Lil' update!

First of all I'm kinda loving 0% APR balance transfers right now... I just paid off one card with Sallie Mae (sorry, no Utah till this summer... trying to be responsible!) And then transferred TWO cards to it, with 0% for 11 months... SURELY I can pay it off within that time frame... (YAY!) When the transfer is complete, I'll only have TWO cc's left! JOY! Rapture! I'm almost FREE! (Aside from aforementioned Sallie Mae/school debt, and shiny new (to me) Jeepie debt that is...) Anything beats paying 29.99% right? (aside from bankruptcy anyway)

And yes, I'm quite pleased with it. I don't think I could have done it without using the extra funds from Sallie Mae either... Hopefully it'll work out... and I'll be fine fine fine!

I haven't done my taxes yet, so who knows if Sallie has any impact on that. I'll find out soon I guess.

I've started back to class, Foundations of Counseling. So far, it's a much more interesting class than I thought it would be... Haven't I said that for each class I've taken so far? (Perhaps except for Abnormal Psych, that was just as much fun as I thought it'd be!)

Anyway... Work is going great. I'm loving being back in the hall again. It really is a beautiful building, and I'm lucky to be able to work there!

I'm moving this Saturday, email me and let me know if you want my new address. It's still in Tennessee, so no major changes right now. I'm not feeling pulled or pushed in any particular direction, so I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing where I'm doing it, and see what happens from there. I think I'd love to one day become an LDS counselor. I was talking to one here, and found out that you don't even have to be licensed to have that job, and I think that's absolutely ideal! I'm excited for that prospect. Mostly because I'll be able to counsel individuals with the same foundational beliefs as myself, and any religious bias that I have won't negatively affect my clients. Very excited about that. Also, I was thinking, I could work at a battered woman's shelter on the side, or do something to specifically help individuals in that area. That's what started this anyway, right?

For those of you who don't know... The reason I decided to go into counseling in the first place... I was a big Bachelor/Bachelorette watcher/fan... I watched the whole long drawn out season where Jake was the bachelor, and I wanted him to pick Ali, and it didn't work... cause he picked Vienna. Ick. I hated her. Whatever, I got over it, Ali got over it, she's MUCH MUCH MUCH better off with Roberto! Anyway, I was watching this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_hXCnmhI6E

And my heart went out to Vienna. I could tell that Jake was being emotionally and mentally abusive. Controlling and manipulative... I saw and recognized that in her, and my heart broke for her a little. This woman I kinda hated... became someone I felt true empathy for. I was so shocked! At that moment, I analyzed what feelings she was going through, and the feelings I had already been through, and this overwhelming need to help her kind of took over. That Tuesday, when I was watching it on hulu, I immediately started researching abused women, and counseling, and came across a school with the perfect program for becoming a Mental Health Counselor.

That night, I requested more info, gave them my phone number, and they called me the next day, and scheduled an interview for the day after that. I went in Thursday after work, got more info on getting a bachelors in Psychology (I hadn't ever even taken a psych 101 class in college. NOTHING. Nada. ZIP!) I finished up my FAFSA, talked to the head Dr. of the program, she said congratulations, you're exactly who we'd like to see in a masters level program for mental health counseling. Congratulations! I was floored! I was a master's student! Something I'd feared for a long time, probably because GRE's were involved. Well, I didn't have to take those for this program.

Anyway, I love school, and I'm glad I'm doing it. Even if it is super expensive, and even if there's not a whole lot of money in counseling... There's not a whole lot of money in IT for women either. At least with counseling, I feel like I'll be doing I'd love and feel like I'd be making a difference in people's lives. So I definitely still feel great about my decision, even if a stupid reality show awakened that desire in me. :) Silly right? Ah well, it works for me. And now you know too! :)

Um... I don't think there's anything else. Well, nothing for a public blog anyway. :)

Until next time! :) Alohas!