Journal Article — Beginnings — by Arie Kupferwasser

“Beginnings” is authored by Arie Kupferwasser.

“Not once in my life did I seriously think I might one day become a therapist. The idea might have existed as a joke within me, as friends and acquaintances had always come to me with their problems, telling me how gifted a listener I was. Some had even suggested, over the years, that I’d make a great therapist.

“Cute, I’d always thought, but I don’t think so. So, my choice to become a therapist–which I barely trusted at all–came as a surprise, the realness of which I did not believe until I was encircled within it. With nothing to reference but two months of experience at Sloan-Kettering and a feeling that I was ready for my life to change, I interviewed at the two biggest and nearest schools, was accepted into one of them, and braced myself, as though lifting off for another planet.

“I had no idea at all what on earth I was doing or where it would leave me, and only vague speculation as to why I was choosing this path. It felt crazy to me, diving right into uncharted waters. And it would take some time before I learned to integrate that nothing could have been saner than the risk of a life without guarantees.”