"If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
— Joseph Campbell
— Joseph Campbell
I recently moved to a different state, in a town that is not so ideally located in relation to where my doctorate program is taking place, and yet I have felt "at home" from the very beginning and it has been very easy to adjust to life in our new community so far. Serendipity is playing a really large role in my professional career at the moment, as an opportunity has been presented to me, not too long after I moved here, somewhat by chance and destiny-led processes. I am currently exploring the feasibility of it, as it is a full-time opportunity, albeit flexible in nature and potentially closely linked to the work I could be conducting during my doctoral studies.
The opportunity consists of managing a city-based program aimed at reducing infant mortality, infant morbidity, and the number of low birth weight babies born in the city, particularly amongst the largely at-risk population. In this case, the label "high risk" materializes in the form of battered and abused women, socially and economically isolated new immigrants (some legal and some not), users of illegal substances, women living in poverty and suffering from food insecurity, and so on. Through intensive comprehensive case management and coordination with other local MCH services prenatally, intrapartum and postpartum, women enter the program through word of mouth, as well as professional referrals, free of charge, and on a strictly confidential basis. The services provided are quite diverse and include those that would normally be provided by a childbirth educator, a birth doula, a postpartum doula, a lactation counselor, a case worker, a Healthy Start professional, a friend, a family member, all wrapped up into one figure: the Neighborhood Outreach Worker (NOW).
Since its inception thirty years ago, the program has registered a 0 deaths per 1,000 live births rate of infant mortality, compared to the city's 9.8 rate (and the state's and US rates of 6.1 and 6.0 respectively). By the way, the stark differences between the city and the rest of the state as well as the national infant mortality rates are a screaming indicator of health disparities affecting the local population, even when compared to its immediate neighbors in the county itself. As one official put it, "this city is treated as the dumpster of the state."
Since its inception thirty years ago, the program has registered a 0 deaths per 1,000 live births rate of infant mortality, compared to the city's 9.8 rate (and the state's and US rates of 6.1 and 6.0 respectively). By the way, the stark differences between the city and the rest of the state as well as the national infant mortality rates are a screaming indicator of health disparities affecting the local population, even when compared to its immediate neighbors in the county itself. As one official put it, "this city is treated as the dumpster of the state."
No studies or evaluations of the program have been conducted so far and the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services for the city has expressed interest in me conducting doctoral-level research on it to identify possible practices that are contributing to these positive results. Regardless of my dissertation work, for which the topic has not been decided (and is still far from being decided!) I can already think of classes I am currently taking where I could potentially weave this program into assignments for the term. One example is the Health Economics and Financial Management for Public Health class that I am taking this semester: can we make an economic case for the scaling up of programs of this nature? If so, how? Exploring this and figuring out the underlying economic and financial aspects of it will be one of my challenges this semester if I choose to focus on this community program and even moreso if I decide to take on this particular work opportunity!
So it seems like a serendipitous opportunity that was just meant to be, one that I may have even been yearning for the past year at least, but at the same time I am struggling with identifying the right combination and load of work that I feel I can realistically take on and carry out with high quality, strong potential for future development, and fruitful long-lasting relationships and network strengthening.
I'm on the fence... do I leap and believe that the net will appear (adapted from a Taoist proverb) or do I step back, acknowledge my limitations, and choose to forego a really good opportunity that I am just not ready to take on at this point in time because of prior commitments (i.e. commencing a brand new doctoral program with a really cool mentor who also offered me more limited and manageable work opportunities)?
Can you really walk away from something that feels like is meant for you?
