The Registrant
Derrick Tobin: humanitarian then non-profit executive graduates from nursing school. How this Nova Scotian took a mid-career gamble and won. By Trish Richards
P
The Registrant
ropped up against his headboard gazing into the screen of the laptop unevenly rested on his legs, Derrick Tobin was once again working in bed at 3 a.m., when his wife, Ashley, awoke and asked him how he was doing. “I feel so stressed out. I can’t sleep. I’m just not happy. I feel like things have changed,” Tobin said. She replied, “Well, you can stop, and you can do something different.” To Tobin, it seemed like almost a lifetime ago that he was an inspired, energetic English teacher, educating students abroad in Thailand and Mexico for two years, before teaching in British Columbia and Nova Scotia classrooms for nearly a decade.
Empowered by his wife’s support and reassurance, Tobin went back to school to become a registered nurse, the lifelong dream career he’d been discouraged from pursuing after high school because of his gender.
20 theregistrar.ca
winter edition 2022
