Hello!!
So a question I have had to face lately is what are you passionate about when it comes to counseling people. What populations are you interested in counseling? What makes you passionate? When the two questions are asked, I usually don't know what to say. Well, I like to work with adolescents I guess because I have in the past. Or, I really am interested in music therapy which tends to make the other counselors eyes glaze over. I feel empty and crappy when I am being asked this by fellow counselors because in all honesty I don't really know the answer to the questions, and I feel like I should.
In my internship, I have really enjoyed family therapy work. I have shadowed a therapist a few times who does mainly counseling with children and parents and it has been my favorite to see so far. Okay, pick your jaw off of the ground right now - who would have ever thought I liked counseling children??? Not in a million years would I ever have thought that this would be the type of counseling I find the most enjoyable. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not that much of a kid person. If I was interested in kids, I would probably have married some guy I thought I loved and had some babies by now. Not saying everyone who is my age and who is married is married to someone they don't love. But considering I don't think I found that "one" everyone seems to rant and rave about, I just really don't see the point of having kids. I don't really even know if I want them - why the hell would I just marry anyone and start breeding? A hells no to that.
But, I have found something ever so enticing. I've started writing a book - yeah word. A book. I have two chapters (20 pages approximately -seriously that is sometimes what I do in my free time when people think I'm doing homework - I am really that nerdy). But, I found an MFA program by chance online the other day at the University of Minnesota. Basically if you get in (which is largely based on the 20-25 pages of fiction writing you submit), they pay for everything. Tuition, salary, health benefits. You TA for 3 years while you work full time on your MFA in creative writing. Which means they would basically pay me to teach and write my book. In addition to this, they let you read as many books as you want. I seriously could not think of a better way to spend my life.
No GRES and no English degree required. The program only takes 11 to 14 students per year which is a pretty small sum of people. I'm sure they get tons of applications and read copious amounts of bad literature (ahem, probably my book).
So the final question is - if I get in would I go? Yes. Am I going to apply? YES! So... you mean to say you would have two masters in two different subjects but the equivalent of years in school to be at the doctorate level but no PH.D. Okay... a sad, morose yes to that.
BUT why the change of mind? BECAUSE, when anyone asks me what my passion is it always falls back to writing and books. I cannot shake it. I have tried to shake that bad illness plenty of times and it's impossible because guess what? It always comes back to this. Being a counselor would be just fine. I would enjoy it, I might be okay at it, I might help some people, and it's a million times better than anything I have ever done in my life. But is it my passion? That is where the real question comes into play. Because - I'm not 100% sure. I would hate to live in that uncertainty without trying my real love and passion.
MFA people usually end up teaching at the college level or writing books. I think I just want to keep delaying adulthood. I'm really getting fantastic at that. We shall see! All you can do is try :)
http://creativewriting.umn.edu/program/ I heart this program.
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