Be Courageous

When I was deciding whether or not to become a psychologist, I was offered a semester long internship at Sydney Children's Hospital in Australia, working with kids with cancer. The hospital was located right on Bondi Beach, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I did not know if I was cut out for the role of helping kids with cancer. I had never met a child with cancer. It felt really overwhelming. It felt really scary. When I got to my internship and I was looking down the road at the beach, I thought to myself, I can either go to the most beautiful beach in the world or confront all of the horrors that come with working in a hospital. That was a decision point for me. I could have made the decision to skip out, not face my fears, not be of service, and not be honest by not honoring my commitment, and just skip out. That was a pivotal moment for me, where I made the choice to walk into that hospital and see what was in store. I thought to myself, whether or not I personally face this, these kids are going to be in this hospital, and they are either going to have someone there to help them through it or not. That was a very sobering moment for me. I think that it essentially changed my life, because that was the first really hard decision I made up until that point that felt cogent and aligned. It felt loving. It felt truthful. It felt like it was being of service. AI is the wild west. There are currently no consistent regulations about what we can do with AI. A million things could go wrong. But I got quiet and listened to what was coming to me intuitively, which was that this is going to work.