Finding Purpose in the Detour
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you’ll find, you get what you need”-The Rolling Stones
Hannah’s story isn’t your typical service story. She hasn't had dreams of being a teacher since she was a kid. She also wasn’t longing to fill her gap year doing something meaningful in her community. She’d been applying for jobs for three years nonstop without any luck. She graduated with a Master's degree in global health in 2023. After a job at a medical technology device company lost funding, she decided it was time to change career directions.
This fall, Hannah will be returning to school to pursue a degree in physical therapy. She said, “It’ll take me 5 years–I’m excited! I’m an athlete, and that's the space of sports medicine I was interested in.” That excitement wasn’t exactly what she felt when she first started her year of service with NDMV at Sequoia High School in Redwood, California.
“When I first started, I had a bad attitude,” Hannah said earnestly. She originally wanted to apply for a position that better fit her interest in the health field, but when she applied, all that was open was the “High School Student Mentor” position. She needed some income and something to fill her year before her next steps. She was bitter about how life had turned out after graduation. “I felt like I wasn’t enough,” Hannah acknowledged. Job rejection after rejection had impacted how she started to see herself. She couldn’t see how the NDMV position would be a good fit for her or her students.
But then, something changed.
Hannah (on the right, walking the white goat), on a site visit with her cohort at Farm Discovery.
Hannah started to see not only that she could make an impact on her students, but also that her students could make an impact on her. “I’m inspired by [my students], and I also have a lot to offer,” she said. She connected with the teachers and volunteers around her. She also started coaching the track team and saw how she could use her love for sports and health with her students. “At first, I was expecting to find some big reason why I'm here,” she said. For Hannah, it has been in little moments along her journey that she’s found joy and purpose.
Now, when she asks herself why she’s serving at a high school, she allows the answer to be dynamic, changing with each new experience that every day brings. She said, “I'm no longer here because I couldn’t get a job, or because of my education, or because I’m not good enough. I’m here to expand on my education and my involvement in my community”.
As she prepares to leave one season for another, she can see more of a connection between her current and future paths than she did initially. She reflects, “My ability to work one-on-one with students and mentor them is similar to working with patients–instead of homework, it’s exercise”.
Beyond that, Hannah is learning to find peace and contentment by embracing the opportunities life brings. She’s learning to see that what could be judged as a “loss” is actually adding to her.
