Intro to the New Church Doctrines Journal #4
CONTENT WARNING: The religious/spiritual opinions on this blog post are mine based on my own experiences and do not reflect the opinions and experiences of everyone. Commentaries published on my First Former Buddy Club President influencer page represent diverse viewpoints. If you would like to submit a commentary, please contact me for more information. All perspectives and experiences are welcome here.
In my first trimester at Bryn Athyn College, I was required to take a religion course along with eventually some other religion courses since it is a religious school. Bryn Athyn practices the New Church religion of Swedenborg so the required religion course that I took this trimester was Intro to the New Church Doctrines. For the class, one of the required assignments was to write daily journals based on readings from "You Can Believe!: An Introduction to the New Christianity" written by Grant Schnarr (The author was actually my professor for the class! He is a minister in the church!) and we students had to apply what we read to our lives. So, since some of the content mentioned in this short essay that I wrote is related to the content that I post on my disability advocacy influencer page, I have decided to upload it is a blog post. Here is Journal #4.
Prompt: "Journal Entry on 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'. What are your goals for your career, and/or what major are you thinking of applying for, and why? What good motives are leading in this direction?".
My biggest passion is community service because of my love for helping others. My major is Early Childhood Special Education because my dream job is to become a Special Education teacher, specifically in Life Skills Support. Life Skills Support is a Special Educational program in some schools for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In You Can Believe! written by Grant Schnarr, the following is stated: "I can close my eyes and feel it in my heart, in my spirit: the reality of love, pain, and bliss, the wonder of the unknown, and the fact that I can sense the sacred whisper to me in no uncertain terms that life is important, that I am important, so important that everything has meaning deeper than I can fathom" (pg. 18, Schnarr 2006). I can definitely relate to this because I truly do believe that my career choice is the reason that I exist.
When I was in ninth grade, one of my teachers recommended that I join our school's Buddy Club when she discovered my love for helping others. Buddy Club is a club for helping and being a friend to the Life Skills students in the school district. After only two months of being a buddy, the club changed my life forever by confirming my career path of wanting to become a Life Skills teacher. I was a member of the club all four years of high school and in eleventh and twelfth grade, I was elected as the first ever Buddy Club President. Being Buddy Club President made my love for helping the disability/disabled/differently-abled community grow even stronger. The positive motives that are leading me in the direction of my career path are still being involved in the club as an alumni along with a variety of other volunteer work that I participate in. I am also a volunteer for Horizons, which is a disability social support group for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Bryn Athyn community. In addition, I am a volunteer for Autism Cares Foundation, guest speaker, and advisory board member of Bucks County Community College's AACHIEVE! program; AACHIEVE! is a transition program for college students with autism or autism spectrum disorder/autistic college students/college students on the autism spectrum. In regards to my educational background, I have my Child Development Associate (CDA) certification and Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bucks County Community College; I also have three years of teaching experience.
According to religious experts, one of the common theories of human existence is "that we were created for the greater glory of God, that we are here to honor God through obedience and service to him" (pg. 18, Schnarr 2006). I definitely believe that I am here because of my passion for community service in helping the disability community, which relates to my career path.
1. Schnarr, Grant. You Can Believe!: An Introduction to the New Christianity. 2006.
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