Art, Travel, & Public Health
I found my art suitcase on the side of the road. It looked slightly weathered, but still full of curiosity and potential as it sat waiting to be taken to the dump. I thought, “No, you still have some life in you, my friend,” and I pulled it from the rubbish pile and threw it in my car.
The idea of repurposing a business suitcase into a traveling art case felt like the theme of my life at the time. I had recently tossed away my invested career to pursue art. Or at least that is what I told people. I wanted to open an art company and travel. But the depth of truth is that I wanted to pursue myself. Art and travel were just my happiest mechanisms to accomplishing this.
It was one of the bravest moments in my life. Mostly, because I had worked hard since I was fifteen to ensure financial independence, a business career to be proud of, and the ability to help support people around me.
One person I helped was my mother. She needed assistance sometimes with medical bills, household items, and living expenses. She also knew how to fall for a scam faster than anyone I have ever known. I had to replenish her empty bank account more than once.
When my mother died, I came to realize how much my life had changed since I started on my career-heavy path. She no longer needed security from me, and by then no one did. All the people who had looked to me for stability were no longer in my life, or they had found their own path. I also started to suspect I had spent my time pursuing things that were not in accordance with my heart for the comfort of a paycheck. I hadn’t even taken time to process my life after cancer. I took my last treatment, accepted a job promotion within the week, and kept plowing forward.
Until one day I couldn’t anymore.
I realized three things:
I wasn’t living my authentic life.
Life is too short to not be exactly who you are.
I wanted a life that would make my heart sing.
So, I quit my job, opened Pepper Pod Art, and started traveling. As I went, I began to add stickers to my art suitcase – badges of honor and exploration for a continued life past the daily office.
This was at the end of 2019. I booked art markets to cover my 2020 year, and I scheduled a trip to Belize with a friend. Next, my partner Jay and I made it to New York, New Orleans, and then to beautiful Costa Rica. While there, the pandemic hit the United States, grinding to a halt our travels, and shutting down the markets I had already established.
Once home, my traveling art suitcase, placed by the door in hopeful vain, began to gather dust.
The first time I took a career risk, a pandemic happened. If that isn’t life, I don’t know what is.
Without traveling, and without art, I knew I needed a pathway. As much as I had abandoned my last career, I still wanted the life luxuries of food and health insurance, but I wasn’t sure of my direction. While waiting to figure it out, and working at a local grocery store, I caught COVID.
I had no idea that getting COVID would change my trajectory for the next two years. A woman from the health department called to issue my isolation orders and contact trace anyone I had encountered.
I…was…SMITTEN!
I had no idea that contact tracing was a thing in this world, and I was blown away by the potential positive health impacts of such a program. I couldn’t believe how helpful this woman was. She was working hard to keep her community safe. As she tried to navigate her COVID interview questions, I pelted her with a thousand questions in return about her position. Once we finally hung up, it took me all of ten minutes to call her back. She was kind enough to answer, and the first question out of my mouth was, “How do I get your job?”
At that moment, I stepped into the world of public health. I was hired by the Ohio Department of Health, and within a few months, I was a COVID Response Captain for the state of Ohio. I oversaw the teams who conducted contact tracing for twenty-two counties. From there I went to the CDC Foundation, where I was lucky enough to run a team of some of the most brilliant people I have ever met – epidemiologists, data analysts, and school liaisons – all working to protect and promote public health in our communities. I made a home among the unsung public health heroes of our time, and my daily life was filled with awe and inspiration for their grit and fortitude. These were people who navigated their own personal pandemics while helping everyone around them do the same. I met genuine hearts, and I made friendships that filled even the hard days with laughter. I learned about public health aspects that both amazed and bewildered me. I was lucky. I did not have an ounce of public health experience in my background. But despite my inexperience, I could offer other skills and knowledge. I could offer training, team building, and professional development. I could offer support to those who spent their days supporting the health of others.
My work with the CDC Foundation came to an end this past week. COVID grants are gone. Money and resources are being funneled to other areas, and across this nation, public health professionals are leaving their pandemic posts to tackle other challenges.
I do not know where my next adventure will be, but I do plan to pick up more of the travel and art that I had set out to find in 2019. I’ve dusted off my traveling art case, and I’ve added a sticker that may mean more to me than all the others so far. It reads, “Public Health Saves Lives,” and I feel no truer statement could be said. The sticker may not identify a trip or place I have seen, but it certainly captures a two-year adventure I never knew would mean so much to me.