After the Developmental Psychology class, it’s hard to remember what order the courses came in. Ariel was a baby, and unlike my time with her brother, I was able to stay home most of her young life. I owe this to my husband and his business partner who offered me a marketing position at their software company. When Sam was 10 months old, I quit my full-time job working with people with developmental disabilities and stayed home part-time marketing and caring for Sam. When I decided to go back to school, I was pregnant with Ariel.
Possible paths to graduation included a minimum of two years and a maximum of 5 years to complete a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy. We planned to pay as we went. By “we” I mean to be clear that this was a team effort. My husband ordered my books and resold them as each course finished. He cared for Sam and Ariel and continued to do graphic design work from home. For awhile, I continued to do marketing and take one course at a time. When I could see that the quality of my marketing work was dropping, I looked for new part-time work. I took a job as a caregiver for a young adult with Autism and developmental disabilities. This job was in his home, with his mom. The time I came in was a span of four hours and it was the time when his mom took a break/respite. She was a kind hearted person, and I remember standing and reading a series of quotes about Love and God that were up in their bathroom. She had Cancer. It was ongoing. She had a infrared light machine in her bedroom. Sometimes, other people would come to use the machine.
I wasn’t at that job long, because another position I’d applied to earlier got back to me with a better financial offer. I felt bad leaving so soon, but the other position was with a hospital and offered healthcare as well as a high hourly wage. The new position was “Activities Assistant” and it involved art, games, and one-on-one visits to residents in an assisted living and memory care part of a hospital. I loved it. The people were beyond kind to me, they encouraged me in my studies, and told me that I would be a great therapist. Year later, when my Grandpa and Grandma moved into a similar place, I asked my Grandpa not to underestimate his influence with the staff people. Like myself, they may need to hear words of support and encouragement. These days, I have strong opinions about assisted living places…even really nice ones. Its not that the places aren’t nice, it is the reality of loss within the wider community that invariably happens when we remove older (often wiser) adults from it. This is another story/strong opinion for another day.
I worked at the hospital for nearly one year. Ariel was three by then. It was at this time that a classmate told me about a private practice in Northfield, MN that was offering paid internships. I had already been preparing myself to work, go to school, and participate in a volunteer internship in order to graduate. If I could get a paid internship…wow…that would be amazing. At the same time, my husband’s business was having a bad year. He and his business partner talked about what to do. My husband decided to focus on caring for our children and declined a salary that year. Due to having little debt, we had completed paying our mortgage on our home, we were able to live off of our savings and my part-time work and pay for graduate school.
Thanks for listening. Sharing these events is adding a coherency to my life.
Sincerely,
Terra Rose
Life Without Montages 