When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A _______________.

I think I might want to be a guidance counselor.

I am pretty attracted to the idea of my job being more about listening to students and helping them and encouraging them as they go through high school than it is right now. From the small amount of research I've done, guidance counseling can be summarized into three main categories:

- Social and Emotional Counseling
- Scheduling and Standardized Testing Analysis
- Post High School Planning

Here are a few reasons why I am thinking more and more about this change:

1. I feel that my strengths would fit better working with students within a smaller setting and outside the classroom. I do better in small groups than I do in groups of 30 and being the center of attention. I've come a long ways, but let's be real. It's a long road.

2. I feel like there ends up being a lot of walls up when it comes to the title "teacher." For a lot of students, anyway. Not to say that being in the classroom is not meaningful (because it actually is very meaningful..) It's awkward for most students to have a real-ish conversation with their teacher, and many avoid it. I am so thankful for the conversations like this that I get to have with kids. Definitely my favorite part of my job.

3. I get a little kick out of data and reading graphs and nerding out. It's kinda fun.

4. I love math a lot, but it often leaves students feeling discouraged and crabby and frustrated. It's hard to know how to motivate students to want to learn about math. Some people are rockstars at it. I have to work really hard to figure it out. Again..I feel like my strengths might fit better elsewhere.

5. I have had the opportunity to talk with several students just this week about their college plans. None of these conversations were initiated by me. All of them were brought up by students wanting to ask questions about college and to tell me what their thoughts/plans/hopes for next year are. I LOVE finding out what students are passionate about and encouraging them. I also love the idea of helping them find out what they are passionate about.

I definitely need to ask more questions of the guidance counselors that I know and find out a few things still. It's just something that I have been thinking about a lot during the past couple of months. We'll see what will come of it, but I am praying for direction and discernment as to where I can be best utilized in life.

Where do you hope to be best utilized in life?