For the past 12 years, I have been teaching Nutrition, Public Health and Motivational Interviewing at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Doing this work was a dream I had as an undergrad at Simmons College, also in Boston. I now find myself fulfilling this and many other professional dreams I had as a young person.
I feel so very lucky!
But, it’s more than luck. I have worked very hard at this, and find that some of it comes naturally, and some is just that hard work. The key for me is that I know the topic inside and out. Then I can relax and just speak about what I know, from my heart. I love the subject of food and nutrition because it’s very personal; we all eat, after all.
This semester I have undergrad honors students in Introduction to Human Nutrition, and they are majoring in health sciences, physical therapy, nursing and pharmacy. They are so very smart and committed to their work, and challenge me almost every class with excellent questions, some of which I can’t answer. It used to bother me when I was asked a question I couldn’t answer, but now I take it as a challenge, and usually ask the other students what they think and we discuss it. Sometimes I go to the listserves of other dietitians and scientists for the answers, and learn something new myself. An old friend and mentor told me years ago that teaching was no fun unless you’re learning something. Boy, was he right!
I’ve decided to take next semester off of teach at Northeastern, and devote more of my time to my Motivational Interviewing training, and the book I’m working on Wellness Not Weight: Motivational Interviewing and Health At Every Size. This is an anthology on those topics, and I have a number of excellent chapters from colleagues whose work I really admire. I have a couple of chapters to write myself, and I will work on ”knitting” it all together.
And one more thing. My daughter is expecting my third grandchild in December, and she lives in Florida. I think more time there is in the plans.
