October 25, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am waiting for Mr. Plastic Picker to finish a call. He’s staffing for his department this morning, and will be done in about 15 minutes. He said he’d go to the beach with me to talk while I pick up trash. The beach has been a healing place for me the last year, and I am always grateful when he agrees to go with me. I think he is healed next to the ocean as well.

This next Tuesday, I am excited to be presenting for the first time as an invited motivational speaker! The Sustainable Healthcare Project at the University of Virginia, who I met through Instagram, invited me to speak at their lunchtime series. The students even made a cool advertisement about the series.

I had promised the student founder that I would email her my presentation on Saturday, but things were busy yesterday. But I slept on it, and thoughts were working themselves out. This morning I sat down, and it come together pretty easily and I emailed it to her this morning. Above is the last few slides of the talk. It will be more of a discussion, and I actually want to hear more about the students’ passions and their lives. I was asked to talk about myself and Dr. Plastic Picker, but the reimagined me would actually rather hear more about them.

This blog has always been about me sorting out my thoughts, and helping me work through things to try to help the earth. I finished the presentation and it came out so quickly and easily, because I think I know myself fundamentally so much better. When you know your truth, it’s easy to tell your story. I won’t rehash things here, but if anyone wants to have me come talk and more listen to your group – let me know. I am trying to take my show on the road as it’s so healing to connect with other people. I do still have a demanding middle-management job so I probably can only do one engagement a month.

What I’m so grateful about is that I’m getting to live a bit of a dream deferred, that I never thought I would get to do. I’m a motivational speaker now! Just a quick Ecosia (not Google) search shows that the average motivational speaker charges 500 dollars, and a semi-celebrity charges $5000 !!! Isn’t that crazy??? This is one of the few reasons I can’t stand the Clintons (sorry folks) because Hilary Clinton raked in $22 million in speaking fees. Her celebrity is due to her time in public service, so shouldn’t she be doing it for less? It just doesn’t make sense to me. We pay politicians way too much and now big corporations are paying them “to speak” hundreds of thousands of dollars after they have no influence? That reeks of corruption.

Anyway. No corruption here! Just an excited pediatrician that will be talking to students who are going to change the world and save our earth. There was a fellow college student at Crimson University that right after graduation became a motivational speaker. That really always confused me. What had he done after just graduating from our cush university to deserve to be paid to speak? I don’t know. I’m sure it’s fine. But now after being a pediatrician for almost 20 years I have a lot to say and I’ll say it for free.

I think Mr. Plastic Picker is almost done staffing. He should be a motivational speaker after he finishes his middle management career. He’s actually really funny, but maybe I’ll keep his conversations just for myself. I guess we shouldn’t share everything. Much love from a grateful pediatrician this morning. Presentation for the University of Virginia students done! Going for a plalking walk and then to work on a local Tobacco bill so that there will be less cigarette butts to pick up.