Magazine

“I see my life today as interconnected with the work I did then.“

Since its founding, St. Olaf’s emphasis on vocation has helped those in its community discover their place in the world. To understand the prismatic ways that students, alumni, and faculty think about vocation in their own lives, we spoke to Oles in an array of different positions and places in their lives to understand what propels them and how they stay true to their values — in their own words.

Pin-Ni (Gloriana) Ye ’24 is a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital on the southwest side of Chicago. She served as an Interfaith Fellow at St. Olaf. Read her reflection below.

I’m from Taiwan, where discussing death is often considered taboo and is rarely addressed within my family. Growing up, I frequently recited a quote from the Analects: “How can one know death when one does not understand life?” Confucius encourages us to shift our focus from fearing death to considering how to live well. 

When I came to St. Olaf, I kept this idea in the back of my mind. After Covid, more young people have things to say about loss and grief.

I learned about the idea of a “death cafe,” which is an event that brings people together to have conversations about mortality. The idea is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their finite lives. It was something I was interested in doing as an Interfaith Fellow.

We invited people to these events, and typically 15 or 20 people came. They included students from philosophy, religion, chemistry, and biology — across all disciplines. 

At the beginning of these events, we asked participants to write about their emotions around the topic, and to write down any things they wanted to talk about. Then we put people into groups of five or six for conversations. It was truly a shared experience.

I see my life today, where I am a nurse, as interconnected with the work I did then. Nursing is a profession that is in touch with people’s phases of life, from newborns to end of life. We accompany people in their most vulnerable times. I think the death cafes have given me a greater capacity to accompany people going through different phases of life, to listen, and to empathize with people’s emotions.