I can remember the exact moment when I realized what I wanted to do. I grew up in a small rural town of 3000 people. I went to school with all the same people from K-12. Kindergarten was the first time that kids with special needs were incorporated into classes with everybody else. One day, one of the kids needed to go to the bathroom, but had no one to supervise them and walk with them. I volunteered to accompany them to the bathroom and I made sure to comfort them during the walk and wait so we could walk back to class together. At that moment, the reward center in my brain dinged. It felt good to be in service to people who needed help. That’s when I realized what kind of work I wanted to do.
After having my daughter, I decided I wanted to pursue medical school. I took one class at a time, then took the MCAT, applied, and got in. After taking the first block, I realized that the medical lens felt limiting to me. That’s what it took to confirm that I wanted to be a social worker. I felt a duty to belong to a community, it felt like my job to share resources and experiences with others and all of those values fit in with social work. To me, social work recognizes the suffering of others and realizes that every human deserves dignity and respect.
In social work, you have to always remember who the client is. You need to remember to always be serving the client’s needs and wants, not your own. Social work is about being authentic and following your heart, doing what you think your client needs from you.
I am endlessly fascinated by people - what motivates them, their interests, their speech patterns, everything. I am inspired all the time by everyone around me and that’s why I became a social worker.
-Amy Moses, Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Coordinator
