A Whiff of Midwifery

You smell that? That is the scent of anxiety that accompanies a career change. I am 31, married, with a dog, two cats, a Master's in Public Health in Epidemiology, and a stable full time job as a data manager in public health research, which I mostly really enjoy.  I am very grateful to have been gainfully employed through the duration of the COVID pandemic. I rode it out safely working from my couch in my nice, comfy house, reliably getting paychecks every two weeks. Don't get me wrong, I had weekly panic attacks for months because it truly seemed like the world was ending, I watched hours of livestreams of people being tear gassed and beaten by Seattle PD during the Black Lives Matter protests, and the smoke season of 2020 was truly hellacious (at least we had already stockpiled respirators and KN-95's because of the pandemic?).   One drunken evening in early 2021, when I finally felt some emotional capacity for self reflection after surviving 2020, my spouse and I disc...