ABSTRACT
I am standing at the podium at California State University East Bay preparing to speak to the Marriage and Family Therapy Program graduating class of 2011. There is excitement in the air. Family and friends of the graduates are all sitting attentively waiting to hear what I have to say. As I look out into the audience, I wonder how many people are here. There seems to be a lot of eager, happy faces. Graduation ceremonies are wonderful events. They celebrate hard-won achievements as well as important transitions, the closing of one chapter in life and the beginning of another. I ponder silently to myself: How did I get here? How did I become a professor of counseling after more than 20 years working as a psychologist in the field? This is my 11th year teaching at this university. But I started as a counselor, then became a psychologist. How did that happen? Thoughts flow through my mind like scenes of a movie in fast motion. Certain images stop and linger briefly, then move on.
