All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do.
My grandma followed me into the living room to see what I was up to her after I asked her for some double-sized tape. The day before, I had watched our new refrigerator being delivered, and now I was doing what any child would do with a huge cardboard box — turning it into something wonderful. In my case, it was Lucy’s psychiatric help stand from the Peanuts comic strip.
Grandma looked fretfully at the large pair of scissors I had taken from the kitchen drawer as my determined little hands struggled to cut through the thick cardboard. “I’m going to help people, Grandma, and give them advice to solve their problems.”
“Well, that’s a very good thing to do. Can I help you with the scissors?”
Over the next few weeks, I readily dispensed advice to unsuspecting family members and friends from my makeshift therapy stand. Our Poodles, Rascal, and Smokey, along with my grandma, made up the majority of my patient consultations.
My cardboard psychiatric advice stand fell apart pretty quickly after that, but the dream remained, although it went into hibernation for a while.
When I graduated from high school, I won some scholarships, but I still couldn’t afford to go full-time to university. So, I decided to work and take classes part-time instead.
Years passed, as did my grandma and my Poodles, but my dream didn’t. From time to time, Lucy would pop in my mind, giving me her sage and practical advice. “Snap out of it! You’ve got to stop all this silly worrying!”
“Go home and eat a jelly-bread sandwich folded over, reminding me not to over-dramatize a situation and just curl up with some comfort food until the storm was over. And once, when I was feeling particularly unsure of myself, there she was, advising, “If you really want to impress people, you need to show them you’re a winner.”
As I worked menial job after job, I always managed to set aside enough time and money to take college degrees at night. Over time, the credits added up until I received my first college diploma.
Life continued, and so did my dream of becoming a psychologist. As my regular jobs improved, so did the amount of effort and funds I could spend on my university classes. Before I knew it, another college degree had been completed.
And so it went, taking class after class, enjoying each one along the way to a fuller, formal education.
After working at various universities for years and loving aspect of education, my eighth and final degree was completed. I had realized my dream of becoming a psychologist.
EDUCATION is a life-long process, and I managed to reach my goal over the years by taking one class at a time. My grandma would have been proud of the final result.
When I graduated, a friend — one of the few who knew of my inspiration from the comic strip — gave me a framed picture of Lucy hard at work in her makeshift office. I hung it on my office wall. Many people saw it and commented on how much they liked the iconic comic strip. But only Grandma and I knew the whole story.
