What's an Ombudsman?...

Indian parents never cease to boggle my mind. It's like they all work from the same handbook...with your very rare exception. I'd like to get my sweaty palms on this handbook and destroy the master copy, or at minimum, edit them. I'd put in special chapters such as "How to use positive reinforcement" and "Examples of Encouraging words"...and last but not least, "single and thirty is not the end of the world." However, this handbook seems to be guarded like the holy grail...no one knows where it is.

Last night I went over to my aunt's house. She was fretting about my cousin who will be a freshman in college next year. Actually, she wasn't fretting about her, she was fretting about her career choice. My cousin declared Architecture as her major. This put me in a sticky situation because I'm the one who suggested architecture to the kid after seeing this amazing drawing she did of a room.

"I don't think she can do this," My aunt said with a worried look on her face.
What happened to the phrase "You can do anything you put your mind to?" Obviously...that's not in the handbook. Her comment was then followed with another equally messed up comment..."So and So has an architecture degree, but he's really smart." My cousin replied with a very vaild question. "Are you saying I'm not smart?"

I had to step in and stop the madness. I did so by suggesting a career test. We immediately got on line and took the test. And guess what the kid's career turned out to be? You guessed it...ARCHITECT. We both looked at my aunt, who looked a bit shocked. I went on to explain to her why my cousin would make a great architect...she's a creative thinker, excels in math, likes to draw, loves to create things, etc. Then my aunt reflects for a moment, and gets a photo album with a picture of my cousin when she was 6. In the picture, she was kneeling next to this pyramid castle she built with blocks. Yep, the kid's had it in her since she was itty bitty...yet they stilllllllll questioned her decision.

*Sigh* After that whole fiasco, I decided to take my own career test. And here's the result: You are an Inspirer, possible professions include - conference planner, speech pathologist, HR development trainer, ombudsman, clergy, journalist, newscaster, career counselor, housing director, character actor, marketing consultant, musician/composer, artist, information-graphics designer, human resource manager, merchandise planner, advertising account manager, dietitian/nutritionist, speech pathologist, massage therapist, editor/art director.

Now that's somethin' to chew on....