Sara-May Colon
Episode 8

Narrator:

Welcome friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families, and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Welcome friends to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. I'm excited to have a new guest join us today, and obviously, I'm going to introduce their name. I'm going to ask them their name in a second. But for those of you who are brand-new listening to this particular... Is that really? That is a lawn mower in the background.

Sara-May Colon:

They just started.

Japhet De Oliveira:

They just started. It's fine. I like the sound of a lawn mower in the background, not interrupting anything that's taking place in this podcast. This is the beauty of this, right? Nothing's unedited. It's authentic. It's real, including the real lawn mower in the background of this particular podcast. It's beautiful. Wow.

Sara-May Colon:

Ambient noise.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's ambient noise. So, here's how it works. The Story & Experience Podcast, really, all it is, is about the fact that we have lots of stories, lots of experiences. They shape us and we get to discuss this, talk about it. And I'm going to start off... We have a hundred questions we're going to get through. We're not going to get through all of them.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I'm going to start off with just the first 10. And then after that, you, our guest, you get to choose between 11 and 100. And I would recommend that you avoid the higher numbers because the higher you get, it's more vulnerable, more difficult, the more open insight there. I really do like the sound of that lawn mower. It's very refreshing.

Sara-May Colon:

I would offer to shut the window, but that would involve movement.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, it's beautiful. It's actually just real. It's fantastic. All right. Let's begin with the first one, because everybody's dying to know who's behind the voice and the laughter. What's your name? And is there anything that we should know about the pronunciation?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, good question. My name is Sara-May Colon and I have two first names and it is not [Ser-ah-May], which a lot of telemarketers somehow figure out because it's hyphenated. It's squished together and pronounced way more exotically than it actually should be. And so, they often will say [Ser-ah-May] Colon, which is a terrifying disease, I think.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh dear.

Sara-May Colon:

But no. My first name is Sara-May and my last name's Colon. We try to make it exotic even though it's spelled like colon.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. I like the fact that you try to make it exotic. That really does help with it.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It doesn't mean what it does sound like. Right?

Sara-May Colon:

No.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, OK.

Sara-May Colon:

But my dad does have a joke that if we adopt, we'll have a semi-colon. So, you know, dad jokes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a dad joke. Definitely not funny. That's good. That's good. I appreciate that. Well, Sara-May, we're really glad that you're here and we will not call you just Sara. We'll call you Sara-May because that's your name.

Sara-May Colon:

Either way.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. All right. Good. Sara-May, share what do you do for work?

Sara-May Colon:

Well, I am the Director of Mission and Spiritual Care at Castle, Adventist Health Castle in Hawaii. And I really am fortunate. I'm a chaplain that gets to love on people and spend time with our associates and our patients and hear stories all day long. Yeah, just step into spaces that may be uncomfortable for other people, but I love it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, you're really good at that. I'm excited that you're in that role.

Sara-May Colon:

I make spaces uncomfortable, too.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, no, no. You step into spaces.

Sara-May Colon:

OK.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Not make them uncomfortable. That's actually... If I implied that, I'm sorry. But no, that's actually fantastic. How long have you been in this current role?

Sara-May Colon:

Officially as the Director, only since like November, December. I started with Castle probably three or four years ago as a per diem. I was a COO of a company in Honolulu and I was like, "Man, I really miss ministry." I just wanted to volunteer, but they didn't want me to volunteer. They asked me to do per diem. In my past life, I was a chaplain, so I was like, "I actually have the credentials, let's do this." And then I slowly morphed into normal hour shifts and then became the Senior Chaplain, and then eventually moved into the Director role.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, that's fantastic. Well done. Well done, and we're glad for you, and glad for Castle, as well. Glad for whole of Hawaii. It's fantastic.

Sara-May Colon:

All of Hawaii.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's brilliant. I mean, and Castle does such a great job, so it's fantastic to have great people like you there serving. When you wake up in the morning, what's the first drink that you have? Is it water? Is it one of those green liquid smoothies? Is it coffee? Tea? What's your... Yeah.

Sara-May Colon:

OK. Well, as of like three weeks ago, it was always coffee. But I've started this new thing trying to remember to drink a glass of water at some point in the day. Because during the day at the hospital, I don't drink water because I have my mask on the whole time. And so I was like, "I need to start drinking water." So now I have to drink a cup of water while I'm brewing my coffee, and then I drink coffee, and there is no green juice involved. That is for way more responsible people than me. We'll get there.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And do you drink a warm water, cold water, ice water?

Sara-May Colon:

So I have a Brita that's in the fridge that has cold water, but I normally end up drinking tap water because for some reason it's too hard. It's too hard to get to the fridge.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I have tried Brita water. I'm just not a fan. I'm not a fan. I prefer tap. Brave, brave. Very brave. All right, Sara-May, where were you born?

Sara-May Colon:

Born? I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And have you been back to where you were born?

Sara-May Colon:

I visited. No, I visited Massachusetts.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You were going to go. "Yeah, I've been there, but oh, no,".

Sara-May Colon:

No. So I've been to like the university that's near there, but not actually... I don't know where I was born in Worcester because I only lived there a couple months. So I have zero memories.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Really? There's quite a lot of people who, when they were born, they remember that moment personally.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. Well, it's traumatizing. I try to repress it. I would not want to remember my birth. Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I should be back in the womb. I know.

Sara-May Colon:

No. I was an angry baby. I came out mad. Obviously, I'm not ready to go back to that moment.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right. So when you were a child, what did you imagine you would be when you grew up? Was it a mission director?

Sara-May Colon:

No. So I'm actually a missionary kid and I always thought I would be living in some village in the middle of nowhere being like a surgeon and a bush pilot, which I'm pretty sure is like ... Yeah, I don't know. I was one of those kids. I definitely just thought I would be completely in the middle of nowhere. I'd be like landing a plane in the middle of nothing and like living in a hut. So yeah. And then I slowly moved to, like, I stayed with surgeon for quite a while and then I added mortician.

Japhet De Oliveira:

As you do.

Sara-May Colon:

Because I just thought it'd be interesting. So I threw that in there, shook it around a little bit, realized that's a lot of education, so yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

A lot of education. But sorry, could you remind how many masters' you have?

Sara-May Colon:

I have enough. Too many.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Too many.

Sara-May Colon:

Obviously my self-worth is challenged by something and I have to prove in some way.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Super qualified. All right. All right. Great. Sara-May, if people were to describe you, would they describe you as extrovert or introvert and would you agree?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, I think most people would describe me as extroverted. And then my closest friends would probably actually say I'm an ambivert, which I didn't know was a real thing. But it's because I absolutely love being alone and like reading and doing art and have no problem being alone. So I think I defy most traditional extroverted things, but I love people and I love hanging out with people.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, that's good. That's good. And that's very true. That's very true about you. Let's talk about a little bit about your habits. Are you an early riser or a late night owl.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, OK. So I like the morning.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I like the qualifier.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of qualifications that have to go with this one because... So I'm an art major. I was an art major at first. So creative juices start at like 1:00 a.m. And then I remember all of my theology courses and business courses were all at like 7:00 a.m. for some reason. So I don't even understand. I enjoy mornings, but I love to sleep. So I'm a happy morning person, but there has to be a reason for me to want to get up. I don't naturally arise at 5:00 a.m. and I'm like, "Good morning world." I think I'm more naturally a night person.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, that's good. That's fair. That's fair. All right. So what is the first thing you thought about this morning?

Sara-May Colon:

I don't know. Oh, yes I do. I woke up to a cackling bird. It was freaking out and I had this whole narrative in my head about why it was freaking out. And so it was really just me telling me a story about a bird and what it was thinking, which proves that I might live in a little bit of chaos because it was a whole like in-depth story about it. Like being late to work and got caught up on something. And now it's just yelling at something outside. So it was a whole thing.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Was the bird worried about the lawn mower outside that's gone?

Sara-May Colon:

No, but now it should be.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. So here's a leadership question for you. Are you a backseat driver?

Sara-May Colon:

For sure. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

For sure. Oh, OK.

Sara-May Colon:

Well, here's why I say that. Here's why I say that. I have zero problem walking away if I trust you and know that you have like complete pure intentions, like authentic, pure intentions. The problem is if I'm not sure if you understand what I'm asking to be done, or if I'm not sure if you understand like where the goal is as the team. Then I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to just hover here for a little bit because I'm just not sure what's going on." Now, so for my team, oh, I'm completely hands-off because I feel like I've set our parameters and we're good. But yeah, I have a hard time letting go if I'm not sure what's going on.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. That's good. That's fun. All right. Brilliant. OK. So the floor is now open and as I said earlier, it's just basically between 11 and 100 and it gets harder, more progressive, more vulnerable, more open, higher the number. And so you get to begin and let's see how much time we have. And yeah. Which number would you like to begin with, Sara-May?

Sara-May Colon:

OK. So I should probably preface with I don't like even numbers, so that just eliminates half of them. We're just going to have to acknowledge that. Do you recommend starting at the lower end or just committing?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, I would recommend that you choose.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, see this is where I'm going to have anxiety.

Japhet De Oliveira:

This is great.

Sara-May Colon:

This is what I'm going to wake up thinking about tomorrow morning. Like what was question number 27? Why didn't I ask that one?

Japhet De Oliveira:

You'll have to listen to another podcast and see if somebody chose 27.

Sara-May Colon:

Is someone going to make a list of all the numbers so they know all the questions?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Eventually I'll have to change. I know. I know.

Sara-May Colon:

OK. I'm going to go with 27 because now I've already said that number.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Already. All right. All right, here we go. Bring us into your kitchen for a special meal. What would you be making?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, a special meal.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Sara-May Colon:

My brother and I just talked about this last night.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, wow.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. So my go-to meal is Puerto Rican rice and beans. But the meal that I was just thinking about with my brother is raclette. Have you ever heard of that?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes, I have.

Sara-May Colon:

And I love it so much. Well, it's cheese. So obviously you just need it in your life.

Japhet De Oliveira:

The vegans do, too.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. They have a meltable cheese, which will just make it more exciting. But yeah. So no, my brother and I were just talking about raclette and how that was like our special meal when we were a kid. We got it for like Christmas or whatever. It's such a community, inviting thing because you have these little tiny pans. It's the Swiss version of fondue, I think. And it's like these little frying pans and then you put cheese on the frying pan and you can cook the meat or vegetables on top of it. And then you put the vegetables on the plate and dump the cheese on top. And it's just like such a community thing because it's a slow meal and you just hang out and everyone's together and normally fighting over a little pan. It's beautiful.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So you like the meal because it's actually a community meal, a community process, as well.

Sara-May Colon:

Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. That's beautiful.

Sara-May Colon:

Because we were just talking about it with our next family meal. We're like, "We should do raclette because then we can all just hang out and like slow and conversational."

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's actually great. That's fantastic. I'm glad that you plan it, as well. That's pretty beautiful. That's good. That's good. All right. Do you want to go lower or higher?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, that one wasn't so scary.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I know. I know.

Sara-May Colon:

Jump up. Let's do 41.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Forty-one. All right, here we go. What are you excited about in life right now?

Sara-May Colon:

OK.

Japhet De Oliveira:

If you could see Sara-May, the body language would be just so fantastic, but just listen to the energy in her voice. OK? She's set the scene. All right. So what are you excited about right now?

Sara-May Colon:

Are you referring to like projects or like career paths?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, you choose.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh. OK. So I'm working on some home projects. None of you know this, but I bought a house a couple of years ago, so therefore I'm in Hawaii with a house and I have to constantly be fixing things because this house is one of those piecemeal houses that uncle decided to add on an entire room. So every time you open a wall or move something, you realize like a whole different world under there of mystery things.

Japhet De Oliveira:

As long as you don't find bodies, you're OK.

Sara-May Colon:

Well, I did find a huge nest and like pans sealed into one of the ceiling pieces. So that was exciting. But anyways, so I'm working on a lot of home improvement projects and I've been re-doing my parents' lanai because my parents live on the same property as me. And so it's been really fun because I've been able to practice construction and woodworking and like building things. It's just really fun to be able to remodel and re-do things. And I don't know. It's just really enjoyable.

Sara-May Colon:

But on a professional level, I think I want to be a death doula. Yes, it's a thing. I see your face. For those of you that cannot see Japhet, his brow furrowed.

Japhet De Oliveira:

A death doula. OK. All right.

Sara-May Colon:

Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're going to unpack that for us. Yeah.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. So it's so cool. I had no idea it really existed until I met this lady who was telling me about a trauma that she had gone through and how part of her healing was learning how to help other people heal. And then she dropped like "I am going to be trained as a certified death doula." And I was like, "I'm sorry, what are we talking about right now?" And apparently it's very similar to like a birthing doula, but you help people end life well. And I was just like, "I don't know what I could possibly use that for in the hospital." I think it would be really informational and helpful in just like how people process things. But at the same time, I just think it would be really beautiful to hear how people would like to plan the end of life and be able to journey with certain people on that. I just feel like that'd be really interesting. So I'm excited about researching how to be more into that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You know, it's the end-of-life conversation that a lot of people avoid, and it should actually happen when you are young and you don't feel like it's coming soon. But yeah, I like that. I like that. I've never even heard of it. When you said death doula, I had a totally different idea in my head and I thought, "I don't know if that's a safe idea." But that's good. That's good. Excited about that. Great. No, that's good. Good. Thank you. Thank you for sharing and teaching us, and for all those who knew, well done. All right. Which direction? You were at 41 there.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh right. Let's do 53.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Fifty-three.

Sara-May Colon:

I don't know how much time we have.

Japhet De Oliveira:

We're doing great. We're doing great.

Sara-May Colon:

OK.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. Can you tell us about at least one important person in your life?

Sara-May Colon:

Yes. I can tell you about a zillion.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I bet. I bet.

Sara-May Colon:

But you know what? There's one person that I think I've attributed a lot of my life to, and it is also teacher appreciation week, month, year, something, right now. So I was thinking about teachers and how influential a lot of them have been in my life. And there's one in particular that I think formed and shaped my curiosity and empowered me to be a bonkers child and still have an academic backbone. And his name is Bradley Booth. He still randomly calls me and reminds me that I haven't changed since I was four, which honestly, I'm not sure if that's a compliment. But he was my teacher in West Africa and in Moscow, Russia. He had a one-room school. It was the missionary school. He taught K through 12. And somehow every single kid that went through that school felt like they were seen and heard.

Sara-May Colon:

He inspired creativity and academia, and every single one of us has a master's or above. And so obviously he understood how to empower and create just magic in the education system. And I look back and, especially now that all my friends are homeschooling their kids, I look back and I'm like, "How did he do it with all of us, K through 12, just ridiculous children?" I was bouncing off the walls. I was the youngest, and somehow he was able to wrangle all of us and empower us and meet us exactly where we were. And for just everything I look back on, I'm like, "Man, I think it was Mr. Booth who like taught us to be curious and not be afraid of asking a question and just encouraging each other to learn." So yeah. Bradley Booth, shout out to him.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. And actually, that's really true about you. You're not afraid to ask really good questions, great questions I've seen in the years that I've gotten to know you, and that you actually also are not afraid to be in the space with people and to make sure that they actually are heard, as well. So well done. Well done. I love that you know where that attribute comes from, as well.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. And I think he taught me, because what he would do is he would have each kid the grade above, teach the grade below. So we all learned to teach each other. And I was one of the youngest, so often I didn't have people to teach. But he would have me do other things that I was responsible for. So all of us always had leadership, always had something that we were responsible for teaching and doing and owning. And so there was, it was a very weird, like no hierarchy, and like no room for saying like, "Oh, you can't share that piece of information." And I think because the kids taught, kids are overly ambitious. So I was learning like calculus when I was in like first grade, you know? They're like, "Here's this fun fact."

Japhet De Oliveira:

That could also be Sara-May. But yes.

Sara-May Colon:

Super fun.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I'm sure. I'm sure. Let's attribute it to ADD. That's good. I like that. All right. Where do you want to go next? Which number?

Sara-May Colon:

I'm just going sequentially.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I sensed that.

Sara-May Colon:

Seventy-seven.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Seventy-seven. All right, here we go. Share one of your most cup-filling experiences with us.

Sara-May Colon:

One of my most comforting?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Nope. Cup-filling experiences.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh cup-filling.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. When you felt your soul replenished, totally replenished.

Sara-May Colon:

OK. This is probably going to sound the opposite of that, but for me, I think in the last couple years, one of the most inspiring moments I was able to be part of where I felt like, "OK, I can tackle the world right now," was a couple years back... My friends and I have a nonprofit in the Philippines and every year I go out. This is the first time I haven't due to COVID. I stay, and normally I stay part of the time in the informal settlements. And this time I was staying for a longer time in the informal settlements, which is basically for lack of a better term, the slums of Manila. And there's always flood season in the time period that I'm there.

Sara-May Colon:

And I was sitting and it started. Like it was flooding. My bed was now underwater. I climbed up the stairs in this very narrow, like falling apart building. Right? And I was sitting on this red bucket in a hallway as the water's rising. I'm just watching it come up the steps. And I'm thinking like, "Huh, there's really nowhere for me to go, and there's leptospirosis in there." And I was just sitting there on this red bucket for hours watching water rise. And there's like, people sleeping in the kitchen. There's people sleeping in just piles around me. And I was just in this space of absolute reflection on like how amazing my life is. Like how I don't have to get up in the middle of the night normally and watch the floodwaters rise. And I was so overwhelmed with just how incredibly fortunate I was.

Sara-May Colon:

And then I look out the window, the sun is rising. And I was like, "Well, we made it through the night," you know? And I just hear people yelling and laughing outside. And I look out the window and I see these guys. They're chucking coffee to each other, coffee packets to each other from window to window. And eggs, eggs to each other. And then I look down and there's this guy who was pushing people in a floating bathtub to work. He's just like in the water, and you see these like cute little ladies sitting on like a little bucket in a bathtub. And they're just figuring out life. Like, it didn't matter that there was a flood. It didn't matter that most people would be paralyzed in this moment. What mattered is that they had a community that showed up and they would just kind of push each other through it and figure it out.

Sara-May Colon:

And I started talking to the guy who was pushing everyone in the bathtub. He was like, "I don't have to work today. So I figured I would help everyone else get to work." And it was just such a matter of fact thing. And I just felt like at that moment, everything, even though there was so much trauma and brokenness in this space that I was even in, like there was hope. There's that community that was just in there and they were doing their thing and they weren't sidetracked by the physical. So I think that was one of my most impactful moments.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That is beautiful. How long have you been running that nonprofit?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, officially. I don't know. Probably almost 10 years.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Sara-May Colon:

So I don't remember when we became a real 501(c)(3). We kind of were doing like a hobby thing for a while.

Japhet De Oliveira:

For a long time.

Sara-May Colon:

It's a lot of people.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Taking care of people for a long time.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

But over a decade?

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. That's really good. Well done. Well done. And that's beautiful. It's perspective, right?

Sara-May Colon:

Yep. I think that's what it did for me, is it made me realize how full my cup really was. Like even though I complain about a lot of things in my day-to-day, I think that every time I'm getting unappreciative of what I have going for me, I'm like, "Hey, I don't have to go to work in a bathtub."

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true. Or push the bathtub.

Sara-May Colon:

Or push the bathtub.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. Because there is freshwater eels in that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I know. I can imagine you sitting on this little red bucket. That's great. That's fantastic.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah. Oh, it was a very poetic moment. And I was just like, "Well..."

Japhet De Oliveira:

I hope you have photos.

Sara-May Colon:

I do. They're quite hilarious.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. They'd be kind of epic. All right. Good. All right. What's next? Which direction?

Sara-May Colon:

How much time do we have?

Japhet De Oliveira:

We've got seven, eight minutes. We're doing good.

Sara-May Colon:

I would go to 81.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Eighty-one. All right. What is something you've given your absolute best effort towards, and why was it important?

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, my best effort.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Why was it so important?

Sara-May Colon:

There's so many directions you can go with this.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And it can't be the building of your house, because I think the phrase you said was "practicing building," so it's got to be more than that. So what would be your absolute best effort and why was it important Sara-May?

Sara-May Colon:

OK. So we talked a little bit ago about my degrees. I've taken a lot of degrees out of sheer curiosity and mostly to see if I could do it, because sometimes you just need to see if it's possible.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Why not?

Sara-May Colon:

Right. So one of the degrees I got, I did just for fun. I just figured I could see if the other side of my brain worked because I'd been doing the more creative things for a while. So I did my master's in business about 10 years ago and I never really used it. I used it somewhat in church ministry. But when I moved to Hawaii, I became a COO of a company. And as I began to unpack what was going on in that company, I started realizing that there were a lot of laws and a lot of business things that I just truly did not understand. And so I very rapidly had to dig deep, and I put pretty much 190% of my effort into it, of unpacking what it means to run a clinic in Hawaii, with all these laws that change and they forget to tell everyone.

Sara-May Colon:

I learned a ton about speech therapy and oral-facial myology, and OT and PT, and what rehab looks like in an outpatient setting, and how to restructure a business in order to grow. And I think for me, putting so much... I poured so much of myself into understanding how insurances work, how laws work, how business structures work, that I just think that's probably thing I've poured so much in. And the reason it was so important to me was because, again, this was something outside of my scope. I have never done anything in my life to receive a bottom dollar. And for the first time in my life, I was now running a business where I had to have a bottom dollar, and I had to have a definitive answer. Where everything else, art, theology, psychology, all of these things were very abstract.

Sara-May Colon:

And so learning how to be so tangible and make sure everyone else is sustained, making sure our employees are growing and have a trajectory. I think that was really...

Japhet De Oliveira:

A good stretch.

Sara-May Colon:

... complicated and empowering, especially when I got to the point where I was like, "Oh, we did that." You know, being able to look back in a year and be like, "Oh, we met our goals." I had no idea we'd done that. But I know I put a lot of time in, a lot of all-nighters." So for me, I think that's probably one that really stretched me, but also inspired me in the process.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. I like that. And that's actually a thing that I love about you, as well, is that you're not afraid to try new things and stretch yourself in an entirely different direction. You know, the curiosity, right? It just keeps coming back as one of the major threads in this conversation, that you're a deeply curious person, and you're willing to follow through on that. So that's fantastic.

Sara-May Colon:

And it's so cool that I've encountered people that empower the curiosity. They're like, "Yeah, you've never done this before. Here, yeah, let's see if you can do it." I'm like, "That seems like a terrible idea, but I'm in." So no, it's great. It's great.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I think we have time for maybe one more.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh, man. OK. Well, I'm going to go in the 90s. But I kind of I'm a little... OK. Can I give you two, and you decide which one?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Sara-May Colon:

OK. I would like either 93 or 97.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Let's go with 97.

Sara-May Colon:

That's weird. It was a very ponderous moment.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Let's go with 97 then.

Sara-May Colon:

OK.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Tell us about a time when you did the right thing.

Sara-May Colon:

Oh. Well, OK. I can go back along with employee stuff, with the business that I was running. I think there's a lot of times, even in the hospital setting, where I ask way too many questions. And it's partially because I need to know if I'm advocating properly for someone. And so I think in the hospital I often end up in conversations I probably shouldn't be in, because of, again, asking questions and wanting to make sure we've done everything we can for the patient or their family. And so I think there's a lot of small ones there that I could say like, "Oh, I feel like it did the right thing."

Sara-May Colon:

But you know, the one that really actually stuck out was when I first, again, took over this company and I was starting to run it and be in charge of HR and all of these things. I started going through and observing how our employees were working. And I realized that two or three of them weren't were not so ethical, but they had reasons, quote unquote, behind all of it. They had life that was happening around them that made it so they weren't able to be aware of exactly what they were doing or what they were putting other people at risk for. And there's one person in particular that I'm thinking of that I had to sit down and actually let go. And it was a really tough thing to do because they were a friend, a friend of the family.

Sara-May Colon:

I remember I was gearing up to have this really intense conversation. And I was like, I know that I have to do this for the sake of the business. I don't want to burn the bridge. I don't want to damage the relationship. And I remember sitting them down and instead of leading with all of the things that they did wrong on why I had to let them go, I just asked them how they were doing. And it was interesting because as they began to unpack how they were doing, and because this is a tough conversation for me, too. It was interesting to watch them almost fire themselves. And by giving them the opportunity to sort it out themselves and realize what they had been doing, and see their consequences and the thing that was playing out in their life, I feel like I was able to give them their own voice.

Sara-May Colon:

So that way it wasn't me projecting on them. They were able to process it themselves. And I think that's kind of, not the best example of it, but I think it was one of those moments where I felt like I finally had the courage to step in there, but also they had the courage to hear where I was coming from and kind of put it in their own perspective, as well. And so instead of avoiding the conversation altogether and maybe just writing a letter, we were able to talk it out and get to a place of healing and goodness on both ends.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That is really good, Sara-May. And it is very, very difficult every single time. So to be able to process it so well and to make sure that everybody is together on it. Well done. Well done. The right thing. The right thing for the company, the right thing for them, as well. Well done. Well done.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well Sara-May, our time is up. It has been absolutely a pleasure to be able to have just this few moments here together. Thank you for sharing just a little bit about the stories and experiences that actually shaped your life because I'm sure that as people are listening to this, they'll resonate with curiosity, with learning, that we should all be curious and we should all learn, as well. So I want to encourage everybody to continue to do so. God bless you, look after you. May you have an absolutely amazing day ahead of you. Have lots of water. Have lots of water.

Sara-May Colon:

Yeah, I'm going to hydrate.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Sara-May Colon:

Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Thanks everybody else, as well. Enjoy your day, and thanks for listening to The Story & Experience Podcast.

Narrator:

Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience Podcast. We invite you to read, watch, and submit your story and experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health through the Office of Culture.