Better than sassafras!

If I did tags on my lj entries, this lj entry would be tagged tea. Those of you who would not read an entry tagged tea, I suggest that you move on to the next entry.

I've been looking for sassafras tea for a long time. Back when I was doing my searching online, I couldn't find any product that would allow me to make herbal tea, just sassafras syrups that produced "tea" when added to hot water. But now, I've found an herbal tea mixture that tastes like it contains sassafras, but the complexity of the flavor creates a tea which tastes even better. It's called "Evening in Missoula" and according to its distributor, Tea Source, contains chamomile, rosehips, raspberry, papaya, peppermint, spearmint, strawberry leaf, vanilla, passion flower, red clover, star anise, and wild cherry bark. Wonderful!

Life stuff.

So. Life stuff. My most recent job job had me thinking that perhaps a solid, administrative, sit-in-front-of-a-computer-for-eight-hours-each-day job environment was not for me. In addition, the continued exposure to the world of nonprofits only reminded me how befuddled and mixed up the running of a nonprofit (or in this case, multiple nonprofits) can get. It could be the product of being fried by my most recent job, but it seems to me like time for some sort of a drastic change.

I've always thought that my step-mother Linda's line of work, life coaching, would be satisfying. It's much less new age-y than it sounds: working with people with specific life goals, creating plans and then checking in each week to make certain that they are following through on their plans and working towards their goals. Nevertheless, I'm too young and inexperienced to make a good life coach. However, it does seem like counseling might be a good area for me to go into that would use some of my INFJ abilities and offer a different, rewarding work environment.

The problem: I didn't even take psychology in college.

I've looked into taking Psych 101 at the U in the spring and done some research into the graduate programs in psychology and counseling programs available in the Twin Cities. The best contender thus far is St. Thomas's Graduate Program in Professional Psychology, which offers an M.A. in Counseling Psychology. I contacted someone there asking how I could make up my lack of prereqs and they responded that the program don't require or assume that you have any psychology prerequisites. Which is admittedly a little iffy, but I could get an M.A. there and then either get a job counseling or go on to get a PhD elsewhere. The University of Minnesota has one of the best graduate programs in psychology in the nation, which is why I'm not thinking of going there immediately, but it could be something to work towards.