"Built to Move" with Dr. Voyles: Coming Home to Indiana (Part 1)

After graduating from Salem High School in 2013, I wasn't sure what the next step for me would be. My parents had not gone to college, so I was fortunate to receive a scholarship through the state of Indiana that allowed me to attend any Indiana college at a significantly reduced tuition rate. Because of that opportunity, I thought the logical next step was to try out college.

News media had been a passion of mine since middle school. I helped run the news program at Salem Middle School and truly enjoyed the work. I figured that would be a great career path to pursue.

I ultimately chose to go to Ball State University, largely because one of its most famous alumni is David Letterman. He was a major inspiration to me and had helped establish a program that gave students hands-on experience in telecommunications and journalism.

At the time, I viewed journalism as the pursuit of truth. I admired people like Walter Cronkite, who delivered the news with integrity and sought to inform the public for the greater good.

As I progressed through the journalism program at Ball State, we were taught the importance of remaining fair and objective. However, during the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I began to see the profession differently. Those experiences caused me to question whether journalism was truly the career I wanted to pursue.

I was also the first person in my immediate family to attend college. The major I had chosen was something I knew very little about before enrolling, and I found myself uncertain about my future.

During my senior year, I spoke with a representative at a Humana booth during a job fair. At that point, I wasn't looking to make a major career change. Instead, I wanted to find a way to apply the skills I had developed in a different field. The Humana representative introduced me to a position as aMedicare insurance agent.

My time with Humana sparked an interest in health that I had never experienced before. At 22 years old, I felt invincible. I thought nothing could go wrong, and I certainly didn't believe there was much I needed to learn about staying healthy.

I was wrong.

Much of my job involved visiting people who were 65 and older and discussing their Medicare insurance options. While the insurance side of the work interested me, it wasn't what I enjoyed most.

What captivated me were the people.

I loved hearing their stories. I wanted to understand their lives, their challenges, and their experiences. The problem was that I wanted to help them in a deeper way than simply selling insurance.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2!

Dr. Voyles