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MY VOCATION

My Vocation

Chloe K. Birkholt

Department of Healthy Lifestyle Management, Creighton University

HLM 499: Capstone/Healthy Lifestyle Management

Dr. Vicki Bautista

April 25, 2021

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MY VOCATION

My Vocation

Life is full of gifts, and one of those gifts is finding passion within purpose. Each person

has their own vocation, and each person’s path is just as different. My vocation was not what I

expected, and getting to it was even more unpredictable. Initially, I was on a journey with tunnel

vision to pursue the one career path that was perfect for my passion. Needless to say,

discernment was never on my to-do list, and I rarely scheduled time to get to know myself or

find out what makes me come alive. The people around me influenced what I thought my

vocation was, and eventually it caused me to feel anxious and confused. I grew up thinking I

would follow in my mother’s footsteps, and be an ICU nurse because of my passion for caring

for others. The two years of nursing school that I took were fascinating but I still felt unsure if it

was right for me. My current job, as an anesthesia technician, I was taught me the ins and outs of

the operating room. The more I learned about the amount of stress the body experiences when it

is operated on, the more I wanted to learn how to help people avoid surgery as much as humanly

possible. Healthy Lifestyle Management was the program that would answer all my questions,

and unintentionally lead me to my vocation.

The HLM Program Has Created A New Me, Both Personally and Professionally

The Healthy Lifestyle Management Program for me has been more than just a series of

course that lead me to a degree. I gained knowledge that helped me understand epilepsy, and

how to better care for myself to decrease the chances of triggering seizures. The program also

taught me that there is more to healthcare than diagnosis, prescriptions, and physical care. Prior

to the program a had a grasp on the concept of whole person health, but did not realize the extent

of everything that goes in to caring for the whole person. In HLM 450 I wrote my Scientific
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Review Paper based on adolescent stress, which later on played a part in recognizing my

vocation. Healthy Lifestyle Management has given me a new outlook on medicine and my

vocation.

Contributions to My Discernment

HLM 301 had a large impact on my understanding of whole person well-being. A

person’s well-being is a combination of their physical, career, social, financial, and community

well-being, and there are so many different factors that have an impact on each of those

categories. I live by Plato’s saying “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know

nothing about,” which helped me when it came time to demonstrate empathy with a client that

was opening up about the many layers of their well-being.

It was also HLM 301 that helped me understand the process of discernment towards my

vocation. In every HLM course there was either a discussion or section about our vocation, but

HLM 301 had weekly journals that were assigned to give us a chance to reflect on a topic and

our vocation. I continued to do weekly journals with all of my classes not just HLM courses, and

I found myself referring to the material I learned in HLM 301 to several topics in my other

classes. I was constantly being reminded of the subject matter that I was most interested in, and

that was when I felt like I really opened up and let God show me His plan.

My last semester, between HLM 451 and HLM 499, has solidified that I am on the right

path to finding my vocation. “As clients explore the most inspirational and feasible goals, it’s

important to tie those goals back to a client’s reasons for change, which underlie their visions.”

(Moore et al., 2016, pg. 129) When I read that quote in Coaching Psychology Manual, it made
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think of my journaling, and how I write about HLM 301 in my other classes. I explore for

inspiration in the other classes that I take, yet I always find myself tying the knowledge back to

my vision of health and wellness. HLM 451 gave me a glimpse of how having a cheery

personality and being levelheaded would be able to be used as a skill in Health and Wellness

coaching. “At all times coaches champion their clients’ ability to realize their goals, especially

when they lack self-efficacy.” (Moore et al., 2016, pg. 39) I believe everyone needs a person that

can be there to boost them up and fight for them.

The Jesuit Charisms I Most Identify With

Unity of Heart, Mind, and Soul is the Jesuit Value that inspires the growth of the whole

person and focuses on all aspects of their life. This value is what drew me to Creighton, because

I needed to find myself from within and genuinely understand who I was as a person. There has

always been a part of me that knew how strong I was, but the other part allowed others to tell me

who I was or was not. Two influential people in my life, once explained to me how I do not have

the ability to finish a degree at Creighton because of my mental illnesses, and that earning an

associate’s degree at a junior college was more my speed. In my heart I knew Creighton was the

only college for me, because it felt like home. Being diagnosed with epilepsy my Junior year was

another chronic illness added to the list, reminding me of what those people said. It took time,

but throughout the Healthy Lifestyle Management program I have found unity in my heart, mind,

and soul. I have clung to this Jesuit Charism through the confident times and the times of doubt,

because I know that I will not be able to be the best Health and Wellness coach for my clients if I

do not know who I am. The Charism of Unity of my heart, mind, and soul is an unbelievable

aspect for discernment.

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How the HLM Program Contributed to My Personal Vocation Formation

Vocation is like “the surface of a fast-flowing river is often broken by waves and eddies

in which the water seems to rush off in all directions and even contrary to the main flow; while

underneath all this busyness there is a constant, steady current which can be felt more strongly

below the surface where the river is the deepest”(Marin, 2012, p.345). Until I read that quote it

was hard for me to understand what to look for or where I would find my vocation. Although I

understand vocation, my personal faith conflicts with what I thought my calling would be.

However, this week I read that “vocation that can doubly infuse work with meaning for the

spiritually minded: first, as service to others and second as service to God. Hence, vocational

calling can enhance secular notions of calling by infusing the world of work with that of the

spiritual realm for those that see work as a calling from God.

With each class I took the more fascinated I was by the developmental process of

children and adolescents’ health and wellness. The past few weeks I spent more time genuinely

listening to God, to distinguish what skills and gifts the world needs from me. A couple

weekends back my boyfriend’s family came over for dinner to celebrate his birthday. His

cousins, all under the age of 12, would not rest until they got me to play hide and seek or dance

and sing karaoke. The “Ah ha! moment” happened when their parents told me how great I am

with children. I had never thought anything of it, but then I realized that often the neighborhood

kids are attached to my hip asking me to play different games. Maybe I am good with kids? It

occurred to me that frequently kids or teenagers ask for my advice or just want to talk, and the

HLM program has given me the tools to provide care and guidance for the younger generations.
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The development of habits and learning starts at such a young age, and what a better way of

helping with preventative care is create a heathy lifestyle from the start.

Plans for My Future

The passion I have found in working with kids, and my fascination for understanding the

numerous aspects of human growth and development has motivated me to further my education.

It is very important that I do not let myself forget that every emotion is valid and should never be

minimalized, because I have seen so many children’s reactions, stress, or feelings be

undermined. In order to advocate and give the best guidance for my clients, I will specialize in

adolescent health and well-being and child lifespan and development. It is a bit ironic to me that

just a couple days ago I was so blind to what was right in front of me. The fascinating part about

nightly discernment is not knowing when an answer will come to you. I am still unclear to what

direction this will take me but I am optimistic and love the path I am on.

Recommendations for Strengthening and Enhancing The HLM Program

Since it is an online program, incorporating more video discussions throughout each

course, and not just HLM 499, would be beneficial because it gives more of a personal or face to

face type interaction with peers. It is difficult to show or explain the many different scenarios a

Health and Wellness coach may experience and how to handle them, let alone through online

courses. However, I do not feel like I would really know what to look for or where the line is

when I would need to refer a patient to a psychotherapist. Other than those two aspects, I did not

think there is a lot about the current HLM program that needs to be enhanced. The program does
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a great job preparing students for the many different avenues they can take after they finish their

degree.
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References

Martin, J. (2012). Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit. In The Jesuit guide to (almost) everything: A

spirituality for real life (p. 209). HarperOne.

Moore, M., Jackson, E., & Tschannen-Moran, B. (2016). Coaching psychology manual. Wolters

Kluwer.