well…this is unexpected

So I'm graduating in three weeks. No, really. I am. Whenever I've said this to people, I've gotten "are you sure?," "you're always graduating," and/or "it's about time" or some variant thereof. Thank you, friends and family, for your vast and unwavering support. It's been appreciated these past nine lonnnng years.

I'm applying for a job next week as a substance abuse prevention specialist. Yea, prevention specialist. What is particularly ironic about this is that I really hated all of my prevention courses but the job itself that I am gunning for is a perfect blend of many jobs that I've always wanted and/or have had and enjoyed. It'll require me to work in conjunction with the local school district and juvenile justice center providing education and skill training for at-risk children ages 7 to 17, along with doing individual, group, and family prevention counseling in addition to crisis intervention. A more comprehensive description is located here. And yes, that is the same company that I worked for as a house manager for the detox center, though it's a different division. Score one for familiarity.

The only downside is that the listing for the prevention specialist located in my county has been filled already - the only opening for this particular position is in a small town about 45 minutes to an hour away depending on how fast one speeds, so I'd be commuting. As a silver lining though, they have not been able to fill this position since December 01, 2009 because of this and so I imagine I'll look pretty good.

As an aside, a small portion of this job will require me to be that somewhat pitiable individual that you probably encountered through the grades of 4th-12th who talked to you in assembly or health class about the dangers of tobacco, beer, and the evil marijuana while painfully attempting to connect by using outdated slang terms or scared you by helping plan a highly over-dramatic Shattered Dreams event at your school that all Texas teenagers are inevitably exposed to and forget within a week.

I just asked my brother if he remembered having to sit through a rendition of such an event and he just launched into a 30 minute tirade about paramedics showing pictures of dead bodies ("The guy next to me kept on making jokes and I couldn't stop laughing"), random intercom and video interruptions during class talking about fictional people dying due to fictional accidents ("I guess it was supposed to be serious but it just pissed me off because they'd all of the sudden come on and scare the living crap out of everyone when we were in the middle of something"), a live re-enactment of a car crash on the football field complete with stage blood and on-site response by fire trucks, police, and paramedics ("I hope there were no real emergencies, because I think half of the city responders were dealing with the fake one"), a fake funeral ("It was in the gym and afterwards I went up to the coffin and opened it because I thought it'd be funny and the teacher yelled at me"), and personal recounts from people who lost loved ones to drinking and driving ("One lady just lost it and started sobbing and it was really awkward").

Yeah. Woo hoo.

So. Here's to asking for prayer about graduation, job applications, and maybe learning new slang and not sounding like tool while using scare tactics on school children.