I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a mental health counselor. I think maybe jr. high was the first time that I realized it. I met with a counselor that I adored and looked up to. After the meeting with her, I started to really believe in my dream. I had a one track mind until after the completion of my masters degree in counseling 11 years later. 

I understood the reticence of my parents and family members who wondered if counseling/psychology was really a plan for my future. I understood that they didn’t see the profession as I saw the profession. It didn’t help that no one in my family at the time was in that industry, or benefitted from that industry…not that we didn’t need it.  Everyone could use a little counseling. 

At the time, psych was not really 100% accepted by everyone around me, but I knew it was right. I finished the degree. I got the job. I had babies. I quit the job. I started a business in a completely different industry. I thought I was done with the dream. 

Silly me. 

Of course I wasn’t done. Looking back I can see all of the perfectly laid plans, and the convictions, and drive to finish my counseling dream for what it is…

The next step. 

That’s how everything I’ve done has been. It’s all just been the next step. God hasn’t shown me how each piece “ends” before it ends. He only shows me the next step and I chase it, knock it down, and I think I know exactly what it means for my future. Most the time, I don’t.  

I don’t think I’d wish for it any other way. I trust in the plan. Thank goodness, too, because I don’t have the capacity for more than that. 

For so long I didn’t understand that for what it was, and is. I thought there was a definite and “right” path. I thought that when I seemingly chose the wrong profession, path, friendship, etc. that I made the “wrong” choice. It was never about that. It was always about that decision being the next step. All of those “wrong” decisions taught me something about myself and the world around me and helped me in my next journey. It was never about getting it wrong. I’m not that important. My decisions aren’t that monumental. It was just about the next step, and with God at the helm, I’ll get there. I always do.