Blessings on the Boards! Getting Those 'Initials' After Your Name. Don, Bud - This Blog's for YOU!

Right now is 'back to school' for millions in the United States, from "K through ...?"  One of the contributors to Lumigrate, who has been as more behind the scenes in the past but coming into the pages of Lumigrate in the future is a wonderful man who connected with me and Lumigrate through facebook but who was in Colorado and did a practicum / fieldwork in Grand Junction, so we met and had dinner one night. He recently graduated and  I found out this morning when sending him some information about a professional learning resource I really like related to pain specialty, which he is hoping to go into in the near future, that his board exams are tomorrow and he asked me to send him prayers/energy his way.  So Don, here you go, my friend and colleague!  Since he's not a consumer of alcohol, I hope he thinks this is funny: "Don, Bud .... this blog's for YOU".  

It was the spring of 1997 when I made my way on a Saturday, after having been working full time since the day I was done with my level 2 fieldworks just before Christmas, to take my board exams to become an OTR.  At the time and continuing to today, Colorado State University's program was considered one of the top few in the country; that status is attained by the pass/fail rate of the board exam, I believe.  For many years they had a 100% pass rate but in the years just before my class 'sat' for the boards, they'd had a few fail.  

I was extremely nervous, as I have horrible test anxiety due to having had high expectations for education placed upon me without the support of family to diagnose and have treated learning disabilities. Thanks to the help of a smart PhD friend of mine who gave me the opportunity to boost my grade in his class I was taking when I was 27 (and not doing so well) by running his dissertation subjects related to the effects of cameras in the courtroom, he found in my test results about the details in the mock trial video I'd watched that I have an exceptionally good memory for that type of information -- contrary to the grade I was getting in his Into to Psyche class.  All it takes is one 'GRATE teacher' in a struggling students path to turn their life around and mine came that day and was the biggest blessing of my life. My second grade teacher had tried but the school district support was haphazard and I slipped through the cracks.  I believe today that was meant to be, as I would not have 'failed' at college the first time in my late teens/early 20s and pulled myself over to 'regroup' and go to work for the air / visibility project which literally shaped my life in more influential ways than any formal education I have had.  

I recently went to a concert with a retired teacher who had worked at a hunter's safety class for kids that was put on by the Democratic Party.  She'd explained to me why she stayed through the whole thing and took the test and talked to the students she thought might not pass the exam because of their young age.  We discussed the stresses that come with these 'certifications' and if one 'fails'.  There was a lucky student in that class that day who was touched by an angel of a teacher, though acting as a volunteer that day.  We're all 'teachers' to others every day without realizing it!  I had a wonderful lesson in arachnology (spiders) going into a store on Monday by the owner who was outside watching the spider he'd transplanted; we had a great discussion about how to reduce the toxins in the environment by using our natural bug killers and dissuaders. I came home thinking about the 'natural born teachers'.  

I'm confident Don will pass on his first try and am putting out a HUGE blessing for him here today and hope you all will participate in whatever way you wish (or not).  I also hope that everyone will give some thought about good teachers and the example we set every day in our actions and words.  And in particular, give some though to the words we chose, with 'fail' versus "Pass/Not Pass" an example.  

And to the young person who did not pass hunter's safety this last time, I wish you well on the next one and to my teacher friend who was there that day and shared more of the story of her past with a former student who died as a result of feeling a 'failure' instead of 'not passing -- this time', I am so very GRATEful for your work in the past, present and future every day in the way you treat people and contribute to society.  I'm blessed to live in close proximity to you and finally this year having gotten to know you better.  

I'm dedicating this blog to all the providers and teachers who have studied and sat for certifications and go forward with the 'initials after their names' --- Whether MD, ND, OTR, NP, PA, LPN, RPh, MPT, CAC, LCSW, MSW, PhD, DO, DC, CNA, RN, DOAM, CLC, CSC, ABC, XYZ .... this time in front of us hold great promise to do great things in the world we are in now and I believe the key is INTEGRATION, collaboration, and mutual respect.  And again, Don, Bud -- This Blog's for YOU! , and I look forward to having your new career influencing Lumigrate in whatever ways you're able to contribute, as your past support and interest since Lumigrate's formative time has been appreciated and 'it all adds up' to what Lumigrate is doing to help thousands today. 

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Note from Nov. 20 - On 11/19/11, this became the first item on Lumigrate to obtain a five-figure # of reads! Thanks to all who have Shared, reTweeted, etc.  Don passed and is settling into his new home with his family after accepting a position in the Pacific Northwest in a pain management practice! He's excited to start working and that will include sharing information at Lumigrate that he finds will be helpful for our readers, while helping him to not only learn the materials by teaching others, but reaching, and thereby affecting the health of, an increasing # of people with his knowledge.  Congratulations Don! 

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