Dear friends and family,

Last year, shortly before Christmas, my younger brother, Craig, and his daughter, Mollie, were put in a difficult situation which left them with virtually nothing.  In a period of three days, we (my roommate and I), thanks to many of you, were able to raise about $1,000 and two suitcases full of clothing, food, blankets, baby items, and hygiene items for me to take to Washington for them.  This was primarily done just by asking for spare change!

I am happy to say that because of the help Craig received, he was able to purchase a reliable vehicle which enabled him to make the commute to his job, so he could provide for himself and his daughter.  He now is living in his own place with a roommate and was accepted and has started an electrician apprenticeship program.  This probably would not have been possible without the help he received last winter.

When Craig was finally in a more stable situation, he called me and told me about how he wanted to give back.  That thought has stuck with me, and my roommate, Shannon, and I decided that we want to do it again this year.  For a long time, we weren't sure who in particular we wanted to raise money for.  Then, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the LDS Church's Humanitarian Aid Center in Salt Lake and felt I knew where our money ought to go this year.  Shannon and I have decided that we are going to raise money this year to purchase and assemble humanitarian aid kits for the Humanitarian Aid Center.  These kits will then be distributed across the world, wherever they may be needed.

If any of you are interested in contributing, whether through money donations, specific items for the kits, or in time to help us assemble the kits, please let me know.

We would greatly appreciate any contributions to help us in this effort!

Thanks!

A Little Too Ironic

So, I JUST found out where I will be doing my internship placements for the Master's Program, and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw where I was placed.  My Fall/Winter internship seemed pretty normal and was one I really wanted--Provo School District.  

As for my Spring/Summer internship...well, let's just say Wasatch Mental Health will be seeing me a lot sooner than they expected!  Yup, that's right...right back to where I came from!  I don't know which department I'll be in...I'm crossing my fingers for youth (that's what I put on my sheet for what I wanted).  

Anyway, though y'all would want to know!

On a lighter note...

I found this the other day. It was a free write I did last year when I was out of school and missing writing papers. Shannon gave me a title and a list of words to write off of.

The title I had to use:
The Price of Tea in China

The words I had to use:
Duck
Blimey
Shepherd
Pariodontist
Antidisestablishmentarianism
“Sugar Daddy”

The essay:
Do you know where your stocks really are? Is it all really about Dow Jones and the NASDAQ? A few months ago, most Americans would have answered “yes” to both questions. Now things have changed. Yesterday marks three months since we first heard the story of Sou Lee of Sapporo, Japan about the secret rise of the stock market there—in the duck hunting industry of all places. Recently, an article published in Time magazine, “Who’s Your Sugar Daddy?”, became a fresh source of controversy surrounding the ongoing debate of today’s stock market and the shift of power from Wall Street to a town, which up until recently, was known only to its residents and other nearby towns. The city—Gou Yun, China. The market—an industry specializing in spelling bee study courses in conjunction with martial arts.
Sources say parents of elementary-aged school children are investing millions in the business. One consumer commented, “Oh, I definitely trust where my money is going. I have no doubt that Shepherd’s Spelling and Samurai will be the number one company in China within the year. My six-year-old was able to spell antidisestablishmentarianism while karate chopping a piece of wood within two weeks of starting the course.” The founder of SSS, Tea Shepherd, a former periodontist from Sydney, Austrailia, who moved to Gou Yun to teach English, commented, “Blimey! I had no idea it would take off as it has. I’m still completely astonished. I feel like a little kid who gets the duck in Duck Hunt.”
The sensation has come to be known as “The Price of Tea,” an obvious name play on the name of the SSS creator. And now the question looms—where will you buy into for your next investment? The stocks that are old news, or Shepherd’s Spelling and Samurai, the new company with a strange name that could very well determine our children’s future?

All You Need is Love

A multitude of things have been going on in the world, in my schooling, and in my personal life that have caused me to reflect on the worth of individuals and the need of everyone to be loved.

I was speaking with a loved one recently, and he shared with me that he had never really felt loved. It broke my heart to hear this, as it was someone I had loved as long as I could remember, and I want nothing more than for him to know he is loved. Unfortunately, this has only been one of many similar instances recently.

A few weeks ago in my cognitive therapy class, we were talking about the core beliefs that we hold. Dr. Norman gave each of us a sheet of paper with blanks after the phrases “I am,” “Others are,” and “The world is.” Each of us was to fill-in-the-blank after each of those phrases reflecting our personal beliefs.

I was shocked as we began to discuss it because most of my classmates reflected beliefs of themselves as failures. They felt that to be “successful,” they had to achieve certain benchmarks in life (e.g. successfully complete their MSW). As more comments were made reflecting the same kind of thoughts, I felt the need to raise my hand to share what I had written.

While I do have insecurities, I also feel confidence in my abilities. I wrote of myself, “I am a valuable and talented person.” About others, I wrote, “Others are valuable by virtue of being a person and a child of God.” I brought up the point that, as therapists, we one, need to believe that each person is a valuable human being without having to meet certain conditions, and furthermore, we ought to help our clients see that their value or success as a person is not attached to some tangible benchmark they (or someone else) place on themselves.

The world tells us that to be somebody of value or success or somebody worth being loved, we have to achieve X amount of education, earn X amount of dollars, or participate in X types or amounts of activities.

Over and over again, the message I am getting from many people is that they don’t feel loved and don’t feel they deserve to be loved. I ache to hear this. I believe that each and every one of us is a child of God. Furthermore, I believe that He loves each of us more than any of us could ever comprehend in this mortality.