Natosha Monroe

Congratulations! You’re at the point in your graduate program where you get to choose a topic for your doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis. Yea! All those classes…all those dollars spent on tuition…the pages upon pages of mind-numbing journal articles…now you finally get to choose a topic for the final requirement necessary to hang that degree on the wall! You’re energized. You’re ready to get started on your research. You have some interests in mind. Now to choose your topic…easy right? Not always so, as I learned this past year.

YouTube is not typically my thing, but I’m glad my mom put her cell phone in front of my face Monday to share this video with me. It’s AMAZING. I shared it with my psychology students because our topic was the psychology of healing and it fit perfectly. The ex-paratrooper featured in the video had all but given up: He was overweight, unhappy…but someone believed in him and offered him hope. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this right now and go watch it…then come back and finish reading of course! Here’s how to view it:

In light of recent cuts to our military, I’d like to share a couple angles that people outside (or even inside) the military might not otherwise consider. Not too long ago my Army Reserve unit was told by a Pentagon General that the government was “cutting almost 20% of the Army”—meaning, get ready because at any point your commander may be told something along the lines of, “you need to get rid of 2 of your Soldiers today.” While I hear much in debates and the news of unemployment rates, I don’t hear much about how military cuts are affecting our Troops and Families. Remember, a Veteran who is “fired” becomes unemployed too.

For many different reasons, Professional Counselors may want to consider an option other than counseling for work. Perhaps, other than opening up one’s own private practice, there are no openings for counselors in their area. Another reason is near and dear to my heart—people who have obtained their graduate degrees and entered the counseling profession specifically to offer services to Troops and their Families find themselves “blocked” from those jobs. Some counselors may simply want to supplement their income, explore a new area of work, or change up routine to avoid burnout. So what are some of our options?

A co-worker just informed me the other day that my tax dollars are currently being used to pay teenagers in the Washington, DC area to attend high school. HUH?? I really couldn’t believe that. Has a portion of our society seriously forgotten that we are fortunate to have a public education system where any child can receive education (and receive free meals, school supplies, etc in many cases)? And now we’re going above and beyond that entitlement to now adopting a mindset that tax dollars should be used to PAY teenagers to get them into a classroom? What’s wrong with this picture?