A long and winding journey

How does time fly! 15 years ago, I was looking forward to starting my freshman year of college at the University of Iowa. This week, I start my career at the University of Southern Indiana, College of Nursing and Health Professions as an assistant professor! As I look forward, it feels appropriate to also take a look back and reflect on my journey up until now.

My path has certainly not been direct, instead, it has been filled with many bumps and potholes, detours, long and slow drives through 25 mph school zones, and even a few U-turns along the way, but I finally feel like I have merged onto the appropriate highway and there is a long straight path ahead to explore. 15 years ago, unlike many new students starting off at the University of Iowa, I knew exactly what I wanted to be…a doctor, specifically, a medical doctor. It didn't take too long before I knew that medicine was not for me. First, I discovered that I don’t really like to see blood, which is kind of a deterrent to becoming a doctor. Second, I started working in a microbiology laboratory with Dr. Mike Feiss and Jean Sippy. Microbiology here I come! I thought I had a new path laid out and could foresee a happy life in the lab.

Then I read a book. For those of you who know me well, you might be surprised that one book, out of the thousands I've read, could be so important, but it was. I read Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities. Honestly, this book changed so much of my worldview. For the first time, I became aware that there was so much illness and poverty in the world. I wanted to try and change that. And then I saw a poster for the United States Peace Corps with the motto, “Life is calling, how far will you go?” And my life plan takes yet another detour. I pack my bags and drive cross-country to Boston to get my master’s degree in Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health. Yet, I wasn't planning to settle in and stay, as the following year I was packing yet again to move to Togo, West Africa to join the Peace Corps!

Peace Corps was an experience of the lifetime. You never learn more about yourself and what you are capable of doing until you have lived in a mud brick house with a tin roof, no running water and a pit latrine! Being medically-separated from the Peace Corps after only one year was an unexpected U-turn, but that is life and had that not happened, I would never have moved to Burlington, VT.

I moved to Vermont with just the stuff that would fit into my car, and no place to live. Lucky for me, I found a wonderful place to live and didn't end up having to live out of my car! In Burlington, I worked for a lead poisoning prevention program. This job opened my eyes to the dangers of lead and helped me to learn more about health promotion and education programs. Yet another unexpected path that provided me with a valuable life experience! In fact, anytime I visit an older house, I still check out the windows and doors out of habit. And bring up the topic of lead and I may give a spontaneous mini-lecture on the evils of lead paint. Sorry, it’s an occupational hazard.

After living in Vermont for a year, I decided it was time to be an Iowa Hawkeye again. I yet again packed my car and moved myself back to Iowa and enrolled in the University of Iowa College of Public Health PhD program in Epidemiology. As I worked my way through my PhD program, I struggled with what exactly I wanted to do with my life afterwards. Did I want to go into the public sector and work for a non-profit organization or someplace like the CDC? Or did I want to go into research? Or was academia (and teaching) the place for me. I had plenty of time and opportunity to experience many different aspects of epidemiology with my teaching, research and several trips to India. Yep, India. I went to India on a 3-week study aboard program with Dr. Anne Wallis. Mainly, it had been a couple years since I traveled and I was getting itchy feet. The trip turned into so much more. I not only had the opportunity to explore India, but I discovered a dissertation project and ended up returning to India for a 3 month trip to collect data. As I wound down my PhD program, I had the opportunity to travel to the Gambia and teach epidemiology for a new master’s program at the University of the Gambia (UTG). That started a partnership that continues to this day and I hope continues well into the future. After graduating with my PhD, I dropped my cat off with my parents and flew back to Africa for a second stint with the Peace Corps. Not a conventional post-graduation decision, but one that turned out to be a wonderful experience.

In the Gambia, I was once again a Peace Corps volunteer, although this time it was as a PC Response volunteer and only for a short, 5 month period. I taught several classes for Gambia College and UTG. Many of my experiences are detailed in earlier posts in this blog. All in all, it was a busy 5 months of teaching and research. I feel like I made many friends and look forward to the opportunity to return to the Gambia in the future!

Once returning from the Gambia, my life once again took a turn with a job offer from the University of Southern Indiana. So at the beginning of August, I packed up my house and my cat and made the 400+ mile journey to my new home in Evansville, IN.

It is said that hindsight is 20/20 and when I look back on the last 15 years, I don’t feel like I was on some rough and bumpy road of mistakes, but more that I took the scenic route, full of beautiful side trips, unexpected surprises and many, many wonderful memories. As I look forward to my first week of classes, I take with me a suitcase full of wonderful experiences and hope there is room to jam in a few more. But not to worry, the last 15 years has made me an expert at packing a suitcase!