Pulling the mental health community to me on twitter has of course greatly and dramatically increased the amount of time I spend talking about mental health. And I’m finding that as one of the more stable members of the community, I’m spending most of that talk time helping, advising, and encouraging others. Which is frankly awesome.
But now I find myself saying: Screw retail. Screw banking. Screw math. Screw photography.
I want to do this for a living! I know I could never get as far as a medical degree to be a Psychiatrist. Which is fine. I don’t want to be the one passing out pills. I want to be the one who listens, advises, guides, encourages, teaches.
I know what I want to go to school for. But I know this isn’t an online degree. I know this isn’t a 2 year community college degree. I know time and money will be my enemy.
I have goals and they are good ones. So it breaks my heart that there is so much going against me.
Okay girlfriend, use all those skills you have for researching mental illness and start researching scholarships, grants, schools and stuff like that! It's out there. Financial aid, people who want to help, scholarships for people who have mental illnesses…. If I can go back to school to be a nurse, you can do this. Me – a single mom of three. My honey is supportive, we're broke, sometimes (this semester) I can only handle one class, I have a 3.6 GPA. I think you might be believing a lie when you say there is so much going against you, my dear!!
The problem isn't so much money as much as time. This is 7 years of college IF I go full-time, which I can't.