A male co-worker at the hospital made a comment to me a few weeks ago that I can’t get out of my head.  He said that I had tough decisions ahead of me and was going to have to find a husband that would be comfortable with my ambition and independence.  At the time I told him I was aware, but that it wasn’t an issue right now.

In Del Rio the culture is still very much of a male dominated society.  Especially in the Hispanic culture, the men are the providers and the women do what they are told.  The previous CEO at VVRMC was a woman who started out as a nurse, but it was okay for her to be CEO at that point in her life because her children were grown and her husband was retired.  I find this attitude slightly disconcerting.  At this point in my life as a single 23 year old woman pursuing a masters degree my work is very important to me.  This internship confirms everything I was hoping for, I feel called to be in this industry, and I love it.  I do not feel that I can not pursue both a fulfilling career path and family centered path.  

A few weeks ago I attended a Methodist Center for Leadership Excellence seminar.  The main speaker spoke on life balance.  One of the parts of this that really stuck with me is in an interview with children and parents researchers asked two questions. To the parents: “What do you think your child/children would want to change most about your job?” and to the children: “If you could change anything about your parents job what would you change?”  The parents all thought their children would ask for more TIME.  The children instead all asked that when they do spend time with their parents their parents were not stressed about their job, or on their iPhone/Blackberry.  

I found this really interesting and could be applied to all of our relationships.  When we spend time with friends, family, or our children we need to be PRESENT.  It can be very easy for me to get wrapped up in playing games/checking facebook on my iPhone instead of actually talking to the person I’m with.  

The other part of this presentation was about building bridges between our personal and professional lives.  The key is to recognize when one starts affecting the other in a negative way and how to correct that.  I was surprised at how “emotional” the presentation was in that it was telling a bunch of executives to look inside themselves and be comfortable with their emotions.  

I’m half way through my internship!