Becoming me, kicking and screaming.

I had to grow up this year.  I had to become a responsible adult.  I had to make decisions I never thought I would have to make.  I am not impressed.

I love my family!  I love how my family functioned up to this year.  I have a loving, intelligent, funny man, a sassy teen, two crazy boys, a brooding step-teen, parents I was dependent on, and semi-accepting in-laws.  What a wonderful life!

I am a social worker, which is a rewarding and stressful profession.  I see that I make a difference in my small world, not so much in the big picture, and that is okay.

Flashback to May 2013:  (conversation at a birthday party when I started to realize not everyone thinks I am as awesome as I think I am)

Me:  I am thinking it is about time I finish my master's degree.

Sister-in-law:  Social work is a waste of time, money , and education.  Social work should not exist.

Me: (picking up jaw off the ground trying to mutter something intelligent) Really?

Mother-in-law:  I agree with sister-in-law.

Me: Really? (the intelligent comments are flowing, as you can see)

Husband of the mother-in-law:  Social workers take the tax payers hard earned money to help poor people to become dependent on welfare.

(let me interject here that I do work in the demographic of adults receiving Medicaid services, so he may feel I am fostering dependence, but, really, I assist others to become more independent)

Me:  Really? (as you can see, I am full of intelligent information defending the profession I love)

As the tears start to flow, I excuse myself to my car to look busy doing something.  I have just been hit in the face with the reality not everyone thinks as highly of my profession as I do.  Oh blissful ignorance!  I REALLY believed everyone in the world thought social work was a beautiful profession full of selfless human beings.  I had to change my thought process of social work and re-evaluate my place in this profession, i.e. what do I believe and why.

This was the beginning of Becoming Me.  Little did I know, it was the beginning of a new view on life as a whole, not just social work.