New Discoveries and My "Official Statement"

I have made three very important discoveries as of late.
Number one:
I have discovered the Avatar TV series from Nickelodeon. I don't know how I've never seen this before. I used to be an avid Nickelodeon watcher. This all started with my nephews. They got a hold of it somehow and loved it. Their mom (Jayson's oldest sister) loved it. Two of his other sister watched it while babysitting the newphews. They loved. Jayson's brother loved it. So, Jayson decided to see what this was all about and checked some episodes out on youtube. He loved it. He went to the library to check out the first disc of the series. Now, I've never been a huge anime fan, but I decided to watch it with him just to humor him. I loved it. I'm addicted, which is part of the reason I'm so ridiculously behind on my homework. If you haven't seen this, I urge you to do so. I would most definatley be a water bender.

Number two:
Bob Marley. I've heard him before, but today while doing research (yes, today I chose homework instead of Avatar, good job Karissa.) he came on my Jack Johnson station on Pandora. I just love the way his music just takes me to relaxing on the beach. Thank you for the much needed vacation, Mr. Marley.

Number three:
This one is actually serious. Prepare yourself, this might take a long time to explain.
Graduation is drawing near for me, and just like everyone else, some of you may be wondering what I plan to do with my life after I graduate. Well, I will tell you.

First off, you have to ask the right question. If you ask," Karissa, what are you going to do after you graduate?"
I generally reply with a great conversational damper like, "I don't know."
Am I going try to miraculously find a job that you can do in my field that only requires a bachelor's degree? Maybe. Am I going to have babies? Maybe. Am I going to stay at the job I have and pick up more hours? Maybe. Will I splurge on a trip to Disneyland? Maybe.
Your guess is as good as mine.

Now if you ask me, "Karissa, what are you going to do with your education after you graduate?"
You'd probably be sitting with me while I anwered you for an hour saying something like this:

A couple of Sundays ago Jayson and I were sitting at our table eating lunch and talking about how we just discovered that one of our sunbeams and his brother were adopted. We figured he must have been adopted later in life than in infancy because his baby brother was adopted along with him. Being the psychology major and family consumer and human development (FCHD) minor that I am, I started to think about the attachment theory developed by a man named John Bowlby. This theory is a pretty big deal. It's talked about in every FCHD class I've ever taken and in a couple of my psychology classes. Every time it's brought up ever instructor emphasizes it and its importance. Last semester my Child Guidance professor said roughly these words, "If you take nothing else from this class to helping you in parenting, be SURE to develop this attachment with your baby."
In essence, this theory is about the attachment that an infant makes to their primary caregiver in the first year of life. If a secure attachment is not developed, it can lead to a number of emotional and social development problems. Many researchers are beginning to say that these problems can last throughout a life and can be difficult to correct. A secure attachment is developed through sensitiveness and responsiveness. So, babies need love and they need to know that if they cry and need something that someone will get it for them. Just think of not being able to do anything for yourself. How would you feel if you cried out and no one seemed to ever hear? You couldn't get what you needed, and there is no other way to get it but for someone to respond to you. Or, what if someone only responds half of the time? Resentment towards others? Learned helplessness? I think so. It only makes sense that these feeling could easily turn into emotional and social developmental problems.
So, (back to the table with Jayson and me) I got to wondering, did our little sunbeam develop that secure attachment? He is the hardest of the children to handle and doesn't cooperate as the others do. He seems to just want to lead, but doesn't have a great realization of how his actions affect others. Or, maybe that's just his personality and he's too young to understand those things yet. I don't know. Perhaps I never will. Maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that he is important to me. I want to help him anyway I can. He has so much potential, I see glimmers of it. He is attached to his adopted mother, that is pretty obvious and she had done wonders for him. That means there is so much hope for children adopted later in age. Then it came to me like a flash of light. THAT'S IT! That's what I want to study. That's what I want to do with my education.
Last semester Jayson gave me a priesthood blessing and in that blessing he said that Heavenly Father would help me to know what direction to continue to pursue with my education. All semester I listened. I wondered. I loved my child guidance class, but nothing solid seemed to come. I knew from that class more than ever that I want to be a mother. That is my main goal. That class verified it. I've had so many spiritual experiences with this notion that I cannot doubt it. I feel that it is a huge part of why I'm here on this earth. I also had random moment where I'd picture myself instructing people. Weird. I had never really thought about teaching before. I've also thought very seriously about working with adoption somehow. Then, at that very moment, at the table with Jayson it all came together. Foster care. Adoption. Teaching. Motherhood. This brought the whole meaning of line up on line, precept upon precept to light.
I want to study into attachment. I want to help find ways to aid children that don't get that attachment in the first year of their life. I want to help them to overcome the challenges that come with that. I also want to educate. I want to educate parents who plan to adopt and/or become foster parents on how they can best help their children to form such an attachment or to help them to develop normally if they already didn't get the chance. I also want to educate the general public on parenting, attachment being one of the many things I'd like to teach. Don't you see how they all come together? Notice how they all come back to one thing: motherhood. I want to be one. I want to do anything I can to help mothers around the world.
I am also considering being a foster parent myself. I still haven't assessed whether or not I'd be up to such a challenging situation. I have thought about adopting children nearly all of my life. It all comes together.
Now you probably see why it took me four years to figure that one out.

How and when am I going to do that? That is the part I still haven't figured out yet. I will most likely go to grad school. When I don't know. I only know two things for sure: 1. Having children is my top priority right now. I do not know if I could have babies and go to grad school at the same time. I have a hard enough time getting everything done right now as it is. 2. Grad school would be a bad life choice right now anyway. I need a serious break from school. I said before, I love learning, but I am still incredibly burnt out.

And that is my official "What I'm doing after I graduate" statment.

For those of you who made it through that,
Thanks.