18 October, 2007
Strike that. Reverse it.

So it’s been a minute since I talked about school. Let me give you the update. This semester has taught me that I don’t want a degree in English Lit. I like the classes, I love reading new things, I like the brain workout, but it is just not for me.

When I originally decided to go back to school, I wanted to go for Psychology, to become a counselor. I wanted to work with women who have body image issues and eating disorders and help them put things into perspective and finally feel free from all that weight (literally and figuratively). I wanted to share my own experiences with food, weight, body image and eating issues and share the passion I have in knowing it IS possible to overcome the battle and actually enjoy your life.

But then practicality set in and I decided to pursue an English degree because my employer will pay for it when this hiring freeze is finally over and I get brought on as a full time employee. I thought my lifelong love for reading and books might be able to take me somewhere else. It just didn’t work out.

My goal is to get from behind this desk and work with people. To make a difference. An English degree is going to keep me right here in this cushy job. Which provides some good things like stability and lots of money, but isn’t fulfilling. How can I seriously dedicate half of my life to something I don’t really believe in, that isn’t giving me what I need? I know I have something better to offer.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few months and pondering about this. Do I want to still try for counseling? That’s years of school and mountains of money. Do I want to try to become a nutritionist or dietitian? I’d basically have to get a second bachelors and a masters, which will take forever while I work full time. Then a friend of mine pointed me to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

As soon as I saw their website, I knew this was the place I needed to be. Their philosophy of preventative holistic dietary change instead of medicating with drugs resounds with me. Their faculty list is amazing: Neal Barnard (founder of the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine), Deepak Chopra, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Geneen Roth (who I LOVE and whose books on emotional eating made SUCH a difference in my life), Dr. Andrew Weil, plus a ton of others (and even Wildman Steve)!

Their graduates (a famous one is Healthy Chef Alex - Morgan Spurlock’s wife who had to detox him after the making of Super Size Me and ended up writing a book about it) do everything from opening their own wellness centers to private health counseling to working at high end doctor’s practices as nutritional counselors to being personal chefs and meal planners. The school is in New York City but the beautiful thing about the program is that it’s on weekends. It consists of 10 weekends from November through June, along with online participation and locally organized study groups. I would fly up to NYC on Friday evening, go to school Saturday and Sunday and fly back Sunday night. Hopefully I can bribe some of my friends into letting me crash with them to save some money.

The curriculum sounds so interesting and engaging. I can’t wait to learn more about something which I am so passionate about.

My plan: keep my current job, save money like crazy, go to school. When I graduate in June 2009 I want to quit this job and go to work with a massage therapist, wellness center or yoga studio offering holistic health counseling. I will probably do some individual counseling on the side and try to build up a clientèle. I’d also like to teach cooking classes and offer some small health seminars locally. Then eventually I would like to open my own private counseling practice, helping women with weight or eating issues get their lives back and get truly happy through changing their diet and lifestyle. I will offer holistic nutritional counseling, personalized food plans and may even do some vegan catering.

I feel so good about this decision and have full support from Jimmy and my family. I am SO excited about having a direction for my career that I finally feel some peace about. It’s going to be a big change but I’m so ready!

29 August, 2007
First day jitters

The first weeks of fall semester classes are always so insane! The traffic is worse than ever, and they decided to pave Hampton Blvd. this week, of all times, so half the lanes are shut down! Crazy!

I’m stoked about going in the evening because my parking pass is $50 cheaper and I get to park anywhere I want, including faculty lots. Still I was 10 minutes late to my first class because I thought the arts & letters building was the education building. Doh! I felt like a freshman again haha.

This semester is going to be hard hard hard and fun fun fun. My first class, Intro to Research & Criticism, is a class where we are going to learn to write research proposals as well as critical essays. There’s also a bit of theory involved and it sounds very heady but I’m sure I’ll wrap myself around it once I start doing the assigned readings. We only have three assignments for the class: a critical analysis essay, a research proposal and a final exam.

My other class is African American Literature. I am really looking forward to this class! My teacher is young, energetic and full of passion for the subject. I think she is really going to push us. Last night we talked about everything from Lil’ Kim to Mike Tyson to On The Road.

We have loads of assignments though, including a lot of response essays, and TONS of reading. I’m glad though, it’s going to push me to read stuff I wouldn’t normally have picked up otherwise. We also have to watch several movies for the class and some of the “reading” assignments are listening to songs, poetry readings, etc. on a CD that came with our textbook. We also have assignments like, “have read: Notorious B.I.G. Things Done Changed, Eric B. & Rakim I Ain’t No Joke and Nas NY State of Mind.” Ha!

In addition to all the reading we also have group projects, of which I am the leader since I’m a grad student, and another research proposal. Sheesh! I’m looking forward to school again though, and stretching my brain. It needs a little dusting off.

*image courtesy of wee wonderfuls*

21 August, 2007
Back to School!

I almost forgot to tell you guys, I’m going back to school! Time to start on ye olde Master’s degree. I’ll be heading back to ODU and getting it in English Literature. I think that’ll make a nice complement to my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts (graphic design concentration, if you didn’t know), and I’ll get to hone my writing skills and delve even further into my love of books.

My classes start one week from today and I’m taking:

ENGL 600 Intro to Research & Crit
ENGL 565 African-American Literature

Since my background isn’t in English, I’m waiting to get some courses under my belt before I officially apply for the program. I’ll probably do that next fall. I spoke to the program director and he told me to not worry about anything but graduate level classes if I think I can handle them (duh) because I’ll save money not wasting time with undergrad courses (even though I don’t have very many undergrad English courses). These will transfer straight into my degree when I’m accepted to the program.

With my work schedule, I’m glad most of the grad courses are in the evening and only once a week. This semester I’ll be at school on Tuesdays from 4-10pm. I need to go this weekend and buy books! Who else is starting up school soon? What are you taking?