Reflecting on another year 2007 held hopes will 2008 make them real?
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Hoping for his payoff
For Rich Bernstein, 2007 was a year of risk the year he decided to leave his computer software job of seven years to pursue a career that would be more fulfilling; 2008 will be about trying to make his self-employment gamble pay off.
I went into 07 knowing I was going to make a change. I had been telling my wife, my friends that my next job is going to be for me. That I was going to try to make it my own, said the 45-year-old father of three teenage boys. The Germantown resident had been thinking about leaving the software company for about a year. He just needed something to put me over the edge, he said.
That something came in June during a conversation with his supervisor at work. There was a problem in the California office and the company wanted him on the West Coast to manage the situation. It was the same weekend as his oldest son s high school graduation. The supervisor didn t seem to understand the conflict.
The exact line was It sounds like your family is more important to you , Bernstein said. He decided it was and went to his son s graduation.
Shortly after, Bernstein said goodbye to tech support and hello to life as a self-employed photographer.
He briefly majored in photography in college before switching his studies to computer science and business administration. Photography has been Bernstein s lifelong hobby. In recent years he s stayed busy photographing youth sports events.
With the decision to turn his hobby into his profession, a life of predictability suddenly became interesting, nerve-wracking and scary, and 2007 became the year of questioning: What did I do
So what he did was research. He also built a studio in his house, and took classes. And he found his personal style. Bernstein revamped his Web site, www.IMBImages.com, and focused on marketing his business, IMB Images Photography.
My 2007 goal was to have a real paying customer by September, someone besides a friend or family member, he said. I didn t reach that goal. For 2008, Bernstein wants at least five customers a month.
I m still excited about what I m doing. I still feel that being self-employed and working out of the house is the way to go, Bernstein said. I m nervous that it might not be, but I m not ready to throw in the towel.
Reflecting on 50
Merry Eisner has learned a lot in her 50 years, and she spent 2007 reflecting on those life lessons. It was a very introspective year for me, she said.
Turning 50 in September made her ponder the things most important to her: family and the environment.
Looking ahead to 2008, Eisner, a stay-at-home mother of twin boys, said her biggest concern for the new year is caring for the planet.
Eisner has considered herself an environmentalist since she was a young girl. She remembers cutting her foot on a piece of broken glass after trying to retrieve a bottle someone had tossed into a creek. Now, she said, she teaches her children to always look for a trash can and to be mindful about what can be recycled.
My greatest worry is that we are not as responsible with this world as we need to be for our children, Eisner said.
Eisner, who left a career as a marketing consultant to raise her children, also said turning 50 has led her to consider re-entering the workforce in 2008. Whether that means taking on working part time or volunteering for a political, cause she isn t sure.
In 2008 she will make sure her family stays active in their Potomac community; she plans to continue in her role as president of the Bells Mill Elementary School PTA.
It s a real job; it just doesn t pay, Eisner said. We like to think of it as, Mommy has a job that pays very poorly.
Eisner s other goals are to become a better listener and to make sure her sons Ben and Zach make a successful transition from walking to nearby Bells Mill to riding a bus to Grosvenor Elementary, where students will be housed beginning this week while a new Bells Mill building is built. Eisner considers advocating for Bells Mill students one of her biggest accomplishments in 2007.
My hope is that their next year at Grosvenor will be OK. As long as they re with their fabulous friends and teachers they will continue to learn and grow, Eisner said.
Doing what he can
Whether he s coaching youth soccer or lobbying Congress, Howard Kohn hopes he can make an impact.
Just about everybody is still trying to change the world in our own ways, and a lot of us are doing it locally, said the writer, family man and community activist at his home in Takoma Park.
As commissioner of the Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer League, Kohn spent much of 2007 providing area youths around 2,500 of them with a healthy and safe way to socialize, often across cultural lines.
Soccer is such a democratic game, he said. Anyone can run and kick and play soccer.
With more than 120 nationalities represented, Kohn says, the soccer league has brought together parents and children who might not otherwise have anything in common.
When these kids get to know each other, and when they go to birthday parties and open the door, they re walking into Gambia, or Ethiopia, or Brazil, or El Salvador, he said.
In 2008, Kohn hopes to expand local soccer opportunities through a new league for teens. High-school teams aren t big enough for everyone, he said, and there are many kids who can t play on school teams because their grades aren t high enough or they have afterschool jobs. Many need alternatives to more troublesome activities.
I think there is some competition for the hearts and minds of teenagers, specifically immigrant teenagers, he said.
Kohn s vision for the new year also includes the environment.
In 2007, the former Rolling Stone magazine editor was part of an environmental advocacy coalition that lobbied Congress for a recently passed energy bill, which Kohn called a stage-one victory for tougher vehicle fuel standards.
But, he said, any campaign for change has to start at home, and in 2008 he ll be looking for some members of the Takoma Park City Council to follow through on their vows to identify methods to reduce the city s environmental footprint something for which he hopes to provide support and advice.
The only way you can ultimately decide if you re succeeding is to look at where you live, Kohn said. That s the only place you can affect.
Making time for goodness
There s the baking, the sewing, the mending and the caring.
Mamie Wyckoff, 85, has lots planned for 2008.
The Germantown woman, who lives with her dog, Bitsy, hopes this year will allow her to bring the same cheer to others that she brought to many in 2007.
I hope to have a year as good as I just had, Wyckoff said during a break in baking cakes and brownies for the staff at the Germantown post office, fire department and police station, as well as the neighbors in her apartment building. She began her tradition of winter treat-making 15 years ago.
Although she doesn t drive much anymore, Wyckoff keeps herself plenty busy. It s the key to happy and healthy golden years, she said while sitting in her rocking chair.
After you re my age, you should try to do something productive with your time, she said, fingering pages of a scrapbook with Polaroids of many of the elaborate cakes she has decorated over the years. It s important you use your time for something good, and that s the way I feel about that.
She makes small pillows with pockets for children in hospitals to tuck their teeth in for the Tooth Fairy. She mends clothes for her family and neighbors. She makes doll beds for her great-granddaughter.
Aside from enjoying the happiness she gives others, Wyckoff said, she maintains a positive outlook when she considers what the next phase of life has in store for her.
I know the time will come when I ll need to relocate, said the North Carolina native who moved to the Washington area in 1945. I don t know if it will be this year. But when I get to that point, you have to prepare yourself for these changes. If you think of it with the right thoughts, then you ll be prepared.
She ll likely head back to North Carolina and she feels good about that because that s where my daughter lives, Wyckoff said.
There s money, too. Living on a fixed income in Montgomery County isn t easy and weighs on her mind.
Like I told my daughter, if costs keep going up, I ll have to move in with her sooner, she said.
More of the same
Think the teenage years are carefree Talk to Jan Babiuch-Hall.
A 16-year-old junior in Richard Montgomery High School s demanding International Baccalaureate program, Babiuch-Hall s hopes and dreams for the New Year are simple.
Outside of school, it would be nice to see some free time on the horizon, he said. You know, go to a movie with my girlfriend or sleep.
His schedule is tough with hours of Advanced Placement courses and homework each school day. Throw in some set construction with the drama club, the National Honor Society, volunteer community service hours at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, volunteer work on a local political campaign and an interest in science, and you ve got one busy teen.
What dominates my life is school, he said, reflecting on the past year. He sees little change to that in 2008.
My time management is very shaky, Babiuch-Hall admitted. I tend to do something, then some homework, then do something else. Sometimes he skips sleep.
Babiuch-Hall moved to Rockville from his native Poland several years ago. His father, John F. Hall Jr., is a NASA executive and former member of the Rockville City Council; his mother, Malgosia Babiuch-Hall, is a psychology professor on sabbatical from Warsaw University.
The music he listens to Scandinavian death metal. His hair is longer than his girlfriend s. There is no car in the immediate future, which Babiuch-Hall says is OK considering he can walk to school.
Thanks to my father, I can t drive until I m 33, he joked. He says no car until I go two months without missing an assignment and go to sleep by midnight.
The new year will also bring choices for the future. Babiuch-Hall wants to study science, maybe neurosurgery or nano-technology or even nuclear physics. If he doesn t land a serious scholarship at a choice school, he would consider returning to Poland, where he would qualify for a free education as a member of the European Union.
Free college in Europe, that would be cool, Babiuch-Hall mused. Although it would mean moving again and leaving my friends and family here.
Way overdue
Bernie Fisken looks into the future and sees himself at the gym. Then he sees himself in France with his wife. He also sees or at least he hopes to see more urban village planning in downtown Bethesda where he lives.
And when he reflects on 2007, he feels like a lucky man. I lost some teeth, lost some more hair. In general, I ve maintained my health, he said.
Fisken, 69, and his wife, Kate, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in 2008. They will travel to Paris, then ride a boat down the Rhone River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The couple work full time in finance and haven t taken time off together to celebrate in a long time, Fisken said.
This year, Fisken said, he hopes to catch up with his wife s athletic vigor, despite what he calls his aging body. My wife is a competitive open-water swimmer, so she kind of sets the model for me as far as what I can do athletically, he said.
Fisken also serves as land-use committee chairman for the Villages of Bethesda townhouse owners association, so he will be closely following the decisions of the Planning Board and County Council in the coming year.
I think the folks who live in Bethesda, who I call the urban villagers, who bought here early ... they re getting very frustrated with the area s high-rise development, he said.
He hopes the county s planners and council members will be rethinking downcounty planning to slow down development and work toward a more pedestrian-friendly, urban-village community.
Fisken s reflections on 2007 are much more personal: He delighted in seeing the world through the eyes of his five grandchildren all under 6.
These kids are looking at things for the first time, and when they do, they bring incredible insights. I take a Christmas tree for granted, Fisken said, noting his Orthodox Jewish background. To kids 2 or 3 years old, it s an incredible phenomenon. It s something magical.
And he noted that in the grandparent dimension, he has some things in common with his grandkids.
These kids take naps in the afternoon, he said. I take naps in the afternoon, too.
The blessings of family
Regina Gardner-Johnson, a Damascus stay-at-home mother of two, considers 2007 a year of blessings and is optimistic that 2008 will be equally good.
She shared in her 11-year-old daughter Morgan s excitement at moving from elementary school to sixth grade at John T. Baker Middle School and is enjoying starting the college search with her 16-year-old daughter, Brittney, a junior at Damascus High School.
It s fun watching them mature, she said. I feel blessed I can be a stay-at-home mom.
Her daughters talk to her about their dreams and aspirations, and she marvels at the opportunities before them that she never had growing up in a large family in Nebraska. Morgan wants to be a herpetologist studying reptiles, and Brittney, the school student government vice president, is looking into pre-law.
Gardner-Johnson, 44, also celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary with her husband, Lloyd, a U.S. Public Health Service biologics expert. She was relieved that he has not had to travel as much recently as he did following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina so he could be at the girls recitals and assemblies.
Our lives are so centered around children, she said. The family moved to Damascus from Frederick County a few years ago.
I m always impressed by the volunteer spirit we have in Damascus, she said. It s inspirational. It makes me want to do more if I can. ... It reminds my kids to pitch in, too, and volunteer.
While Gardner-Johnson no longer serves on a PTA, she continues to tutor and mentor students.
I hope to be instrumental in helping to close the achievement gap, she said. Education was the key for me getting up and out.
To that end, she is on the board and a mentor for Thor Team, a local nonprofit started last year by retired teachers to provide mentoring and tutoring to deserving students.
Gardner-Johnson is confident that because of the strong sense of volunteerism, her community will continue to flourish. Still, she worries that the rising price of gasoline and the stagnant housing market may hurt some.
Since their relatives are spread from California to New Jersey, Gardner-Johnson treasures family get-togethers, but like many these days, the Johnsons are creating a family of friends in the community.
The neat thing about living in Damascus is you build friendships easily, she said.
Finally a chance
For Kempes Jean of Gaithersburg, a 27-year-old former college linebacker with the French accent of his Haitian roots, 2007 was about trying to bring a lifelong dream to fruition.
Jean aspires to be a fashion designer, and in November he opened a boutique with his business partner, Nancy Strauss of Rockville.
The shop at Washingtonian Center, called Imagine, represents a 200,000 investment from Strauss; 2008 will be a year to judge whether the backing will have been worth it. For Jean, the new year also holds the promise of realizing his dream of creating a clothing line and seeing people wear his designs.
It is a dream born out of a childhood of meager means in Haiti that deepened after his family moved to Florida where his parents held down several jobs to support themselves and their family in Haiti.
Kids was always looking nicer than me, he said. So my parents took me to where they could, usually to the Goodwill store, and we put clothes together for me.
Now, with Strauss backing, he has the means to launch his own line. Jean is hoping 2008 will begin with boutique sales doing well and end with the launch of his own line. If he can make that happen, he said, he ll feel as if he s on the road to repaying Strauss for her support. Strauss jokes that her husband teases her about not losing their children s college money. But Jean feels a true obligation.
Spending all this money, that s a big thing, he said. My main goal in these next few years is to get that money back, put that money where it belongs and is safe. And from there, take off.
Right now, Jean knows he s the little kid on the block, but he s soon to be the big guy, he said.
People are suffering
Wilbur Malloy lives in Olney with Vivian, his wife of 30 years. At 59, he s working on a five-year plan that has him retiring to North Carolina once the youngest of his three sons graduates from East Carolina University in 2011.
He s looking forward to seeing another graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park this year, and as a longtime Boy Scout leader is hoping to produce three more Eagle Scouts from Troop 96, based at The People s Community Baptist Church in Silver Spring where he worships.
Still, when he talks about his hopes for the new year, Malloy has a hard time separating his goals from his professional world.
He is executive director of The People s Community Wellness Center, a 5-year-old free clinic housed at Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center in Silver Spring.
We re seeing people day to day who need health care and don t have health insurance, he said.
In 2007, the clinic averaged between 200 and 300 patients each month. In 2008, Malloy expects even more. It is one of his goals to expand the services the clinic provides and to find it a new and bigger home.
I m really trying to get recommitted and refocused, he said. I want to keep the momentum going. ... My concern is how much faster we can move in Montgomery County People are suffering.
An estimated 100,000 county residents do not have health insurance; they are among about 47 million nationwide.
Some progress is being made in the county. More free clinics are springing up, and many are developing an electronic records system that can be used by hospitals and other health care providers and that will improve patient care, Malloy said.
I m optimistic we re moving in the right direction, he said. I just wish we could get there tomorrow.
With the development of society, the pace of life is speeding up, and people s increasing psychological pressure, and adolescence is a comprehensive physical and mental development of the individual period, as psychologists Hall said: At this time the boys and girls in a riot of age, with an emotional, mental confusion is an inevitable link stage of development. So the young people in this period tend to have a psychological crisis.
And the research shows that in our country every year 250,000 people committed suicide, 15-year-old to 34-year-old youth died in the incident, suicide has become the first cause of death, the total death toll of about 26.04%. Every year about 1.5 million people committed suicide because of family or friends and have a long-term, serious psychological trauma, thus becoming a serious social burdens. On their psychological crisis intervention, prevention of the formation of student suicide phenomenon it is imperative. Prevent unnecessary tragedy, and help them grow up healthy and happy, this is the most you want to do, and most should be done.
In order to effectively help to train young people in crisis management and advisory sufficient capacity, this special training with Taiwan see through sound theory about teachers, demonstration and exercise for the Promotion real experience, especially for young depression, Internet addiction, drugs abuse, low interest in learning or achievements, homosexuality and other issues the advisory process, skills and integrity of the study and diagnosis at the same time, also to use cognitive behavior therapy, reality therapy, solution-focused brief therapy, group counseling, family counselling young people in crisis Advisory work.
Moreover crisis counselling should avoid the mistakes and obstacles, ethical and legal issues of teaching and also help in dealing with the crisis, we could well protect themselves.
Course Content:
I. Introduction youth crisis
1. Youth crisis
2. The type of youth crisis
3. The characteristics of high youth crisis
4. Crisis in the universal characteristics of young people
5. Effective crisis counsellors and the nature of capacity
Second, youth crisis counselling outlined
1. Youth crisis counselling an important principle
2. Youth crisis counselling ethical and legal issues
3. Crisis counselling compared with the general advice
4. Crisis counselling should avoid the mistakes and obstacles
3, youth crisis counselling course
1. Youth crisis counselling process and structure
2. Youth crisis counselling common assessment and diagnosis
3. Crisis counselling suicide and self-harm in the assessment and disposal
4, youth depression Advisory
1. Discussion on youth depression
2. Youth depression assessment
3. Cognitive behavioral therapy and depression
4. Youth Advisory depression (use of cognitive behavioral therapy)
5, youth advisory Internet Addiction
1. Youth Advisory Internet Addiction
2. Internet Addiction Assessment and Analysis
3. Reality Therapy and Internet Addiction Disorder
4. Youth Advisory Internet Addiction
6, youth drug abuse counselling
1. Discussion on youth drug abuse
2. Youth drug abuse assessment and referral
3. Address short-term focus of therapy and drug abuse
4. Youth Drug Abuse Advisory
7, dropped out of school youth advisory (low interest in learning and achievement)
1. Youth issues of the middle-bombers
2. Advisory youth groups
3. Advisory young drop-outs
8. Young family counselling (homosexual youth for example)
1. Discussion on the issue of homosexuality
2. Youth Advisory family history
3. Young family counselling skills
Sponsor: Institute of Mental Shanghai Zi Lin
Hours: January 2008 9 - 13 (9:00-16:30 Wednesday to Sunday, a total of five days)
Class Venue: Shanghai
Tel: 010-62712343 Email: peixun@psych.gov.cn
Class lecturers: Xu Sheng see teachers
Shanghai Zi Lin professional psychological counseling center senior adviser to the Taiwan Association of Marriage and family counselling Secretary-General, the Taipei District Court marriage consultant, Taiwan mustard kind of psychological counselling of the Steering Council, Malaysia fraternity counselling centre consultant
Experience: Wylie, director of the Institute and teachers, Taiwan will be a winner Education Association, the Secretary-General (Taiwan s largest youth advisory body), the county municipalities special school guidance staff training teachers, the Advisory Lecturer tertiary institutions, special schools at all levels psychological counseling division, Wylie HS psychological counselling centre on the division of supervision, Fuen Psychological Counselling Centre consultant.
Practical experience: 14 have psychological counseling practical experience, expertise lies in youth counselling, marriage and family counselling, and other fields
Fee: 2,150 yuan / person, online register incentives to 2,000 yuan / person.
Related: Reflecting on another year 2007 held hopes will 2008 make them real?
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