Career Ponderings

Hello My Dear Beautiful Friends,

Lately I've been thinking/considering/obsessing over my career track :-)  I find that my future (which follows the track I'm on now) of writing grants and writing papers with a little teaching thrown in is becoming less and less appealing.  I love students, I love mentoring, I love getting to lead, I love having contact with people, and I love feeling like my work has an impact on someone somewhere.  I don't need to change the world in a "I'm the President" sort of way, but I do feel like my abstract, theoretically-based publications read by 13 people aren't fulfilling my soul.  I heard a great quote today about Stephen Covey, who wrote "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and passed away recently.  Tim Robbins wrote that Stephen Covey was a man whose "work was love made visible. " I want to wake up and feel like my work is love made visible.

I spent an hour of my work time yesterday perusing job ads.  I find that I am drawn to applied Public Health positions, but that most of the positions I'm drawn to require several years of experience.  Consequently, I am seriously considering following in Joey Juscius's footsteps into the Public Health Officer world in the military (probably Air Force).  I've done quite a bit of research on it, and the next steps would be to try and find someone to email who is doing the work now and to talk to a recruiter.  It requires a 3-year commitment (drop in the bucket for us grad school chaps) and should come with at least some of my student loans being paid back.  I keep getting really excited about the prospect, but then I feel like maybe I shouldn't be.  I love the idea of getting out from behind a desk and having contact with humans and having some level of responsibility, but then I wonder whether my excitement is based more on leaving the academic world and less about entering the military.

I must admit, though, that I have considered doing something like this at every step in my education.  I talked to a recruiter quite a bit when I was graduating from high school.  I also looked into potential ROTC opportunities at Baker.  Before graduating from NDSU, I found a really cool program through the Army that sent sociologists and psychologists to war zones to help with cultural communication.  I've always believed in serving my country in one way or another.  I know that is weird and a lot of people disagree with it, especially in the more liberal worlds that I float in, but I love the idea.

Anyway, that is where I am right now.  I wanted to share...perhaps get feedback if anybody has it.

Love,
Amber