I wanted to get through college as fast as I could.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy college, but I had the feeling that real life was on the other side of graduation and I really wanted to get to that…whatever that was.  My dad really wanted me to be an Elementary Ed major.  He thought a job where you had the summers off was the best job you could have.  I have a lot of teachers in my life and those summers are something to be coveted, but I am so thankful I also have a window into the rest of the year.  I know that life was not for me.  I wasn’t sure what life was for me, but I knew it wasn’t that.

One evening my parents came up to school to take me out to dinner.  They saw a form on my desk that I had changed my major to Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations.  They were hurt that I hadn’t told them.  It was one of the first, if not the first, grown up decisions I had made on my own without consulting them.  My parents loved to be apart of the process and I was fighting so hard to make my own decisions.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I chose this major because I could finish in four years and not spend an extra minute in school.  I liked writing and I really liked all of the classes I took toward my major.  I learned so much even though I wanted to get out.  My desire to be done did not keep me from doing all the work it took to graduate.

I graduated in the spring of 2001 after I completed an internship in Nashville at a record label.  I worked in their corporate communications department.  We connected our business with people in the community, but we also connected our music and our employees with each other.  It was a lot of fun!  It was not something I even thought could be a job when I was choosing my major, but it was great.  I got to plan events and and parties.  I got to meet Nashville celebrities.  My days I would spend working and my evenings I would spend exploring Nashville.  Sometimes I would get free tickets to events and other times I was invited by a friend to an acoustic songwriters concert at a tiny venue getting to meet my childhood hero, Amy Grant and her husband, Vince Gill.  It was exciting times!

Fast forward 10 years later and I was working in a field that had nothing to do with my degree, but loving it just as much.  There were some difficult situations, but I loved getting to work with high school students and the volunteers that wanted to be apart of their lives.  The ministry I was with grew so much.  We had students from all different walks of life and the issues they were facing were huge.  Our volunteers loved these kids, but they felt unequipped to help their students walk through some of these big issues and I felt unequipped to help my volunteers.

Kevin and I began to pray how we could help our volunteers have the knowledge they needed and wanted so they could help more effectively.  I ultimately decided to go back to school to get my Master’s in Counseling.  After looking at all the degree options, the course load for that degree had the most helpful classes for our volunteer and students. So in the fall of 2011 I went back to school.

It was so different than the first time around.  I cared about every single class that I took and it directly had an impact on the people around me.  I was able to share what I was learning with our volunteers and they felt better equipped to do what they needed to do. I met some incredible people.  Kevin loved editing my papers and helping with research.  My classes helped me process some of my own junk and strengthened our marriage.  I fell in love with learning like I never had before.

I ultimately lost the job that I went back to school for, but I do not regret going back to school at all.  It changed me in so many ways.  It put me in touch with who God created me to be and how He created me to be.  It gave me confidence and opened up my life to new opportunities.  I was confused when I lost that job.  I did not go to school to become a therapist.  I tried it for awhile, but it was not for me.  I got really discouraged that I had spent all this money (and continue to pay money) for a career that I wasn’t going to use.  But God had other plans.  He always has other plans.  He does not let our tears, education choices or lost careers go to waste.  He can use all of stuff for His glory if we let Him have it.

I completed school in May 2014 and our first son was born in August.  I had completed an internship with an incredible organization and began doing individual therapy at another one, while working part-time in youth ministry at my church. (Gotta pay them bills!)  The therapy was not a good fit for the new mom life and I ultimately left the part-time church job for budgetary reasons.  I got to be home with my son, which is something else I never thought I would be able to do, but God provided.

My boys are now in school and I love their love for learning.  To be a front row spectator to their brains opening up to new worlds is incredible.  They are both learning how to read and every time they recognize a word my heart melts.  I pray that they always love learning and find things they are passionate to learn about.  As for me, I’m done with school for now, but would go back in second if I had the opportunity.  Dr. Sarah has a nice ring to it.  Don’t you think?

I have recently started a new part-time job.  It has blended my love of counseling with my passion for adoption.  I am an adoption counselor at a local agency.  Once again, I am having to learn a lot, but I am so thankful that I get to go to work in a field that I love and get to be a small part of people’s adoption stories.  I did not even know a job in this field was possible, but God did and He’s been preparing me all along.  I get to work while my boys are at school and get to be with them when they get home.  It is a win-win-win.

I am so thankful for education and that we live in an age that we can learn about so many things just by picking up our phones.  I may not have always appreciated the way my dad insisted that we go to college or try to tell us what to major in, but I am so grateful that he put a high value on learning.  I want to be a lifelong learner even if I never step foot back in a classroom.