My Teenage Years

My teenage years were mostly filled with suffering, but I had a few good memories in the mix of all the emotion and what began to lead to emptiness. As a child and leading into my teenage years I discovered something inside myself that led to a dream of direction and purpose throughout my life but yet never was able to fulfill. I still don't know the meaning behind this unfulfilled dream. I found a passion and an energy for wanting to help others. To give and to serve. I learned and was given this gift from my mom's family. The Lehmans. A gift from God to follow the path of Christ. Throughout my childhood and up to adulthood our family had a Better Homes and Garden Family Medical Guide. This was one of my favorite books. The book was filled with basic medical knowledge i.e., the anatomy of the human body, first aid features, the psychology behind the human mind and emotion and keeping it all running smoothly. I loved this book! I loved studying all these topics. But what I loved the most...my favorite part was learning about the human anatomy. Inside the book were 3 transparency pages. Each of these 3 pages represented a system of the human body. The first transparency showed the skeletal system. The second page showed the muscular system, and the third page showed the circulatory system or the system containing the blood, blood vessels and heart. What was really cool was how you put all 3 pages together to display and contain mostly the basics of the human body. The form of the body. I was enthralled by this! I read and reread this book. I later realized this was the beginning of wanting to pursue a career in the health field. To follow the footsteps of my mom's family.

My mom often took my younger brother, sister and I to the local library. Usually, weekly. This was another love of mine. I found a passion for reading mystery books and also the Laura Ingalls Wilder series of Little House on the Prairie. One day I realized I had read all the mystery books I could find in the teen department of the library. I decided to explore the library further. I wandered into the adult section of the library when I noticed a sign that read Medicine. I right away went to this section and perused the books. My hand caressed each book while reading the titles. My hand came upon a book that said Psychology. I knew this was the one. One of the greatest mysteries of all time...the psychology of the human mind and emotion. I checked the book out of the library using my card and took it home. I was 13 years old when I fell in love with psychology. This is when I knew I wanted to be a psychologist.

Another fond memory came with time spent with my Grandma Lehman. I remember on one occasion spending a Saturday afternoon with her and my younger sister. She taught us to make dinner buns shaped like birds. We were at Grandma's house, when she made bread dough. We each took a piece of dough and rolled it in our hands to form a ball. Then we took a small part of our dough balls and twisted it to form the head of the bird. We nestled the formed dough ball (bird) into a muffin tin. After they were placed in the tin, we took a scissors and placed 3 clips vertically where the tail would be. After that we placed another clip horizontally where the beak would go. Then we put the finishing touches on it by taking two dried apple seeds and placing them above the beak to create the eyes. Then we brushed the birds with melted butter and placed them in the oven for baking. Of course, then we had to sample our creations! Naturally, they were delicious!

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A Journey Through the Mind of Schizophrenia

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