cool life moment

As terrible as I may find my hometown newspaper sometimes, it did give me one of the greatest gifts of my life: my chosen profession. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English (not intending to do anything degree-specific). I wished to find a helping profession that appealed to me. Many, many do not. Every now and then I would wonder about teaching (at some level in the public school system), but the fit did not feel right. And that is one profession I firmly believe that if the fit doesn't feel right, you probably shouldn't be doing it. It is one of my most admired professions, one of the most important professions, and I sure didn't want to screw up at it. Social work crossed my mind a few times too. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school...but certainly not in English. Anthropology or American Studies sounded fun, but again, I was uncertain about putting in the time and money for a degree I wasn't sure how I would use. I worked at a job I liked with co-workers I loved, but I knew it wasn't my career.

In May 2006, I read an article in my hometown newspaper about a speech-language pathologist in one of our local schools. She spoke about the connections she made with her students over the years. That plus my love of language plus a strong personal tenet that everyone should be able to tell his or her story led me to research this profession I was mostly unfamiliar with. It took a while to make the life change and some major things miraculously fell into place, but here I am nearly halfway through my speech-language pathology education. Kind of amazing, really.

Oh, yes, the cool life moment. So the slp interviewed in the article was not someone I knew. I knew who she was because her daughter and I were in the same graduating class in high school. I didn't know if I would ever have a chance to talk with this woman and let her know the huge impact she had on my life. This semester we were assigned to interview an slp for a project. I immediately thought that this was my chance. I was nervous because I generally prefer to stay in my comfort zone. I know several other slps, any of whom I could have had a comfortable conversation with, but I made myself not pass on this opportunity. I contacted her, she quickly and enthusiastically agreed, and we talked on the phone last night. So cool. I hope to be the kind of slp she is.