Act 2 — Sacrificing a bit of security to follow your passion, make a difference — or both
Who hasn’t thought of abandoning their career for something completely different — something exciting, meaningful, daring? These alumni did just that, sacrificing a bit of security to follow their passion, make a difference — or both. And even with the economy in the dumps, they say it’s worth it.
After a happy career, he starts a more meaningful one
“Do you think you’re up to it?” one interviewer asked John Brink when he was being considered for the pastoral staff at the Dennis Union Church on Cape Cod, politely alluding to Brink’s age. “I said, ‘You keep up with me,’” recalls Brink (STH’08).
His answer was apparently the right one, and early last November, the sixty-two-year-old began a late-in-life second career in the ministry as associate pastor at Dennis Union.
Brink, who lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts, had loved his first career. With a bachelor’s degree in business at Indiana University and an M.B.A. at Suffolk University, he’d spent twenty-five years in the development and marketing of medical devices, particularly for pediatric neurosurgery, and had felt fulfilled and proud of the work. But when Medtronic, his employer, moved his department from Massachusetts to California in 2004, he and his wife decided not to go along. He became a consultant, and that, he says, “gave me time to think.”
Religion had always been important to him. On Sundays, for twenty years, he and his wife had attended both Catholic mass and services at the United Church of Christ. When he left the Catholic Church because of the sexual abuse scandals, he began working with young people at the UCC congregation.
In 2005, without telling anyone, Brink met with admissions officers at the Harvard Divinity School, the Episcopal Divinity School, and BU’s School of Theology. Talking with STH’s Earl Beane (CAS’63, STH’67,’68), since retired as director of admissions, “I knew BU was the place,” Brink says. “He was the most pastoral and caring person in the questions he asked. When I told my wife, she said, ‘Go for it.’”
His three years as a Master of Divinity student “were the happiest of my life. People related to me as who I am, without regard to age. That’s how God relates to me, as who I am.”
In his first career, Brink had often been a silent observer in operating rooms, marveling at what was being done, wondering about what else could be possible. He’s finding that his new career inspires similar wonder. “It’s just being there in the room and feeling God’s presence take over. This is the natural flow of my self and energy.” — By Natalie Jacobson McCracken ■
(Read the entire article to read about other alumni/ae …)