Thank you to anyone and everyone who has somehow stumbled across this blog- before now or for the first time! Getting into blog writing was super new for me. I love to write but haven’t done it for fun since before college when it became… less fun. I don’t know if you know this but therapists write A TON. Progress notes, treatment plans, discharge paperwork, court reports, intakes, diagnostic summaries, and more things I’m sure I’m leaving out. But it is what it is. So when I started my practice and began reading books, articles, (and blogs!) about private practice, it was highly recommended to start a blog. Basically the advice was to do even more writing than we already do! Haha! But I was actually into it, I was like- sure-I can do that-no problem-it will be fun to write a blog! Then reality set in. I would sit at my computer for hours trying to pick the perfect topic and be intelligent, funny and useful. I agonized over each post and was then angry at myself for stressing out so much. Long story short, I was not having fun. Then I had an epiphany. Maybe I’m just doing it the wrong way. I can figure out a way that I can do this and actually enjoy it. So I’m changing direction.
Here’s the thing-we all face stuff like this. We start doing something and feel like since we started it that we are stuck with it. I’m extremely guilty of this- for example, I will start a book. It’s 400 pages. I will get to page 100 and think “This book is a nightmare. I’d rather watch paint peeling off a wall than read this book. But I already read 100 pages and it might get better so I have to keep reading it”. So I force myself to finish it and the book never gets better. 400 pages and hours of my life I’ll never get back. I get that in the grand scheme of things finishing a book you hate is really not a big deal. The thing is though, I do this in other ways that are a big deal. When I stick with something just on principle, I’ve (slowly) learned that I’m missing out on something that would actually enrich my life, that would teach me something, that would drive me to better things. Of course, there are many important things in life we cannot and should not walk away from. These smaller things though, we can and we should. Let’s give ourselves permission to say “this isn’t working for me. I’m going to find something that does”. What if we all were doing things that enriched our lives and through this, the lives of others?
Back to me I guess and the point of this post-I have worked with kids forever. I started babysitting at 10 years old (what different times, right? I think I made $1 an hour and clearly no labor laws applied). I have worked in preschools, elementary schools, middle schools. I have worked in shelters, juvenile detention centers, treatment centers, outpatient clinics and provided in-home therapy. I have worked with children and families facing really hard issues. I’ve worked with people smarter than me, braver than me, more creative than me. I’ve learned so much and believe I can help people-not because I’m a genius or anything but because I have seen things work. I know what’s possible if people come together to support a child. So my next blog post will be different. Here’s to change.
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