For the fall 2016 semester I am taking Accounting, in order to complete my associates degree, and concurrently enrolling in a ceramics class at the junior college.

You got it. I'm 36, and have been working toward graduating from junior college for going on 20 years. I'm here to say, "NO SHAME."

I'm me. I can't be not me. I'm who I am.
We all have our stories, and part of mine is that I don't have a college degree, as much as I've wanted, and been working toward one, since I took my first class in 2001.

I started out with promise, and I'm making good on it.

There are plenty of reasons, excuses, and failings that have caused this part of my journey to be incomplete, but I'm not dwelling on those now.

Hardships and grief are real. I've carried them, I feel them, I'm highly aware and accepting of them now. And now, it's time to carry on.

I'm still here, still making that walk into the institution that was my hope for so long.

I did graduate from an accredited Massage School in the middle of this walk, but that section of the trail was cut short by my health and circumstance. And, the fact it was never what I was meant to be or do.

I have completed things from beginning to end. I have put forth incredible effort, and reached my goals. I have strong ethics. I am passionate and compassionate, and work to help myself and others.

When I think about who and what I want to be, and who I already am inside, I can never move beyond "Art Therapist" because it follows me everywhere I go. Then, jumps in front of me, looks me dead in the eye, and freaking stares!

I know there is a population in the world I can serve. It's what I feel I have been created for.

The subject of art + therapy/therapy +art is something running through my veins pretty much all day, every day, regardless of where I am, or how I'm personally feeling. I'm always trying to get there, but it takes a degree to embody this realization completely.

I love, and believe in art. I believe in it's ability to help people connect and see things they otherwise might not. I believe in its transformative power within and without. I honor humans connecting through the spirit and medium of art in a "not alone" way.

I am finding my way forward and through.
This is no easy road to commit to.
And, may I find, do, and be all I am meant for, along the way.
May the journey grow me into a person who can positively help as many as possible.

Right now, the direction seems to be pointing me toward completing my degree, step by step. I am a mere 3 required classes away from completing junior college, and then I think the hardest part of completing my undergrad will be complete.

Part of me longs for a Fine Arts degree foundation, but at this time that route is not in the cards for me. With the current state of education in America, any kind of art school is financially out of reach. I am already confined by significant student debt, as it is. Art school is a serious undertaking I cannot score into. And, I question if it would be the place for me, anyway?

Art is one place in my life I keep sane, where I don't have to alter it to meet criteria from any outside force. It is guided and directed only by the internal limits and boundaries of any given medium/material, itself. I protect the art within me. I can't risk it to being crushed.

This safe, protected, pure, unadulterated spirit behind what art is to me is what motivates me to carry on. This energy is the very "product" I have to offer others in need of this kind of healing. It is what I've loved, and wanted to share with the world, since I was a little girl.

So, I'm going there, finally whole enough to identify the courage within me to do so.

Going to that place inside me that still believes, even after 20 years of educational setbacks, struggle and delay, that I must continue on to be complete in my calling...to live and die a satisfied human, at home in mind, body, and soul.