ooh, why I became a counselor. Well, it was kind of interesting. My uncle was actually going through his counseling program, and he would talk to me, we had great conversations about the mind and how people function, and just what was going on in people's lives. And so he always told me, just think about it. You know, there was something that you might want to think about doing sometime later. So fast forward, got out of undergrad and got everything together. I was working at a Gamestop, and I knew that I wanted to do something different, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. Kids will come in every day, you know, have the video game system plan. And what I did was I started to set up a homework program like, alright, I'll turn on the games as soon as you finish your homework. And so some of those kids will be in there from literally, I think school probably let out about 233 o'clock. They'd be in there from 315 to about eight o'clock when we were getting ready to close. So I had them in there, and I figured, do something that's worthwhile, so I set up a little corner for them to be able to do what they needed to do. And someone said, that was really cool. What you did, like, why don't you go into teaching? I'm like, Nah, I can never be a teacher. I don't think that my mind and my mouth are right places for me to be a teacher, like, but there's other things that you can do. What about counseling? I said, Well, I can look into school counseling. Went started a program at Concordia University for school counseling. Had my first class, fell in love with the field, just literally head over here with the field, and I knew that there was something that I wanted to do. Fast forward to practicum and internship. I was like, Okay, I'm almost done. Everything is going right. And I was talking with one of my colleagues, and there was another counselor that came in there, and she would just constantly refer out people that looked like me and that bugged me, that bugged me relentlessly, and it was like, Well, why won't you work with them? And when this school, if they referred them out, they would have to see an outside therapist before they would come back into the school. And I know that that cost money, and for some of the students that we were serving, that money wasn't there. So students would be out a week, two weeks, even three weeks at a time. Now they're that much farther behind to be able to get to where they need to. So I sat that I sat there and I thought about I said, you know, I can reach so many people, but if I teach the people that reach the people, I can reach so many more. So that helped me with my decision on whether or not to go get my doctorate degree talk to a couple of professors. One professor actually took me to the side and said, Okay, where are the schools that you're looking. Can add. So I showed her the school pamphlet. She was like, okay, she threw one on one way. She threw one another way. She said, you're going here. And I said, Okay, why this one? She was like, because I trust them. That's why you're going there. I didn't know that my journey was going to change course. So much started at the school going through classes, thinking to myself, Okay, well, I'll be able to teach a little, do some adjuncting on the side, you know, maybe start private practice. That'll be it. Then I got bit again by the practical and internship, the clinical training bug. Oh, and that bug, bit hard. Love the fact of seeing counselors go from one transition to another, that aha moment of now I realize I know what I'm talking about, and ever since then, that's been a passion of mine, seeing young counselors go from now, I don't know if this is right for me. If this is what I've called to do, I always say that it's two wonderful moments in a person's life. And this is something that my uncle used to tell me. I think it's a parable or something, but it's the moment that they were born and the moment that they find out why, when I see those students go to that why moment, it's an amazing thing, and just to be a part of their journey is worthwhile.