About Rodica

My contact information: rodimihalis@gmail.com
Online counseling at https://www.proventherapy/Rodica

Education: M.S. Counseling and Clinical Psychlogy, Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia
B.A. English And Romanian, University of Bucharest, Romania

How it all started…

I broke my ankle on December 9th, 2010, two days before a much-needed trip to California and three days after I moved near Harrisburg from living in a suburb of Philadelphia for over 25 years and raising a family.

Suddenly I was faced with spending my Christmas and New Year’s locked alone in an unfamiliar place where I really didn’t want to be in the first place.

I was going crazy and very bored and decided to go back to writing, my long-time passion for which I never found time. This blog is the result of that fateful accident.

When I first started to write, I  was angry and thought of the role fate played in my life and the much publicized law of attraction and the power of positive thinking. Could I have changed anything? Was I really in control at all times? As I kept writing, another issue, even more controversial,  came to mind, that of being from Europe, an immigrant.  Was being born and raised in another country what made my life different and unique?  Little by little I peeled the layers of appearances and the truth surfaced: The universal human experiences and emotions were by far more significant than where I was born. The pain of living in an alcoholic family, the fears experienced during a deadly earthquake, the hopes, love and disappointments  experienced in relationships, the challenges of single parenthood, the unimaginable confusion over suicide, the survival and fight with prejudice. All these  experiences and the accompanying emotions and pain, make us the human race.  

The working title  of my book about to be birthed,  was “Immigrant is just a Word,” but I also like “Memoirs from My Two Lives.”  Not sure which expresses best what I was trying to convey, what made us alike, not different.

Regardless the title, I was grateful people seem to enjoy my posts.

While I looked forward to healing, I  continued to write. Back in 2011, I was excited there were 800 views on my blog and positive comments from people I didn’t know. It made me trust I had a message that resonated with many. That realization determined me to turn the posts (which are in chronological order, into chapters of my memoir) into a book…  As I wrote, I re-read old journals, new emotions surfaced and new questionings…each word  I wrote was a part of my soul and the heaviness of so many emotions, once on paper, sat me free!

UPDATE
It is now January 5th, 2015!

So much has happened since I updated “About Rodica”

At the end of 2011, the first 100 posts on this blog became a published book (both paper and e- pub) under the title “The Gypsy Saw Two Lives) The book had excellent reviews both by professional reviewers and the readers (www.amazon.com/books)
At the end of 2012 I completed my Master of Science in Counseling and Clinical Psychology.

In 2014, after my book was published, my blog was awarded a Most Versatile Award by other bloggers when I started to focus on writing about issues which could improve everyone’s life.
It remains a positive, rewarding part of my life, and I treasure and appreciate my followers and readers.

2014 brought over 12,000 views and visitors from 124 countries, for a total of well over 24,450 views to date.

Recent personal experiences determined me to begin research on my next book, which will focus on single parenting and what some parents need to know it might happen when the children they loved and supported their entire life become adults. The book’s working title is “The Nude Truth.”

Answering Your Questions:

The blog received over 1,300 comments and questions in 2014.
If you are asking me computer related questions, I am sorry to disappoint, but I am not a computer specialist, I am a writer with enough computer skills to maintain my blog.

If you are asking me about tips on how to become a blogger, I could only say, please go to the home page of Word Press and they will walk you through the steps of how to set up a blog and also provide designs for you to select.
If you wish to follow this blog, please click the “follow” icon.

My platform is Word Press. An excellent place with a highly professional staff.

The SCOPE of the blog is to write about topics of general interest and improve everyone’s daily living, in a simple and sometimes humorous way, so that people truly benefit from my posts. This blog is like life itself, sometimes up, other times down…

Thank you everyone for your support and for helping me maintain the quality of the blog by commenting and making excellent suggestions. I really appreciate you. Happy 2015!