When I was younger my sister went to see Ramona Barber. My sister was about the same age that I am now and wanted to be a fourth grade teacher. Ramona helped her by telling her this idea you have of what you think your going to do might not be the right choice. Becoming a teacher was the wrong choice for my sister.
Ramona really got through to her. Now she’s a well off law school student who went to a college she loved and has a job she adores.
Ramona invites students into her home, sits down, and gets to know them. She asks funny questions and uses a flashlight to examine and classify our eyes. Her philosophy helps her weed out our dislikes so she can help us find a path that will make us happy. Notice I said “us”, not our parents, friends, counselors or even her.
Ramona has a fee of $250 for a session where she helps each student personally design a plan for their future.
I followed in my sister’s footsteps and attended a 3-ish hour session with Ramona. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with my life but truthfully I had no idea of where to start. It all can just be a lot of majors and minors and options and decisions, am I right?
So Ramona and I got to talking and god was she funny. It seemed like minutes as opposed to hours.
We talked about anything, including why I chose the colors of my room.
By the end of it I was amazed.
Ramona had helped me realize that maybe there are other options then just this one for me. How did I not see this before? I had overwhelmed my senior scehdule with AP classes and was dead set on going into the science field. When Ramona told me all about the business field it sort of… clicked. Cliche I know.
Let me brag a little here. I’ve been good with words since I was old enough to convince my mom why I HAD to have the newest MyScene doll from Target. Now, Ramona was telling me that all my years of flying through English speeches and hours at mock trial could help me get a job and excel in it? Hallelujah!
It takes a certain kind of bravery to tell someone that they might be wrong. Ramona has this bravery.
It can be really hard for someone to tell you that your dream may not be the best choice for you. Because really, that person probably has no idea or has any clue as to what is out there.
Enter Ramona Barber. A mom of four incredibly successful kids. She has taken it into her hands to be this angel of suggestions for kids who are lost and confused as I was. Ramona became an expert on jobs, schools, majors, minors, scholarships, class schedules, ACT’s, SAT’s, and all that we have to deal with as students.
If I can be honest here, kids are dense. Really really dense. And stubborn. We all think we know what’s best for us and any other opinion or idea is wrong.
To be successful most kids think you need a check every year with at least six zeros on the end, and you may or may not love your job, but hey, it’s just business.
Let me be the first to tell you that you’re wrong. To love what you get up every morning to do is success. Big money and a perfect job may not always come together. Get over it.
I would rather have a low salary but love what I do then be miserable every day.
This all starts in college. We need the school that is just right for each and every one of us as individuals.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Ramona. For example the rumors that she gives every kid the same advice and wants everyone to go into math or sciece. False.
Kids in today’s world are a lot more similar then they are different. Think about Algebra 2 classes in our school. Almost every class has a least one sophomore or freshman. My class even has an 8th grader. That is a true testament of how many advanced kids are in our school alone. So of course there will be a lot kids who tell Ramona this and they will do well in a science or math field.
Ramona is nice and has a comfortable setting to talk. For me it was a place where Ramona won’t judge you or force an idea on you.
It’s a session where you can really be honest about yourself and where you want to be in five years. You don’t have to lie or overload yourself with all these things you HAVE to do before the years end.
It’s just you, and Ramona.
She’ll ask some questions, you give some answers. It’s really not as scary or weird as people make it out to be.
For Ramona all these self help books and online websites about what fits you are too “cookie-cutter”. Every student has a different outlook on where they want to go to college or if they even want to go to college.
In the end there are different kinds of people and there are different kinds of colleges.
Ramona just helps us put a plan on paper.
