Feeding the soul: TV writer-turned-nurse on making a mid-career shift

Julianne Smith thought she might die in the earthquake. 

“It was maybe 3:30 in the morning, and it sounded like a railroad train was running through the apartment,” she said. 

By that point, Smith had been living in Los Angeles for over a decade working as a TV writer. Her credits included the “Beetlejuice” and “X-Men” animated series, “Doug” on Nickelodeon and “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” After crawling over the belongings the earthquake had blasted out of her closets and cupboards to get to a flashlight and radio, she began to wonder: 

“When I'm gone, is this the only thing that I want to leave? Yes, I've entertained people. Hopefully, I've made them laugh,” she said. “But there's got to be something more.”

Smith’s “something more” turned out to be leaving her TV career behind to become a nurse. For Smith, a tribal member of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi in Michigan, it meant moving back to the Midwest from the West Coast and heading to nursing school shortly after starting her family. Her story illustrates what it takes to restock your skills as a Provisioner in the Career River framework, and what such a drastic mid-career change can mean for your personal and professional happiness.

“It's such a shocking thing, when I think about that earthquake. It really did change my life,” she said. “The change that I made does something to feed the soul.”

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