA State, which would be a much farther commute from OTP than from where we live now. So I don't know if it really makes sense to do that anyway. I haven't really discussed this a whole lot with Marcus yet, either...and another thing I could do is talk to my parents about it and see if they have any ideas as to working things out financially. I already know that they won't pay for it, since they told me up front that they'd pay for undergrad, but grad school is my responsibility. Also, since they're still paying off my Emory loans and my sister's graduating next year, so they'll be paying off HER loans too, for the next who knows how many years, I know they couldn't really afford to help out much anyway. Plus I'd rather do it myself, I'm supposed to be financially independent now, and I really want to keep it that way.
So these are just thoughts I've been mulling over at this point, but we'll see if any of it fleshes out in the next year or so. The future is a scary place, haha, I try not to think about it TOO much, but at the same time, I really want to know what I'll be doing...where I'll be, who I'll be with...I need that stability, and right now it's all kind of up in the air (especially as far as school/work goes), which I know is normal for a 20-something, lol, but still, it's unsettling for me, being the routine-dependent, stability-craving creature that I am ;) Sorry for the uber-run-on sentence! Anyway, I should get back to work.