Introducing Me

Hi again,

This excerpt started out a lot longer than I had originally anticipated so I hacked it. I'm just going to start out by introducing myself. I'll leave my philosophical musings and insight into the profession for a later time.

An Introduction to Me
I am Sassy Jones. I have great instincts. That probably helps in this job, but I find it helps everywhere: music, comedy, relationships, technology (my former life)...I am a brooder. A muller. I mean to say, I think a lot about human interactions and why they are the way they are. Probably to a fault, but I'm learning to manage it.

I am an optimistic person with benevolent intentions (most of the time). No, I'm not a saint. No one is. I wasn't born this way. I worked through and am still working through issues that pull me in the other direction, but my point is, I choose to be conscious of the high road and I try to take it as often as ego and outside environment permit.

I am hyper-aware of systemic influences that affect how I am perceived, how I perceive others, and how our culture operates. I am a big proponent of critical thinking. I don't think it happens enough. I think people let themselves march along to the beats of drummers when they don't know the drummers' intentions.

And, all the other stuff that you probably want to know to categorize me: I am in my early thirties. I am not euro-American ("white"). I am female. I am able-bodied. I am hetero-sexual. I am religiously unattached. I come from an immigrant upper-middle class home. I am currently middle class. I am "well-educated". I do not have major physical abnormalities. I do not have major emotional abnormalities. I think that does it...

I'm aiming to make this a daily dialogue which works well over the summer. We'll see how well I do once school starts.

That said, let me post my rules about my blog:

Sassy's Rules

1. Speak (write) thoughtfully. I will make every effort to do so and I encourage you to do likewise.
2. Comments. I love comments. I am offering you my lens of the world and I hope you will share with me yours. It's the best way to learn. I'm happy to see you 're reading this, JI. I won't respond to comments by another comment, but rather through the body of my posts. This helps my stream of thought.
3. Analyze yourself and your world. I hope this blog encourages you to think about your life choices and why you make / have made them. I will be doing this throughout the blog for myself. I am not looking to change your opinion. I am just looking to spur you to be deliberate about yourself. Use the comments section as a sounding board if you feel so inclined.
4. Enjoy. This is not a serious, brooding, intellectualized blog. This is me sharing and venting about my profession. Sassy is sassy. Roll with it.
   

And So It Begins...

Hello,

My name is Sarasparilla "Sassy" Jones. More commonly known as "Ms. Jones" to my students. No, I am not a teacher. I am a guidance counselor. A high school guidance counselor. A high school guidance counselor in a community where parents are prestigious college professors, CEO's of Fortune 500 companies, and directors of large philanthropic organizations.

As a service provider to the elite I see a lot of typical stuff, but let's be blunt: I also see a lot of crazy shit. Emphasis on crazy. Or perhaps replace it with "unnecessary" because a lot of what I see is self-induced stress from the inability to relinquish control, and the inability to sit with stress. Add to that the incessant drive to "get ahead", the lack of recognizing one's connection to the greater world (other than to collect benefit from it), and the mindset that one is in a place to be served, not to serve others.

Welcome to Southern Horizons High School. Welcome to my world.

I have survived my first year and am in the quiet before the storm. September is fast approaching. I am buckling in for a ride. And I'm taking you with me.

Real person. Real school. Different identities.