Truly I am terrible. A shoddy miscreant from Shakespearean times wrapped up in a ball of putrid seaweed. (wow that is disgusting) Why? you might ask. It's because I haven't posted for the year. I don't even know if I even have followers cuz I still don't know how to work this blog because there are so many buttons and links to other places and I digress. Anyway. I apologize to you (well, whoever "you" is, out there) for being a lazy creature and abandoning the task of writing, (which I'm pretty sure I'll have to take up soon enough.)
My last blog spoke of what I'd hoped to accomplish for the year 2014. And I'm really proud to say that with the exception of one goal on that list, I've really accomplished all of them without even knowing it! This is especially endearing to me because I totally forgot that I made that list in the first place, so seeing myself accomplish things that I thought were of importance in the back of my head is very encouraging.
1). I was able to meet with some students in April to do some career counseling and mentoring before CXC and starting from October til next year March I will be doing island visits to various schools about the Juvenile Justice Reform Project that I'm working on.
2.) I wrote to the newspapers. Cuz I had a hole the size and shape of Guadeloupe in front of my yard and it was some bullshit. So I wrote harassing the Minister of Transport and Housing. I also wrote about the number of female murders and the lack of psychologists in the country to deal with the children of those murdered women, and something else that was bothering me at the time that I can't remember. I will be writing about the ALARMING number of crazy people and vagrants on the sidewalks before this year is over. It is just ridiculous.
3.) Youth Parliament was a no-go. I forgot about it, then remembered, and forgot all over again.
4.) All I've done for the past 8 months besides work is attend conferences and forums about the juvenile criminal system in SVG so I have that covered.
5.) I have a mentor!! In the psychology field, which is such a rarity in and of itself. Well I haven't told her she's my mentor yet but hopefully when she reads this...Semantics. *pulls her struggle twists*
6.) Through my attendance at all these different forums, I was able to meet with consultants and find out about an abundance of foreign aid enterprises that can help with small start up groups.
But let me update you on what my life has been for the past ten months.
I fell in love. I know, I know. I became the cliche of all the romance novels and lost myself in a romantic interlude that makes me smile at times and cry at times, but that is really a blog for another month because I'm no longer in that space.
But yea. I got a job. Well, two jobs. Previously, I wrote about wanting to effect change in some way because I was yearning sooo hard to give back to my country in some way. (Yay-Freedom Fighter!) But my first job was in the private sector. I *drum roll* was a drug and substance abuse counselor. Now, for those who know me, THAT was not a career path ANYONE could see me on. As a matter of fact, the number of shocked responses I got was enough to irk me into actually taking the job as seriously as possible. My friends couldn't believe that I could change crack and heroin addicts from a path of constant substance abuse to one of 12 step recovery! Well I'D SHOW THEM!
Yo. That shit was the hardest 5 months of my life. I started out in a sea of hopelessness. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had a BSc. in Special Psychology! I didn't do the "12 steps of changing a crackhead to a fully functioning human being" course! I was in charge of a 63 year old man who had been smoking crack for 22 years. SON! When I had the initial meet up with my client, my knees were knocking. My client was 6'4. I'm 5'6 on a good day!! And he still had drugs in his system. I was scared out my straightened hair. How was I supposed to convince this man who was old enough to be my grandfather that crack wasn't the way to go!??
Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode...
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