The Psche of a Runner

Interview on Counseling:

            Current school counselor:

“How much does the job jump into your personal life?”

“Do you structure your own material for student’s progress or does the school do that?”

“When did you first start getting into helping people?”

“What surprises you the most or is out of the norm of expectations in this job field?”

“How much of the psychological side do you use to explain things?”

Superintendent:

“Is there certain character traits you look for in hiring a counselor?”

“Are there red flags in looking at transcripts in hiring a counselor?”

“Are there similar jobs in school that can get a counselor started or do similar duties?”

Wanted for hire at Le Mars Community School:

High School Counseling position- We are looking for a people person, strong willed, and a monster of a heart to help teenagers down the road of life! Being a workhorse and shuttling themselves throughout the school will be required. The counselor title also means the obligation of filling out a lot of paper work in order to make things easier for the students and faculty. They must be able to deal with a zany environment every day and manage a plethora of different personalities from all kinds of people. This job requires full-time fall through spring and vacation allowance in the summer. Bring your own philosophy in and let it flourish in the hearts of young minds. Coaching on the side is a plus also! There are some book keeping things that you must have too. You need a graduate level Master’s Degree in counseling. An undergraduate degree in psychology with ethics-based, cultural, and brain development classes included helps too.

What I aim to do:

I want to provide guidance and help those who are lost, one step at a time, like seeds sown on a barren prairie. I hope to build a network of positive self-talk across the entire school. I live to see my influence in others and how it can change the world.

My identity is at an uncertain crossroad right now. My passionate love, cross country, has ended. For the next two weeks until track starts, this radically changes who I am. I am not an athlete during this span but I more literally a full-time student. I can already see this starting to change me. I almost, at times, don’t feel like myself without running. I have been living the, true to stereotypes, college life. My days consist of sitting in my dorm room glued to internet TV marathons. Once I get a foothold in track when it starts in two weeks, I will make up a new part of my identity with help of the team.

All I hear most of the time about Sioux City is: “What can La Juanitas do for me??” Sioux City may not be the “cream of the crop” kind of place like my hometown Le Mars presents itself but it is vastly diverse and has its own perks as well. Hey, I never was too warm with Sioux City even though I lived close, but I have opened myself up since I moved here to everything Sioux City has to offer us. This is my effort to glitter Morningside College students’ eyes with the possibilities to make this place take on its own persona of “home.”

• Breakfast is key and the most clutch moment to any day in my opinion! I believe sugar becomes its own part of the food plate as an essential nutrient as you try many kinds of voodoo to get yourself through the day in college. I have nothing against Sunkist Bakery but go the extra distance downtown to The Sugar Shack Bakery and stock up! Try a truffle or two…. Three maybe? No matter what you get, there is a reason this place is called “The Sugar Shack.” The taste of their food goes off like a sweet flash bang in your mouth!
• At this time, you may be quite hyped up so it’s time to let your creative side out. Everyone strives to have their own personal man cave in their room. A couple of places can help with this. For the pop culture guru, I suggest going to the mall for they provide action-packed posters, vibrant scenery in frames, and a cornucopia of sports trinkets. If you are still in the downtown area, Antiques on Fourth is a great place to go. Get something random, cool, or just something strange to have a funny story to tell your friends. They have it all like pictures, clocks, dolls, furniture, light fixtures and about anything else you can think of!
• Whether you want to reinvent your identity or flare it out more, you may want some new clothes to present that. With a stroke of luck, you are already in the right place, the mall! I have a hobby of just exploring this diverse place to get the lowdown on the latest deals. They have all kinds of stores that range from athletic locker rooms to nerd out heaven, from stores discussed with royalty to ghoulish gothic grounds and everything in between. They all have sales going on which I highly suggest checking out every now and then to build an affordable, swagin’, wardrobe.
• Lunch time calls! This is a pivotal time to give you the energy to get the most out of your day. Let’s stick to healthy and unique choices since I know you will answer to your cravings eventually. If you have time to sit in, I suggest Famous Dave’s for barbeque, Rebo’s for a Caribbean, cultural ride, or for just that good old hamburger, Jim’s Burgers is there for ya fast and hot. A healthy and cheaper alternate to all of these, though, is Little Chicago Deli which is a local take on the Subway sandwich motif.
• I expect class will leave you buried until suppertime. Supper could be a treat to yourself if you worked hard today or a good vibe for a date.  You can take in the beauty of the Sioux City geography at calming, Bev’s on the River, which overlooks the lake front into Nebraska. For straight up fancy, Trattoria Fresco shines through with the name even and the Italian hospitality. For a retro locale, look to SoHos which is a tribute to a burrow of New York. It comes complete with classic Broadway posters and a subway car!
• You may have some time away from school to actually do stuff every now and then. If you are the super fan type, you would fit right in “banging the drum” at the Muskie’s hockey game. For the “flower power” in all of us, there is multiple nature preserves to walk and leave worries behind for a bit by getting in touch with nature. The Tyson Events Center holds all kinds of high-end entertainment along with the new casino too.

If college is getting repetitive, try out those local attractions I suggested. There is always more out there so explore, keep an open mind, and who knows what you will find!

Deanna Thompson is a Christian theologian of religion and she discussed the ups and downs to dealing with life after diagnosis of cancer. The recurring phrase to speak volumes about what she is going through is the “toughest times of our lives.” Five and a half years ago, Deanna was informed that she had a cancer that would take her life sometime soon. At first, she did not want to hear the statistics or “guides” out there to deal with her cancer. A common theme she mentioned with this that she read in a book was: a person does not know how to really have cancer. Deanna also struggled with the fact that people saw her as an inspiration. In her mind, she doesn’t believe she could see herself in the same light other people do. Through the hard times though, Deanna did not blame God or lose faith. Her friend had said she thought God gave people problems to fix their gaze back on him. Deanna would not accept this logic though and she found many forms of reason to back this from unlikely sources.

Deanna’s brother started a Caring Bridge site for her that brought a special kind of joy into her life. At first Deanna did not believe in technology but people soon helped her warm up to it. She could talk to people on there so much better than in person about what she was going through. Friends and people she barely knew, even from many different religions, would go to their god or prayer for help to come to her. A girl that Deanna had a loose friendship with got inspired to take her Jan-term class to the Middle East and to prayer for her at the religious centers there. Previously, this friend declared herself not very religious!

Deanna often made connections with her cancer to her theological work. She even wrote a chapter in a book about how trauma links to Christian theology. One big thought she presented was how people go from celebrating Christmas to Easter without looking at what comes in between. This thought comes in reference to the thoughts she has about what is to come after death. She made one last moving parallel comparing people around her loving her to her thoughts of what is to come in the afterlife.