guldin+Tell+2

Three Memories: past, present, and future
Past:

Throughout high school, mainly your junior and senior year, your teachers and everyone else you see always asks you, "What do you want to do with your life...what are you going to college for?" I never really knew what I wanted to do my whole life up until my sophomore year in high school year, that's when it really hit me of what I wanted to do. There are some people that knew what they wanted to do since they were in middle school and they still to this day are going strong on that career, but I was always "ify". Something that changed my whole career around was when a few of my friends had some psychological issues, whether it was cutting themselves, anorexia, bulimia, or just problems from home that they didn't know how to handle. These all gradually helped me decide that I wanted to be a psychologist because when these things take over you it's hard to stop them without the help of family, friends or a psychologist. I was the one that stood by these friends when they had no one else to go to and this is why I want to be a psychologist so I can always be that person helping someone in need. Something that really hit home for me was when I found out that my very closest friend had been starving herself and cutting herself. I found out by hear one day that my friend wasn't eating at lunch so that week I asked her like everyday what she had for lunch and she told me like a normal meal. Then I asked the other person who told me in the first place and they said that, that was a lie, and when I noticed myself that she had been losing weight I spoke with my friend. This stopped but then about a month later my friend, themselves, had told me that they were cutting their wrists after I had seen the evidence one day. I talked to them about it and it seemed ok and they promised to never do it again. Maybe about a week later I was in class and another one of my friends, who always had their phone on them, had recieved a text saying that they should tell me to go to the bathroom at school. I went to the bathroom and little did I know there sat my friend in a stall in tears because she didn't know what to do anymore, she had used a house key this time to cut her wrist and at this point seeing my friend so helpless I knew that they needed more help than I could give them. Now, obviously at this point I wasn't a psychologist so I was trained to handle this situation on my own so I directed my friend to a school counselor and she then was sent to a psychologist. This psychologist not only changed my friends life but it also changed mine. This psychologist help my friend change the way she was thinking about herself and let them see that what they were doing wasn't the right way to handle situations that may be hard. To this day I know that my friend is a lot better off and able to handle their problems without hurting themselves. It changed my life because it made me realize how much of an influence or help I could be by being a psychologist. Also it changed me because I know that as a friend, I was hurting to see my close friend go through those rough times and by the psychologist helping them it helped me get my piece of mind back. I want to be that psychologist that is able to help anyone that walks through my door!

Present:

Now that I'm in college I can achieve my goal of becoming a psychologist by trying my best at everything that I do and then moving on to my masters after my undergraduate. Even though when I made my decision to come to college for psychology I still didn't know exactly what I wanted to do or focus on and as I progress through my semesters I get closer and closer to graduation and think of how I should decide soon. I just currently declared my minor in criminal justice and a concentration in family, children, and youth, so I feel that I'm making progress in the right direction but I still am unsure of myself at this point because there is so much you can do with psychology. Two memories that I will always have about deciding my career is 1 when I broke down and was so stressed that I almost changed my major and 2 is realizing that I couldn't change my career. I had a break down last semester, I really didn't know if I still wanted to be a psychologist because every time someone would ask me what I was majoring in (mostly older folks) they would say that there were no jobs in this field. Hearing this time after time and then doing my own research I lost sight in why I really chose this field; not because of the job or money but because this is what I would love to do because of my past experiences. At this point when I had my break down I had gone to the career center and they helped me look for job options in this field, making me feel a little better about my choices. My sister asked me if I would change my career, what would i change it to? And my answer was, I honestly don't know, because psychology is what I want to do. I then at this point remembered those friends in high school and that psychologist that helped my friend, and this really made me stick with my choice of being a psychology major. I realized that if I want to be happy with my career then I will only achieve this by being a psychologist or at least doing something in that field. I think I would be happy by doing other things but my happiest would be to be a psychologist.

Future:

In the future I see myself graduating with my masters, happy for it all to be done and excited to be out in the real world putting all my education to use. I picture my future as me working in a psychologists office with other psychologists but me having my own practice. I want to be able to be open to traveling to see people that need me such as going to hospitals or schools. I want to be able to volunteer and help in shelters or other places where the money to pay me isn't available. After saying all this, what I want a normal day in my future to look like is that I wake up in a house with my family maybe at like 7:30 am and head to work about 20mins away. In this big office building there sits a psychologist office that houses about 4 other psychologists maybe with different specialties. All of these colleagues are all my friends and we help each other out, but still keep the patients privacy. I hope to have my own office, but not filled with boring things but with things that will help my patients be comfortable and feel like they can talk to me like a friend, that they don't have to feel like I'm going to judge them. I want to be able to be my own boss or at least make my own schedule so this way I don't have to be out too late. If I can run my own schedule then this way I will still be able to be able to have a personal life such as having a family. But after working with my patients that pay and come to see me, I will make time for maybe a couple times a week to volunteer. If I am not volunteering then the day at work is over and I can go home. This would be my absolute dream job to help all the people I possibly can!