Hello Blogosphere!

I'm at my office enjoying my last afternoon here before winter vacation. I am a college financial aid counselor and student mentor. Basically, I help students through the college application process and through financial aid, bridging the gap between high school and college. I work with public high school students, alternative school students, and private school students. I graduated college in May 2009, so I am considered a "near peer mentor." I really love my work and sometimes I feel like the only person on the student's side. I love listening to what students have to say about their lives and their goals. I laugh at their rants and high school frustrations. I am enjoying my adventure in education, lets say.

So! My vacation starts soon and this fall semester is done already! This was my first semester on this job, forging this completely new idea in education. This near peer mentor concept really hasn't been done on such a big scale before, and I'm still thrilled to be a part of this project. I started this semester having to nearly demand our way into high schools. This is a completely new program and sometimes convincing schools to use a free community resource is complicated, as ridiculous as that sounds. I listen to teachers and counselors talk about students and I find it extraordinarily frustrating. I feel like students have so many things to surmount that their instructors shouldn't be on that list. So I spent a good deal of this semester dealing with the bureaucracy of schools, but I think a good deal of that is over at this point. I've talks to a lot of students this semester and I'm amazing that many in the public school system have no idea what they want to do. So many students lack self efficacy, and I wonder how that has developed with so many students today. Interestingly, many of the alternative school students do have some sort of self determination and their own ideas about what to do in life. So is going through a difficult phase of life while young a good thing? I tend to think so, but I am rather biased on that subject. I went through a lot of difficult situations when I was younger, so I feel like I have a lot of understanding and sympathy of students in similar situations. I can't wait to see many of them again during the spring semester. I love that if I'm in a bad moon and head to work, I always leave in a good mood. Not many people can say that.

Other than that this semester I've been helping out a good friend of mine quite a bit. Her babydaddy, and boyfriend, is a real moron. He decided last year that it would be a perfectly rational idea to sleep with an "easy" coworker and inevitably have a baby with this girl, on accident. This came out when said baby was four months old. I just can't figure out how someone could be that stupid. I've never marveled at his brilliance, but come on. It's been a long couple months helping her through that situation. If it was long for me, I can't imagine how long it's been for her. Lota fools, Lota fool scumbags.

That is my mini recap of my first semester on the job and the issues that have come about. So Hello Blogosphere!