Why am I writing about life changing experiences?

Aside from entertaining the masses...the hundreds of thousands of you who faithfully read my blog, I have other reasons for writing about the things that have changed my life. By the way, I am convinced that my stat counter must be off. I know that I have hundreds of thousands of faithful followers...

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But alas, I digress.

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As a counselor, people assume that I am intelligent. People know that I have gone through college and have my Master's Degree. After all, it's framed on the wall of my office. I can talk about theories and their founder's. I can discuss which interventions are empirically validated and which are not. I know psychology and I know counseling. People expect this. My clients, my colleagues, my supervisors. They all know that I am proficient in this area. They see that I play chess, enjoy reading, and am pretty good at photography. This all adds to their picture of me as an intelligent being.

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Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not debating that fact. I'm just saying that it's only half of the story. I am a survivor, on many levels. I have been through many things over the past 37 years and 360 days (I'll be 38 on Friday). The things that I have listed above make me a counselor. But the things I have been through, the things that have touched and changed my life, are what makes me a good counselor.

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I don't claim to be perfect, but I seem to be pretty good at helping folks get from where they are to where they want or need to be. The first story I chose to share was fairly mild in comparison to some others I will be sharing, but it was an easy starting point. Some of the others will prove that I have not always been smart, even though I've always been fairly intelligent.