I don't want to process anything sold, bought, or processed

It’s a journey, or so they say, so I suppose it’s not surprising that I know more now than I did when I started working in global health. I mean, what did I know? Not much. I knew I wanted to do something that mattered. I knew I wanted to be proud of myself at the end of the day. I wanted to be happy. I knew that the line from Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything seemed genius.

“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed.”

But, even after I quit my job, where I was helping other to buy, sell and process things, I didn’t still didn’t know what I should do.

So, I spent time talking to people who I wanted to be more like because they were doing something that mattered. Looking back, I can hardly remember what most of them said. Rachel told me she was working on a campaign to improve nutrition for school-aged children, using the skills she had built in a job similar to mine, but instead of for a corporation in service of a higher purpose that was important to her. And that gave me confidence that the skills I had could be applied to do something that mattered, but I still didn’t know just what was important to me.  

It was frustrating. Over drinks with an old friend who had also seemed to find the purpose that was so elusive to me, she gave me some hard feedback and life changing advice.

“Amy, you are really judgmental. When you see something that you think is stupid, it’s hard for you not to say something about it. And honestly, you aren’t very good at saying it in a way that people want to hear,” she said.

Ouch.

“But, once you’ve identified a problem, you try to solve it. And you are really good at breaking things down so that you can examine a problem from a number of angles and come up with creative solutions. And, once that starts you don’t let go,” she continued.

That felt a little better.

“So, you need to find a problem that you think is stupid, one that makes you mad. Because when you get mad, you dig in and there isn’t anything you can’t do.”

Turns out, that was life changing advice.