I watched most of "Julie and Julia" last night and I think after sleeping on it, a lot of things hit me at once. In the movie, a girl, Julie, blogs about her goal of cooking 500 and something Julia Child recipes in 365 days. The movie also depicts Julia Child's road to creating her French cookbook for Americans. The blog is a big success, but that's not the only reason I am writing! Julie has a very sad job and the blog really gives her something to aspire to. This is what got me to thinking.
I enjoy my job as a veterinary technician. I enjoy my job as a birth and postpartum doula, but that job is not bringing in any moeny right now, which we so desperately need. I love to cook, and recently I love to uncook. I also am working on the final project for my masters in Public Health. Unfortunately, I absolutely despise this task. I thought I would do my practicum on something I love, doulas. So I've devised a plan to increase access to and information about local doulas with the end result having more doulas being utilized and therefore, less c-sections and higher breastfeeding rates. To me, this seems like a very fair public health project, but it doesn't see so for my professor. I think that he is stuck on the fact that I am not working for anybody and thinks that for this project I probably should be. I did not complete my first of four credits with him. This is the second of four credits that I am working on. I keep pouring in hours of work with little feedback and the feedback that I am getting has all been negative so far. I am now waiting on a response to my logic model and I think he wants to talk on the phone again. I am not a great phone person and the last time I talked to him on the phone, there was an echo on my end so I kept hearing myself and couldn't gather my thought to speak eloquently. I think I sounded delinquent.
This is all leading up to me considering leaving the program. I only have 6 total credits remaining including this one, but I'm getting nothing from it. And I really don't know what I am going to do with an MPH anyway. It's all very frustrating. Maybe I'll just drop it this semester and do the entire 4 credits next semester, repeating the first credit in a public health organization. Did I mention that I'm frustrated?
This is all taking away from my family too. Thinking about it, talking about it, working on it, and it all seems to be a means with no end. This is the feelings I have today and it is troublesome. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some answers.


