Monday, January 9, 2012
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This is my first blog of 2012 and I'm happy to say that things are in full swing as the new year takes off.
I could have never expected that 2012 would have ushered in someone quite special in my life. It's one of those things where something wonderful happens when you least expect it; and while I dislike those kinds of cliches, I have to invest a grain of appreciation for them at the same time. There is this beautiful (in every way) woman named Nikki Rimmel who has made my life even better than it already was before I met her. We've already had some fabulous dates and we're both very clear that we want to take life's journey hanging out together and see where the road full of adventures takes us. I am most impressed that, aside from her very sweet heart, she has a Master's degree and is well on her way to a successful career track. "Like" is funny--like that... when you "like someone" you want to support them in everyway you possibly can to make sure they complete their goals. She is in the process of clearing her secondary teaching credential in English; and I'm praying that she will land a job in a high school teaching English by year's end. We shall see. I do know that I want an enduring, loving relationship with Nikki very much and I want it to blossom into something so beautiful that my heart waters with tears of joy like the meadows of France. Because with her--those feelings are very real for me and I do NOT want to let her down in any way.
My professional goals are also starting to move forward. I am going to officially apply for graduate admission to both the Master's in Social Work and the Master's in College Counseling programs at San Francisco State University in the fall and have a full list of tasks that need to be completed by September in order to proceed to filing a graduate admissions application. I need to register for, take, and successfully pass the analytical writing portion of the Graduate Record Exam. I will probably end up studying for and taking the entire general GRE which includes the math portion. I need to complete or at least be placed in an agency for field placement purposes and see it through to completion. I am registered in Theories of Personality for spring semester at College of Marin. It is the third and final undergraduate course I need to complete or pass which serves as the gateway course to SFSU. This means that there needs to be an articulation agreement between the courses I will have completed at College of Marin and what the Graduate Counseling Department expects. If I plan to accept admittance into the graduate social work program, it is crucial that I find and stick with a field placement that will not discriminate against me and kick me out of their agency because of my disability. So in a large sense, I'm not out of the woods yet. Then there is the question of whether I will be able to finance all of graduate school with scholarships and graduate teaching assistantships without the need to go further into student loan debt. One step at a time but--upward and onward. I will be working with Joetta Scott, a counselor at College of Marin, as well as Chris Schulz, the coordinator of the Disabled Students Program and Services department to make sure I am on track as well as making as many of the right choices I can to make my entry into SF State as smooth as possible.
I am still staying at my mother's here in Petaluma and am greatly conflicted about moving out and into yet another tension-producing room-in-a-house shared rental with (what Nikki refers to as) another slumlord. Sometimes when an adult child lives with their parent(s), it can produce tension and conflict after awhile. So far, things seem to be going smoothly between my mother and I; but my end goal is still a place of my own until I get to the point where moving in and living with a potential significant other becomes realistically possible.
Classes at College of Marin begin the week of January 23rd and I am slated for at least 9 units of psychology classes including (1) Introduction to Research Methods and Data Analysis in Psychology, (2) Theories of Personality, and (3) Seminar and Fieldwork Experience. I may add a 1-unit second-semester voice class for fun, time permitting (not factoring in internship time).
Lastly, I'm excited to be making the trek with Nikki up to Sacramento this coming Friday to see my good friend Cole and his fiance Krysti. Every minute of those six or seven hours will be very precious for several reasons. I love my friend Cole. A lot! He is the best guy friend I have ever had. I haven't seen them in over a year. It will most likely be the last time in my life that I get to hang out with both Cole and Krysti before I see them at their early-summer wedding up in Shasta. I want to very much be a part of Cole's wedding and still get to support him, even if he doesn't select me to be one of his groomsmen in his wedding which I truly am not expecting. That's fine. Because the most important thing for me is to get to celebrate the life and the union of one heck of an artistic and great guy to hang out with. I do worry about one thing with Friday's visit and that is that I want Krysti to like Nkki very much and for everything to go smoothly. I don't know why I fear such a thing, but I guess I want to impress Krysti (even more than Cole) with how impressive and happy and excited I am about being with Nikki. I don't want there to be any tension. In fact, I am hoping that the four of us will be going out to dinner somewhere not too expensive yet very lovely and that I will be able to get pictures taken of the four of us, of Cole and I, Nikki and I, and Cole and Krysti together. In all the years I've known Cole, we've never had a picture taken, and when I told Nikki this, she asked, "well why not?!". "It just never happened", I replied. Yep, these six or seven hours I get to spend may be the best social memories I have ever had. I hope Cole and Krysti are as excited to have us up as I know Nikki and I are to be coming up.