The journey to the decision to start my website, Fredrickemery.com, as well as to move forward with getting my BA in Psychology, has been long and full of turns. I want to start by giving a little background on myself so you have the opportunity to learn who I am — not just as a writer and student, but as a person.

Hi, I’m Fredrick (Fred) Emery. I have always wanted to help people. I started out in the typical first jobs — working at a pizza place, then in retail. Once I had the years of experience I needed to land a decent job, I moved on to working with a durable medical equipment company, ensuring that medical records were acceptable to insurance companies so people didn’t have to pay out of pocket for their equipment. After almost four years, I decided I wanted to be face-to-face with the people I was helping, not just a voice on the phone. So I changed jobs and became a senior clinical secretary at a hospital.

That job let me work directly with the people I was helping, and I became deeply focused on their care. With the support and encouragement of the nurses and doctors around me, I went on to get my Nursing Assistant license in New Hampshire and take on the role of care provider for inpatients. This was a huge step for me and made a world of difference in who I am today. I learned not just about the medical side of the work I was responsible for, but also about the emotional toll these experiences took on patients. I became fascinated by how I might help with that emotional side of things — but there was no real way to do that with my license as a nursing assistant. It was a matter of ethics as much as anything: I didn’t want to cause harm through a lack of proper training. Eventually I moved to the emergency room, where I worked for a short time, partly in the locked psychiatric unit, alongside adults and teens experiencing everything from suicidal and homicidal ideation to severe mental health disorders in children. That experience only solidified my desire to help people through emotional distress.

During this time I talked with social workers who told me they were still working toward paying off their master’s degrees decades after graduating. Hearing that made clear just how significant the cost of a graduate degree could be, and how long that cost could follow someone. It also made me think hard about timing — a multi-year graduate program is a long stretch, and a lot can happen in that time that could derail the ability to keep studying, especially without a clear, stable plan in place first.

Knowing this, I stepped away from the medical field for a while. It was hard to face the people I wanted to help, and the colleagues I so badly wanted to join, knowing I wasn’t yet in a position to get there. I spent some time exploring other paths, but none of them replaced the pull I felt toward direct work with people. As much as I explored other directions, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: this was the field I belonged in.

During that time, I joined CASA of NH as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem for children suffering abuse and neglect. It was the closest I could get to social work without the education and license behind it, and I loved it before I’d even finished training. Then I got my first case, and working through it made clear just how much I still wanted that degree and that license. Volunteering my time is what finally solidified not just what I wanted, but what I needed to do with my life.

That realization didn’t change the practical reality of cost and time, but it did push me to learn everything I could about ways to move from a high-cost, slow path to one that was more efficient. That’s when I discovered things I’d never even heard of before. None of my friends who went straight from high school to college, none of the counselors or advisors I’d talked to over the years, had ever mentioned programs that could meaningfully cut both cost and time.

Now I’ve built a plan that will get me to a 120 credit bachelors degree within the next year to a year and a half, instead of four years. I’ve reached out to SNHU to restart my degree and make sure my major is set up correctly, and I’ve pulled my old transcript from community college to see exactly what credits I already have. Between the accelerated timeline and the credits I already have in hand, I’ve been able to build a path that’s both faster and considerably more affordable than the one I started on years ago.

That has pushed me to a new level of determination. I know now that my dedication hasn’t been misplaced, and that I’m finally going to get my degree — in a reasonably short amount of time and without compromising on education. That’s why I’m here, and that’s what I want to bring to you. Beyond my own story, I also want to share what I’m learning in my college classes, so I can help those walking this path alongside me, and anyone else simply looking for information. I hope you’ll join me — fellow students and classmates, and future colleagues alike.