Life Lessons

It seems that every past experience comes together to build upon the present moment, ultimately creating the future. This notion sometimes feels overwhelming, as it seems like our future is totally out of our hands. I would disagree with that pessimistic view of the world, though. If there is one important lesson I learned from my time working with Dr. Conover, it is that our future is completely under our control. Coming back to the office after a three-month hiatus in the form of my semester at school, this lesson is more apparent than ever. Dr. Conover has completely revamped her business, and with the help of Jezabel Flores, is coming up with even more new and innovating ideas that I thought possible. She is a role model; her success is something to which I aspire. Her modest attitude is something worth spreading-that anyone can achieve this type of success. The most important lesson I've learned from this whole experience is go after exactly what you want, seizing every opportunity along the way.

In my own personal life, this has translated into pursuing a job opportunity that I may not have otherwise attempted. Dr. Conover encouraged me to apply for a research job in a lab upon my return to school, but I wasn't sure I'd find a job or even get hired at all. Then it happened that there was an announcement made in my Psychology of Happiness class-research assistants wanted. It just felt like that opportunity was meant for me, and with Dr. Conover's support I applied and was chosen for the position. It turned out extremely well for me, I worked at the lab this past semester and intend on returning when spring semester begins next week. I am honestly not sure if I would have even applied had I not had her in my corner, rooting me on. Even if you are not as lucky as I am, and do not have someone like Dr. Conover constantly cheering you on, then I also think it is important to learn to self-motivate. Be your own biggest fan!

The specific training and information I have learned in my collective four months in Dr. Conover's office will be invaluable for my future in Psychology. However, the life lessons I am also garnering can be applied both to and outside of my pursuit of Psychology as a profession. It sounds cheesy, but I learned to believe in myself, which led me to pursue opportunities I may have initially passed up. I really hope everyone can learn this lesson in their lives, I think it will make us all infinitely happier!

--Jillian Tessier

Play More Often

I believe success is measured in terms of happiness. How happy you are with your life depends upon the quality of the time that you spend living.

Spending 8 hours a day in an environment that is miserable will carry over into your home life. The stress that is experienced can cause a variety of emotional and physical problems which, to me, roughly translates into a slow death.

On the other hand, spending most of your time surrounded by things that inspires you keeps you young and vibrant. The carry over effects from this environment helps you thrive. Things seem that much brighter and problems, because no one is immune, seem easier to tackle.

When your interests and talents overlap the line between work and play begins to disappear and what you are left with is a very large playground. Enjoy more of your life and dream big!

Choosing Your Major

It's the first day of class routine: go around the room and say your name, your year, and your major. Without fail, there are one or two quiet freshman who will embarrassingly admit that they are undecided at the moment, amidst the pre-med students and double majors. I was one of those freshmen. I remember feeling so intimidated by these people who were my age, and yet somehow had it all figured out already. I was scared that I would never be able to figure out what I wanted to major in, let alone be so confident as to pick up a second major, or even a minor. A year of college came and went, and with it I discovered my true interest in psychology and chose that as my major, and am currently trying to decide on a minor. I hope that my story serves to quell some of the nervous feelings that many first-year college students have when they attend classes for the first time. Even though I am a sophomore, I still do not have my mind completely made up on what my degree will say, but I am much closer to making that final decision. The point is, it's okay not to know exactly what you want to do when you are just starting college. In fact, when I was touring different schools, I learned that most students change their major three times before they graduate!

When I expressed my anxiety about finding my major to people, they always told me, "Don't worry, your major will find you." My advice is similar, but not exactly like that. I do believe that there is a serendipitous aspect to it, but I think that the "it will find me" mentality encourages laziness. My advice is to check out all of the classes your school offers in many different departments, and sign up for anything that sounds remotely interesting. Once you get yourself into those classes, your true interests in certain subjects will become apparent, and you can eliminate others that weren't quite what you thought they would be. So, I guess my advice is that your major will find you, but only as long as you are looking for it.

If that doesn't work, there are still more options. If you are feeling lost, it is important to know that there are people out there who want to help you discover your passions. Those people are the caring professionals at Dream Big-call them!

--Jillian Tessier

Getting Paid to Play

Those people out there who know me personally knows that I love what I do for a living. I have often told people that I feel really fortunate to find something that essentially keeps me young and vibrant. I love studying the brain and the behavior it directs. This may sound boring to some but to me I feel like I've won the lotto!

One of fun things I get to do is develop new brain exercises that target particular areas of the brain (This is helpful when the patient has focal deficits and only needs to target a particular cognitive domain such as verbal memory).

The tasks that I come up with are game based. That means that instead of doing boring repetitive cognitive exercises my patients get to play a variety of games that are chosen based on their deficit (damaged brain processes).

Sometimes I come across a game that seems so outwardly simple that when I stop to take a closer neuropsychological look I realize that this game is a power gym for the brain. For example, games that require multiple actions being conducted tend to exercise the frontal lobes or executive functions (think higher order functions such as multitasking and abstract reasoning skills). If time is involved, then add in mental processing speed.

I can go on and on about which games are the best to improve fixed or divided attention, verbal and visual memory, visuospatial abilities, etc. I will also come up with assignments that are game based such as juggling (this is good for integration of left and right side, visual perceptual, proproception, balance, hand eye coordination and it realives stress).

Quality of life is directly related to how you feel about your job. If you love what you do you will be a more happy individual. Life is way too short to waste it on feeling miserable.

I encourage all of you who are unhappy with what you do to make a commitment to find what you're good at and begin to persue it. It's never too late to die happy!

Help, I need someone to talk to!

This is what I heard the other day from a city college student. My intern Jillian and I went to visit the local city college career counseling office to determine what kind of services they had to offer their students. I wanted to see if they would be more helpful in person versus on the phone. I gave my intern an assignment the other day where she had to "cold call" various city colleges to inquire about their career counseling services. Her experience was not a good one. Check out her blog from the other day.

Anyway, we showed around 3:40pm to see what kind of services and help they offered their students and also to let them know about Dream Big Career Center's 3 Step Program to success. As I reached for the door knob, one of the counselors came out and began to lock up (they close at 4pm). I asked if I can have a 5 min conversation with someone just to get a quick overview of what they offered and to share our info with them. As I was asking to speak with someone, a young man approached and asked to speak with a counselor. He said that "the lady told me to show up here after 3:30." The counselor said that there is no one at this time to help him and that he should have come earlier.

He stared to tell her that he had to take time off from work just to come by today and that he could not ask to take more time off. I could hear the concern in his voice and the urgency that he really needed some assistance. The counselor did not budge and continued to tell him that "sorry, come back another time." He glanced at his watch and began to make his way back to the administration building.

After he left in a huff I could see another student making her way toward us. I turned to the counselor and asked if I can speak with someone in charge. She said, "Oh, he's out of town and I'm not sure when he'll be back...sometime in the next 2 weeks." I said, "ok, can I get his card." At this point she yelled into the office and I could hear another voice. The other voice said, "I don't know where his cards are or if he has any."

As they were getting me the information the other student came up to the door, "Hi, can I talk with someone?" The counselor, looking annoyed, said "we're closed and we're booked." The student noticed the office hours and made the comment, "It's not even 4 yet." As she turned and walked away I felt very sorry for the students who make the effort to get some guidance only to be turned away.

I think back on my experience with my guidance counselors and realized that nothing has changed. The same poor quality of services exist now as before. If you are a student reading this, remember that no one will care about your future more than you so you have to make that extra effort to get to where you want to go.

I chose my Dream Big team not only because they are bright and talented individuals but they care about helping people. This is an important and rare attribute. We are your bridge to where you need to go and we want to see you do great things.

If you have been disappointed with your school's services come and talk with us. We are here to help you. Call (818) 992-3113 for assistance.