Time to Get Schooled

In 1982 Boeing was going through one of its periodic rounds of layoffs. Eventually my name got to the top of the list and I was unemployed. Not a problem. I had a few years left on my G.I. bill that I could use to finish college. This is just the Universe telling me it was time to move on. Since high school I’d often thought about working in human services and, after my rehab/recovery experience, I knew some things about overcoming addiction.

I enrolled as a full-time student at Fort Steilacoom Community College (now called Pierce College) in their Alcohol/Drug Studies program. I had found a minimum wage job cleaning hot tubs and that, along with my VA checks, kept my head above water. I really liked college–especially the psychology classes. I also started getting into some kind of physical shape by running. Eventually I was up to 5 miles a day.

A few weeks before graduation, one of my classmates said they were hiring at the Tacoma Detoxification Center. Well, I had to start somewhere in my new career. A county detox job is about as bad as it gets in the rehab business. You’re pretty much dealing with street alcoholics–the real skid road types. The moment you enter the building, your nose is assaulted by a combination of alcohol, vomit, urine, and gym locker. There are people sleeping on mats in the hallways because there aren’t enough beds (especially if it’s a cold night). Most of the time they’re pretty mellow, but every so often one of them thinks he’s a tough guy and takes a swing at you. Fortunately, they’re so intoxicated they can’t figure out which of the two of you they’re seeing to hit. I usually worked the overnight shift on the weekends, or as I called it–Prime Time.

I had already applied and was accepted for transfer to The Evergreen State College in Olympia to complete the two remaining years of my bachelor’s degree. A couple weeks before I was going to pack-up and move to Olympia, one of my co-workers at detox said someone he knew had called him about a job at an outpatient substance abuse treatment facility in–you guessed it–Olympia. Would I be interested? By the time I moved to Olympia, I had a half-time job as a counselor intern. Since it was outpatient, all the treatment was done in the evening. I went to college full-time during the day and worked half-time at night. This was my life for the next two years.

For those of you unfamiliar with Evergreen, they don’t have individual classes like most other colleges. They do what are called “integrated” or “coordinated” studies. Instead of taking several separate classes, you take a year-long program that integrates classes around a central core. My first year I was in a program called “Human Health and Behavior.” We were a mix of psychology and pre-med students. Half the day we were in core classes as a group, then in the afternoon the psych and pre-med students went to separate seminars to focus on their specific disciplines.

My senior year I was in a “Group Contract” class called “Psychological Counseling.” Only 16 students were selected for the group. I managed to make the cut primarily because I was already working half-time as a counselor. 16 students and one incredible instructor–Dr. Richard Jones. Dick was one of the founding faculty members of Evergreen and had been instrumental in shaping its unique learning environment. He was an elder statesman at Evergreen and this was going to be his last year of full-time teaching. A few years later, he would lose himself to Alzheimer’s and pass on.

June 1986 I became the first of my family to graduate from college. Fortunately, my maternal grandfather (the only one of my grandparents still alive) was there to see it. Later that month, I passed my test to become a Chemical Dependency Professional. Two months later I was hired as one of the staff that would open a new blended inpatient-outpatient substance abuse treatment program at St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. I didn’t think things could get any better. Then they did.