Graduate School

Call me crazy, but I absolutely LOVE putting on my backpack, leaving a school full of small children, and going to a classroom where I can be the one that is akin to a "sponge" for once. Though there may be some periodic dry patches in the class lectures that I am hearing, for the most part I fell like I am retrieving some of the scholarly attributes I have sacrificed for the greater good of people who are "knee high to a grasshopper" over the past several years. The older I get and/or the more I learn, the more it dawns on me that I want to experience so much more than I ever had the desire to early on in life. Not only do I want to be an L.P.C. now, but I also want to be an educational researcher. Not that I actually want to be an educational researcher in reality, mind you, but when I'm sitting in class listening to the research lectures I think to myself, "Self, you could do that. You should do that at least once before you die." Here is a list of other things I (in theory) want to do or habits I want to form before I die (these are in order of their importance to me for the most part at this particular moment):

1. Backpack through New Zealand
2. Gallivant around Europe (for at least three weeks)
3. Spend my summers in PNG (once I've done 1 & 2)
4. Invent something that other people think, "Man! Why didn't I come up with that?" and that will make me an instant millionaire
5. Be a mother
6. Finish my Master's Degree in a year and a half
7. Finish my L.P.C. in just as an unrealistic amount of time as my master's
8. Actually incorporate my dictionary.com word of the day in conversation EVERY day
9. Do my Core Secrets workout 4-5 times a week
10. Become good at soccer
11. Write my autobiography and/or a hilarious screenplay

By the way, my mom and I realized last night that IF I pass my boards, get my masters, and get my L.P.C. I will be:
Joy Rainey N.B.C.T., M. Ed., L.P.C.
You better believe that I will insist upon you referring to me with that title for at least a month after I've completed all three!!!! :)