southern ramblings

Ok so its really more like three weeks, but days just sounds better. I have survived!! It is a nice feeling.

I'm in a very odd place in life right now. A major crossroads if you will. I have many options before me for lots of different areas, but they all seem to lead back to school. Option 1) Continue to work full-time while attempting to get my Master's Degree in School Counseling - if continued on this path, as my courses are laid out right now, it will be Dec. '08 before I graduate. That seems like FOREVER away. Option 2) Quit working a full time job, take out a private health insurance policy (insurance is the only reason I have cont'd working), and become a substitute teacher.

I'm seriously leaning towards option two. It makes no logical sense, but it feels right. On top of all of this, I have a car payment to start thinking about. I really feel like I'll be well taken care of if I just step out faith. It is so incredibly scary.

I am by nature a planner. At least when it comes to my personal life - I knew I would go to school, I knew it would be away from Knoxville, I knew I would start working immediately after graduation for at least one year and then go back to school for my master's. I'm just a planner. That's about all I can say.

I think this is the first of many leaps of faith that will be placed before me in the next few weeks. I'm anxious to see how the mission trip to England will unfold. I know we are going to help the children/youth of the church in England, but I also know from past experience that the "missionaries" are often more moved/changed than mission itself.

I had my first Saturday Graduate class this past weekend. For those of you who don't know, that means I sat in class from 7:30 am until 4:45pm Saturday, with about 45 minutes for lunch. It was long and hard, but I kind of like that version of class. We'll see how well I did on my test later. All that explanation just to say, my teacher made some comments that have really stuck w/ me for a few days. That is rare especially considering how tired I was from serious lack of sleep. Anyway, she spoke on seizing the opportunities before us, and that more often than not there will be more people presenting the reasons the opportunity is wrong than there will be supporting opportunity and my decision.

I think that is the attitude I'm taking w/ the whole job/employment finishing school issue. I want to be done w/ school. If I can finish sooner, that is better deal than anything else right now.

Any thoughts??