Grad School!

I'm happy to report some positive developments in my life over the past six weeks. During a recent trip to Chicago, I had the grad school "ah-ha!" moment that I had been looking to have for a long time. While chatting with my friends at Katie and Chuck's Chesterton home, we got on the subject of Valpo having a M. Ed for school counseling. Frankly, I'm surprised that I had not given this much thought before as I have come to see more and more that what I like about working in a school is not academic instruction, but processing issues with kids (in fact, when it comes right down to it, I now know that I really don't want to be a teacher).

Well, once I got back to SD, I jumped on the Valpo website to check out what their program was all about. I'm not planning on going back there, but I thought that it would be a good place to start the process of looking into what a grad program might look like. This was followed up with a Google search that brought me to the UNC Chapel Hill website. After reading about their program, I just went "YES! This is what I have been looking for." Again, I'm not saying anything about where I am going, but the way the site described what a counselor does got me really excited about the possibility of becoming a school counselor.

So, now I have been doing some work on finding different programs in places which I might like to live. Seattle, Minneapolis, New Mexico, the UNC program...I feel that I have options. Luckily, I have a strong undergraduate GPA as well as good work experience/references. The only unknown is my GRE score, which I am now planning on taking early in the fall. Then I will have a clear picture of where I can apply to. As long as I can pull out a decent score, I should be sitting pretty.

Movement

The weather is starting to turn for the better in Sioux Falls, and I'm starting to feel as though I am coming out of the lazy-haze that winter seems to bring. I had this feeling as I was getting ready for the day of wanting to learn something new. I'm not quite sure what yet. A new piece on the piano maybe, or new words in Spanish. The latter may prove to be important, as I am increasingly hopeful about finding an opportunity to go way South for a year or so. The realization that there is no better time than the near future to learn a new language has really sunk in.

I feel well poised to make some great personal strides this spring. It has been so freeing to not have any work to attend to after 3pm. Currently I'm watching more television on Hulu than I would like to admit, but I guess I can live with that. Reading would be better, but that's the way it goes. But I've been out running the past few days, and feel great! I can't wait to get my bike into the shop for a tune-up and then start using it to commute again. And I've started to toy with the idea to see if I can make it for one whole month without spending any money (maybe it will have to be just on weekdays...that could be really difficult) But we'll see...I just read about a bunch of 30 day experiments people tried in Outside Magazine and think picking something would be fun. I'll have to see what I can work out.

Golden

Today is my birthday. And not just any birthday, but my golden birthday. If it was my goal to live to be 100, my life would be more than a quarter over at this point. That seems almost scary, but then I think about how at least the first 4 years of my life I have few to no memories of (which makes infancy just seem like lost time). And then up until high school I didn't really experience too much in the way of freedom. So I guess I have a lot to look forward too, which should go without saying.

This is also a birthday that comes with no perks to it accept for the experience and wisdom of the past year and the possibility of new beginnings for the next. Now that my car insurance is as low as it will ever be, there are not too many benefits to getting older until AARP starts showing up. I'm certainly in no hurry for that to happen.

I feel as though I am cautiously optimistic about 26. There are some big choices in front of me that I face with both excitement and trepidation. Really, I just want it to be a year of movement and growth. I'm at a point where I want something new, something different. What that will be will take some careful discernment and searching on my part. But I'm geared up for the search and hopeful for what I will find.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a great day of coffee, movies, a visit with Grandma, and a night out with some great friends!