I was in a meeting. A certain woman was talking. I wanted to roll my eyes.

I found myself imagining her shoes were made of fruit roll-ups and I was eating them off her feet.

I am so happy about how President Obama is so interactive with the American people. It’s so different from the way the other presidents were (to my knowledge), but so right. From inaugural events to volunteer days, he’s been trying to get every citizen involved.

The day before he was inaugurated, he asked that we volunteer in our communities. Through his network, volunteer sites were set up. You could go on to his website and find an opportunity to volunteer. This idea of every citizen doing their part and going the extra mile is key to the success of his presidency (and success of our country). I feel like this presidency isn’t just about him. He won’t be able to accomplish much without us.

Writing of rage in my last post reminded me of my last violent outburst–breaking a broom stick–and what caused me to do it, and how that relates to my current career progress.

Last spring I was taking Spanish and a Latino studies class at a university. It felt so good to be furthering my education in a university atmosphere. My former college experience was at a tiny Bible college . One of my hopes for learning Spanish was to become a Spanish/English interpreter.

At the time I was cashiering at a casual dinning restaurant. Working at this restaurant was a detour along my career path. It was due to being burnt out, and having disabling problems with anxiety. I finally got well enough to be ready to do something more in line with my career goals and earn more money. I really didn’t know what to do though. I wanted a job where I could practice Spanish, and I wanted to work for a non-profit. I wanted someone to help me know what to do. I wanted guidance.

So, I made an appointment with a career counselor at the career center at my school.

I told the counselor that I wanted to eventually become an interpreter. He told me that to be interpreter I pretty much had to grow up being bilingual. He said some other discouraging things like when I told him I was majoring in Spanish he said that the higher level Spanish classes take the fun out of Spanish for most people because you have to dissect the language so much. He also said I probably wouldn’t like linguistics. I said, “Actually, I think I would like that.”

He sent me home with some websites to look at for finding employment.

I don’t remember how I felt immediately after the meeting, but I do remember being in my kitchen and home, and snapping. feeling so bogged down with discouragement, and so far away from what I wanted to do. I grabbed that broom, and banged the snot out of it on my back patio. Leaving it a beheaded and bent broom stick.

haha, I wonder if any of my neighbors saw.

It wasn’t too much longer, after more Spanish class, and a call center job, that I got my first job as a Spanish/English interpreter. Because a good friend encouraged me to go to a school district and talk to the person who hires interpreters, I went. She tested me and she said that I could interpret for parent-teacher conferences. I wasn’t good enough to do more serious meetings, but that didn’t get me down. I was flying, just to know that I could interpret at all!

And to think, I almost let the career counselor stop me from trying.