Blog 3

Last week’s class got me thinking a lot about my life and how some of the things in my past effect who I am today.  It is pretty cool to see some of the stuff in the book that makes sense to my life.  As I continued to read for this week one major thing that jumped out at me from the Corey and Corey (2008) book was the injunctions.  When thinking about my friends and family I could think of a few injunctions.  I remember my mom saying to me that I needed to get all A’s to be successful.  During High School this wasn’t a problem because I did get mostly A’s, but when I got to college things changed.  My first semester I got one A and then a lot of B’s and then one C.  I felt like I was an idiot that I couldn’t do college.  Luckily, I went to a Christian college that helped my faith to stay strong and to realize my irrational belief that I was telling myself.  The first semester was really hard for me but I realized that getting B’s was okay.  Now I still wanted to receive A’s so I did try harder but if I got a B, I wasn’t that upset. 

Another injunction that I was told when I was little was, grow up.  I tried to be a kid as long as I could, but when my dad left when I was ten, I had to grow up.  I had to take care of the house by cleaning and fixing things, take care of the yard work, and make dinners.  My mom was so burnt out from working all the time that my sister and I had to grow up fast to survive.  Don’t get me wrong, we still had fun in High School but we could never really have serious relationships because we were really busy doing other stuff.  When I think about becoming an adult, I think that I would have already felt a change in who I am (the feeling of being an adult), but I feel that is not the case for me.  I had to grow up when I was younger because I had no choice but to be responsible.  I couldn’t make foolish mistakes because my family did not have resources to bail me out if I did.  I guess that was better for me in the long run because I never got into drugs and alcohol when I was young.  I didn’t feel that change of becoming an adult because I already made that change most likely in high school.  I had no choice but to grow up but I feel as if I still have that fun and adventurous side of me.  I learned how to be an adult while still having fun and I think that is why I want to work with kids.  I feel as if both of these injunctions were hard to face, but over time I found my way around them.

Corey, G., & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Explorations in personal growth. (9^th ed.). Belmont, California: Thompson Brooks/Cole.