Post 1

           The other day, my fiancé and I were discussing the lottery.  Neither one of us plays very often, but some how we got on the topic of what we would do with the money if we won.  Of course we talked about the obvious things like getting a new house and traveling, but the biggest thing to me is paying off any and all debt that we have. I also would like to set aside all the money needed for me to finish graduate school.  He looked at me and said, "you would still want to finish grad school if we're millionaires?" I thought about it for a minute, but then it hit me. Yes I would because I finally know what I want to do with my life and being a school counselor is it.  Even if I were a millionaire and did not have to work another day in my life, this is still what I would want to do.  It was such a satisfying feeling after class on Wednesday to really think about how I got to this point in my life.  I was always the kid growing up that had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.  After years of searching, I have finally figured out what is my true passion and it is such a satisfying feeling.

            I currently work as an Admissions counselor at a post secondary school in Lancaster.  I meet with people every day and talk about their career goals and what they want to achieve for themselves. While reading the first chapter of our textbook it became apparent to me that of all the definitions they discussed, they did not touch on one that I discuss with all of my students.  According to Brown (2012) he believes that the definition of career is "a series of paid or unpaid occupations or jobs that a person holds throughout his or her life" (p. 14).  I have always believed that there is a difference between a job and a career.  To me a job is anything that you do for money.  A career is something that you can invest your time into and you build your life around it.  A career is something you aspire to be and hopefully something you love to do.  When I meet with potential students at my work, we talk about how a degree can help them get into a career.  They have had jobs before, what they want is a career.  It seemed to me that this book revolves around the idea that a career is just the list of all the positions that you have held in your lifetime.  To me that seems more like a resume than a career.

Brown, D. (2012).  Career Information, Career counseling, and Career development. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.