Empowered by Education

Empowered by an Education

Aura Sophy Rivera

Excelsior College

The decision to return to college was not an easy one. I am a woman who directly out of high school went to college and chose a path far from what I am doing now. More than ten years after graduating college with a BA in Social work, I was still unfulfilled. I was so unfulfilled in life that it showed in my job performance. I began to disconnect myself from my clients, and not give my 150%. Once I began to do that, I knew I needed a change. That change, was empowering myself through school and pursuing my RN. College has opened many doors, but along with that, it has helped me to find who I am and who I still need to become.

Having a college education enables you to be more satisfied in a job, according to (“The benefits of Earning,” n.d.). With me, I began my college career filled with idealism and positivity, and years later, graduated and found myself in a much different world. Life as a Social Worker is a rollercoaster of emotions. At times, I was able to disengage from my clients and other times carried their problems on my sleeve. Through my work experiences, I have grown both personally and professionally. Helping others has helped me to be more appreciative of the myriad blessings in my life and to take little for granted but it has also left me wondering what more can I do. I felt, as a social worker, that I was confined to offering options to my clients and never really seeing the fruits of my labor. That confinement stifled me. I felt trapped.

My clients also saw the change in me. One day, a mother of a Schizophrenic 12 year old, I was counseling for about 2 years, invited me for coffee at her house. It did not seem like much to me since it was part of my duties as his case manager to visit the child’s home on a monthly basis. Once inside the home, I was on autopilot, asking the routine questions. In mid sentence, the mother asked me “what is going on with you?” I was taken...