My very first inspiration entering adulthood, from Vince Voron, Head of Design at Coca Cola at the time: Reinvent yourself. (It was a very long sentence about corporate innovation, interestingly the field I’m in right now… I caught and remembered this phrase and it kept replaying in my head ever since.)
Ha! Now I looked it up, Vince was talking about how he went back to study so that he could grow into a better leader. Tada… That’s what I’m gonna do too!
Quick example: The ‘no touch policy’ at Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders where if someone wants a photo with the cheerleaders, he(/she) has to hold a football in front of the chest, so he(/she) wouldn’t put hands around the girls - that is something I can enable people to come up with together. In any field or context. This is my superpower. And it grows in me with every new life experience.
This is what I’m good at, and this is what I want to dedicate myself to: I understand what is happening. I help people voice and offload their thoughts and look ahead with me. I bring people and resources together to create something new that enables people to be their better selves and to deliver more relevant products/services to the benefiting audience.
The approach doesn’t matter - context-mapping, co-creation, interview, ‘work therapy‘ as I like to call it with those closer colleagues; the format of the outcome also doesn’t matter - from a set of work agreements to a facilitating tool, to an entire program of change or creation. The process of doing this together, and the outcome of everyone feeling empowered are what pull me to it.
I’ve been doing it in a corporate, banking context, and I do it very well. For quite a while this was my biggest pride in life. But after being off work for two months, I realized:
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I want this to be the entirety of my work. At the moment I caretake many other things, which is fun, but not fulfilling.
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I’m switching to Personal Banking because I want to serve and benefit ordinary people like myself. In the end it is a ‘compromise’ (the highest calling in the banking world), not a lifelong pursuit I want to commit to.
While being in therapy, besides being a client seeking and taking support, I also see my therapist work as a devoted healthcare professional, and that reminds me of some of the brightest days in the first 4 years I was in this country. Conversations and co-creation sessions with doctors and nurses, with patients, with researchers… Time spent in the operation rooms, sterialization centers, logistic warehouses, observing, asking questions. Even without what I (we) delivered, the countless ‘Thank you. I feel heard.‘ already meant the world to me.
So here it goes: In a year I want to do a two-year part-time study at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of Maastricht University, hopefully in one of the three tracks: Health Education and Promotion (my preference is clear :D); Health and Digital Transformation; Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management. And it gets better:
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Thank you Dutch government. A second masters degree still qualifies for statutory tuition fee when it’s in education or healthcare.
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Thank you my employer for topping up 10% on salary for employees under Career Switch Scheme.
But even without the above two, it wouldn’t stop me. I know what I want, and I will make it happen.
And then I will work with healthcare professionals to create values and lead changes together. Be it a slogan, a standard, intervention programs. Anything. Everything.
Just thinking about the future gives me butterflies in the stomach. Like, extreme excitement that hurts. I have never felt this way - maybe a milder version when I was much younger falling in love with someone - for a future for myself.
Half a year ago I was chatting with some colleagues on ‘Where would you be working at if money wasn’t a factor?‘ and I said ‘Rutgers, a hundred times.’ (Not that they pay badly, but I didn’t feel I deserved to carry that cause.) Looking back, I didn’t mind this long excursion I took in the insurance and banking worlds at all. I have grown tremendouly. Looking ahead, I’m not done learning here either. I will happily stay in the most nurturing environment I found myself for another 3 years (1 year full-time + 2 years part-time). Then off I go. I am everything I carry.
I have always known what I wanted. Now I have the space to do it. And I will do it.