You're welcome, CB. I went to the link you posted as well, and there were some great articles there as well.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a counselor, but I let my family talk me out of that. They told me, you don't want to listen to other people's problems all day. I wanted to work with victims of domestic violence and rape. I had not been a victim of either, but I wanted to help those people. I identified with them, even though I didn't really understand why. I think that article sort of put that in perspective for me, why I always identified with other victims. They were like me. We'd suffered.
I thought about doing the couseling thing again when my son was diagnosed with autism. I wanted to prevent other parents from going through the nightmare I went through with the school system and just getting a diagnosis. I finally let it go again, I couldn't figure out how I would go back to school. There were no evening programs offered then, and I had to work.
I write novels and short stories, and often my characters are victims of abuse. After I wrote the book I just submitted a few weeks ago, about a young man who's partner abused him, I started thinking about that counseling thing again. I started thinking how I'd really like to do that, to work with other people and help them. Maybe that's in my future too. I do definitely think that once my son and I move, I'm going to look into some volunteer work, something we can both do and learn from.
