An update...

(Hopefully to be followed with more updates, on a more regular basis!)

I am so envious of Ryan's camera. I really have always had a fascination with photography, and he has a slammin' camera! Mom and Dad have a pretty awesome camera as well. I need to *yoink* it for a day or two and see what I can do with it. Ryan was at the lake with us this weekend and took some AMAZING photographs, which I can't wait for him to publish! As long as I can't have such a badass camera, I might as well charge my dinky little battery and keep on trucking with my close-to-zero zoom pocket camera! Be on the lookout for new pictures!

Anyways...
For a couple of years, I have been searching for the best career path to take. Combining my past experience working with adolescents in a middle school counseling setting and my current experience in the health care field, I have finally formulated my dream job! *Drum roll, please!* I want to work with adoelscents in a clinical health setting in which I could provide both mental health counseling and whole body health, specifically incoorporating sexual health, addictive health, and nutrition. "What's even better than finally putting your finger on your dream job?", you ask... It's finding the PATHWAY!

I recently and FINALLY made the decision to GET MY STUFF TOGETHER and aim all of my attention and energy towards applying for the Alternate-Entry Masters of Science in Nursing degree at The University of Texas, my alma mater! The program is designed specifically for folks like me who have a Bachelor's degree in something other than nursing. The first 15 months will be an intensive, fast track nursing program, at the end of which I will be qualified to test to become a Registered Nurse! Immediately following that, I will enter the Master's portion of the program. I can work as a nurse during that time, if need be, or I can barrel on through the Master's program and come out with an RN and MSN! My ultimate goal with this is to become a Nurse Practitioner, which may take a few more steps dependnig on which Master's track I take. I'm debating between the "child health" track, which seems to be fairly obvious why that would be a good option, and the "family psych/mental health nurse practitioner" track, which also has its obvious reasons! With the child heath option, I would still have to do a bit more schooling in order to qualify to test to obtain an NP license, whereas with the FPMHNP option, I would qualify immediately following completion of the program. At this point, that sounds more ideal! But, I need to weigh out all of the pros and cons of each and see which one overall fits me and my ultimate goals the best.

I can't begin to explain how exciting it is to me to have had this realization and to finally know exactly how to work towards exactly what it is that I want to do!

Dream job... I'm on my way!