Haley Pollack: Educator to Nonprofit Founder for Families Facing Cancer

So, Haley, you said something that really struck me, and I want you to comment on this.

You referred to the work that you were doing in education as the rat race, and I can only help but say that when someone says rat race, it automatically brings me to the corporate world and the rat race of the corporate world, because it's like I see a hamster wheel and it just becomes a grind.

And I wonder what was it about the role that you had as a researcher and that sort of made it unfulfilling?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I mean, I loved teaching.

I loved being in the classroom.

I still love that type of interaction between people, both as a student and as a teacher.

I find that to be just fun and interesting and a really dynamic place for me.

But it was really feeling like I was chasing something.

And I think especially if you're an adjunct, oftentimes you're really low paid.

The work isn't reliable.

There's not a lot of job security.

And you're a little bit chasing a dream.

And that felt all – just didn't feel satisfying.

It felt like for what am I doing here? And – I think the other part of my academic life is while I loved the research and the learning and the writing, I think the pressure to publish and to – it felt like there was just so much pressure and it was really hard for me to feel like the pressure – like essentially that the – it felt hard to – kind of tally it all up.

It didn't feel worth it.

It felt like there was so much stress.

There was so much pressure.

I didn't have job security.

I didn't have, I wasn't really living the life I really wanted to live.

Even if I was like intellectually stimulated, the rest of my life just felt very on edge.

I wanted to have the security.

I wanted to have, yeah, I wanted to feel more full.

So how long did you do that before you realized that it was time? Early on in my life.

I did it for a really long time.