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How Do You Make A Difference? Count The Ways…
Why choose a career in public service?
Perhaps it’s because you want to make a difference, to work for a purpose, to contribute to society, to be part of something bigger than your own individual concerns. Those are only a few of the ways we express the very human desire to serve a cause or help aid others. And there are many ways to achieve those aspirations.
“I really do believe that we’re put on this earth to help serve others, and the life of public service is very, very rewarding,” says Major Celia FlorCruz. Currently Chief of Medical Operations for Multi-National Division-South in Iraq, her job entails providing health support—for everything from preventive medicine to emergency evacuation--for the approximately 18,000 American Soldiers deployed in southern Iraq.
Before that, she was an Air Defense Officer, spent time flying ambulance helicopters and—having pursued a master’s degree in community mental health so she could find yet another way to serve—also worked as mental health counselor, making herself available to military families coping with deployments and other stresses. Although she decided to resign her commission after ten years of active service, in order to focus on raising her two daughters, she remained a member of the reserves. But when 9/11 happened, she says, “as soon as the kids were old enough, in 2003, I returned to uniform.”
Because FlorCruz grew up in a military family, in some ways choosing a life of public service came naturally. But the appeal ran even deeper. “There are certain things you get in the military that a young person won’t get elsewhere, and you’re given a lot of great leadership tools that will suit you for any capacity later on,” she says. “For one thing, the military challenges you in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally, philosophically, and you won’t really know who you are unless you are challenged to your limits. On a daily basis you have to push yourself, and that empowers you to great leadership capacities.”
“I think that a great way to look at life when you’re young is to choose the most challenging possibility,” FlorCruz continues. “Because you never can go back and be young again. You don’t want to have regrets, and if you choose the most challenging possibilities you will never have regrets about it. Entering the military and allowing yourself to be challenged on so many different levels will provide you the self-confidence that you will not get in any other area.”
That observation also leads her to note that “some of those leadership skills that I learned in the Army don’t seem to come so naturally to people in the business community: Like standing up in front of a large group of people and giving directions.” In short, leading them.
But then, as FlorCruz sees it, leadership means serving other people, “helping move a community in a more positive direction.” And for her, that’s the most satisfying life choice imaginable.
