My degree was also in liberal hearts but after I got my degree, I went in a completely different direction.

I think it's always important to follow your heart and do what you want to do no matter what someone else says to you. You are the one living your life and you are the only person you have to answer to.... so if you end up changing your mind, so be it. You have that right.

Congratulations on your exceptance!

You know what, did the pastor ask you if she could share your news? If no, this feels like she shouldn't have announced it. But, and the but is huge, she obviously feels like this is a great thing you have accomplished just by being accepted and wants to celebrate you. Remember that, hold onto that. So that is a positive and you are wise to recognize how good it feels to be congratulated.

Many of us have complicated or difficult parents. Some of us are complicated and difficult people ourselves. Your dad lacks love and self esteem to be so critical and unhappy. His negative, demeaning words, are either about manipulating you, controlling you or about his own inner demons. Therefore, when we are around people like this, we have to ignore what comes out of their mouths. Limit contact, not share our innermost secrets or the good news until we "have to." Wear an imaginary suit of armor that their negativity doesn't pierce our hearts. Don't go to his well looking for cool, sweet water. His well is tainted with poison. Someone in his life, his parents, his life experiences, perhaps alcoholism, drug use or mental illness, has created a very negative and angry, mean brain. I would not tell him at this time.

I have some really mean adult daughters. I did not tell them I was going back to school to get my masters. I did not tell them when I graduated, I did not invite them to the graduation ceremony. The look at me with disdain is how I feel about it. I just didn't feel like ruining my joy. So don't tell anyone who will ruin your joy or cause you more emotional distress.

Therefore, you may need to do a lot of self talk. Positive self talk. Write some positive sayings on sticky notes and put them on your bathroom mirror or on the computer monitor and read them over and over. Read these mantras every day, several times a day and eventually your own brain will start to turn to positive things instead of the self doubt and self defeating talk you engage in currently.

Many of us are taught from childhood that we are not good enough. We learn to doubt ourselves and have low self esteem. As adults, this is when we are in charge of ourselves and can start the hard work to form a different type of thinking and being than what we were or had growing up. Now it is on us to become who we want to be. There is a great song by Switchfoot "This is your Life" and it asks "this is your life, are you who you want to be?" and if we examine that within ourselves, sometimes this gives us more courage to seize emotional wellness and stability for ourselves.

You might also look up a chart online called "Unhelpful Thinking Styles" or sometimes "cognitive distortions". This chart is part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and is all over the web, tons of articles, etc. I printed this chart out and when I get into negative thinking, I read this chart and pick out the unhelpful thinking style I am getting into. If I can label it, then I can switch my mind into something more positive or at least challenge that negative thinking.

Master's school is harder than bachelor's school but you can do this. Master's school is mostly teach yourself. Bachelor's school is they spoon feed it. I went back to school to get a Master's degree late in life. It wasn't easy but it sure was a positive goal to have. Gave me a focus in my life and a lot of self esteem. My big advice is to block out hours you will study and doing the reading. My university said 3 hours studying or writing the long research based papers that we had to do per 1 hour of class time. So a weekly 3 hour class needed 9 hours at home work, reading, writing, researching. I found this was pretty accurate time level if I wanted to get A's. Not every week need all that much, and most students did the bare minimum, very little, learned nothing. I found best results when I set up a strict schedule for studying at home. As in I wrote out a weekly schedule of all the things I had to do. Work time, housework time, studying time. Including on weekends. Be aware of those students who are not putting in the effort but may figure out you are. Be wise to not giving away your hard learned information. We had to do many group projects because "real jobs are all group projects" (not necessarily true). The group projects were horrible because my fellow students did the very minimum or nothing but we were all graded from the finished product. One grade even if 2 out of 4 slacked and did nothing. I had to talk to a professor about a student who could not write in the professional style expected who was assigned to be in a group of two with me. The professor said I would have to fire her, go it alone, do the whole long paper myself, or accept a lower grade from her poor performance. So I fired her and wrote the entire long research based paper myself and got an A. The professor said this was the best paper she'd ever gotten from a student. The student was extremely angry but I was holding firm to honoring myself first. My point is you will be faced with times where you doubt yourself but you have to do what is in your best interest. So remember, you deserve this and you can do it!