Cecilia Minick loved working at Top Down Initiatives of Hazel Park, Michigan. But she never quite fit in.
“I was an Accounts Receivable Clerk living in an Accounts Payable Clerk’s body,” says Minick. “I’d given up on ever being happy, because I couldn’t be myself. “
Minick knew something was wrong, right from the start of her career. “Here I was issuing payments in the millions,” she says, “yet all the time I kept wondering, ‘What are we receiving?’”
Over the years those thoughts grew so overpowering that Minick began to fear she’d go
completely out of her mind – or, worse yet, misplace a decimal.
Then, in October 2013, she heard about Occupation Reassignment Surgery. Pioneered in 2009 by Dr. Lena Moriarty of Johns Hopkins University, the surgery has been 90 percent successful, with results usually depending on the complexity of the procedure.
“Changing from a short order cook to a sous chef can be done on an outpatient basis,” says Dr. Moriarty. “Changing from a car mechanic to a taxidermist might require a few days in the hospital, plus follow-up.”
Before being approved for the surgery, candidates must first live for six months in their new occupation, something Minick is doing now at a different initiatives firm. She’s hoping to return to her old firm after surgery.
Meanwhile, she has never been happier. “Watching the money roll in,” she says, “brings me joy I never dreamed was possible.”
