What I didn't learn...

Could fill volumes.  The list of 50 things you don't learn at school is a mixed bag.  But you are really up a creek with out a paddle if you don't learn it at home or anywhere else either.  My view of counseling was a 8 year course on living.  Class (sessions) meet once a week, reading and writing assignments, some classes are a walk into hell only to be reminded that this is my past.  Great.  (Read with much sarcasm.)  Each session has varying degrees of discomfort.  Some sessions I come home, curl up in the fetal position on the couch, and don't get up until sometime the next day.  Other sessions require comfort food like Cold Stone Creamery German Chocolate Cake ice cream.  I some times think of counseling as overhauling an engine while you are driving the car.  Or I one time joked that it is more like open heart surgery without anesthesia, wide awake and the pain is intense.  I was taught that getting counseling was a sign that you are weak, lazy or too stupid to deal with life yourself.  After going, counseling is for courageous, intelligent, hard working people that are willing to face their worse nightmares week after week after week.  List of things I didn't learn well surpasses 50.  What I did learn in school, sometimes adults are reasonable and fair.  Hard work can bring positive results.  Listening to criticism and learning from it can raise your grade.  Praise can be given for what I did.  What I learned in counseling could fill volumes.  I started printing out just the emails I wrote and have filled 2 binders and working on a third.  I am still learning.  This week I have looked at where I came from, where in my progress I am right now, and where will that lead me.  My past does not define me but my decisions are rooted there.  I am choosing another path than the one I was placed on as a child.  I choosing to live truthfully and abundantly.  To me abundant living is not about the dollars in your bank account, it reflects the richness of your life and the relationships in it.