Patient Advocate Transition
By Brooke Kemper, ’93
the bedrock of human existence. How one handles change governs life’s transitions and the evolution of a person. While I was at Woodlands, my life was charted. I would optimize my time there, participate in sports and hard-core focus on academics. I would get into the competitive college of my dreams, score a solid job, escalate through the ranks, and chip away at glass ceilings. I hoped to meet someone along the way who would measure up to my rigid criteria for a perfect mate. We would have two children, a house in the city in which we would live forever, and nary a care in the
A
hot buzz word these days is “pivot.” If the global Covid-19 pandemic has introduced us to one thing it’s “pivot culture.” Expectations no longer
world. I was pumping positive things into the universe and surely this would come back to benefit me. The universe gifted me abundantly. The course I charted
dictate reality. There is no script for a global pandemic just
was the one I achieved. Sometimes there were hurdles or
as there is no real script for life. While many people felt their
detours, but I was undeterred. I carried my Woodlands and
first truly significant disconnect between plans and outcomes
college experiences with me as I transitioned into adulthood.
during the pandemic, others have felt seismic shifts at other
I harnessed the self-confidence I fostered at Woodlands. Self-
times in their lives.
assured, I easily negotiated any forks in the road and secured
These seismic shifts are more appropriately billed as transitions. Transitions are not just change, but transformative change. Sometimes changes are welcome. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes changes are anticipated. Sometimes they are not. What I’ve learned over four decades is that changes are
10 | coeur à coeur
a job and home I loved. I even found my perfect match in my husband. The vision of two kids, house in the city and carefree existence took a slightly different direction. We had our two children, a house in the suburbs, but our lives were far from carefree.
