Human First, Woman Second, & Professional Third

Human First, Woman Second, & Professional Third.  I think people often lose sight of who they are and how they feel once they reach a certain level of education and career status.  Guess what!  We still have feelings; good, bad, and indifferent.  We dislike people, we love people, we dove things that we have no business doing, we do things that get us recognition (sometimes unwanted recognition), we have a past, present, and a future.  We feel……  As humans, as women, and as professionals.  As a human, we care about what happens to our fellow “man,” because it is a part of our natural instinct and if we’re in a helping profession our instinct is heightened just a bit more.  As women, we take on others problems and concerns when we really shouldn’t- we feel when they feel, we hurt when they hurt, we celebrate when they celebrate but when we are wronged by another woman they we begin to distrust all women.  We tend to stay stuck in the past, especially the past of another.  Isn’t everyone worthy of second chances?  God is a God of second chances so why are we so hard to forgive or fellow “man.”  As a professional, we sometimes get so enthralled in the title that we forget who we are because we become who the public decided we should be.  Some people find it difficult to separate the two or balance the two.  Sometimes the “personal” self can interfere with the “professional” self especially if there is a sense of false identity.  I think that I am one of few people who is the same across the board when intertwining personal and professional self successfully living in total transparency.  Do I tell my consumers my business?  No, but if there is a life situation that I can apply to get them to better understand something which I am explaining something to them then I use that life situation in discussion, counseling, and in daily application of life’s circumstances.  Professional or not, we are all human first and we all feel.  Doc Dee