Community Voices ⎸ Project Optimist staff plan for the end — and it feels good
Life goals: Complete health care directives, draft a will, and enroll in life insurance in 2025.
Visual Storyteller Erica Dischino and Executive Director Nora Hertel will share their journey in 2025 as they “get their affairs in order.” Both have landmark birthdays.
Nora turns 40 and feels behind on these tasks, but, well, adulting is hard. Erica turns 30 and participates to model that it’s really not so painful. They plan to end the year with advance directives (AKA health care directives), wills, and life insurance.
We have prizes for folks who join us on this journey. Email jen@projectoptimist.news if you’re up for it!
Follow along here for an update on their progress each month in 2025. And subscribe to the Project Optimist newsletter for stories about end-of-life planning and how it’s different for different communities and faith groups.
Project Optimist's End-of-Life series is supported by a grant from the Morgan Family Foundation.
January 28, 2025
We start this major adulting challenge
By Erica Dischino
Project Optimist
My newsfeed tends to highlight the latest trends in diet, exercise, and wellness routines whenever January comes around. The New Year often brings a flurry of hopeful intentions that eventually results in disappointment.
My resolution is a bit different for 2025. Instead of hoping for the best, I’m planning for the worst. And actually, I feel better because of it.
Currently, I’m establishing an advance directive with my husband, Mack. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ll move slowly and carefully.
The first step was to head to my local doctor’s office and ask for information.
Jen Zettel-Vandenhouten
I don’t know what motivates you, but going to the doctor’s office to pick up an advance directive information packet is definitely not something that gets me geared up.
I had to do three things to get myself there:
- Tell the Project Optimist team that I was going. I’m a woman of my word!
- Put a reminder on my calendar.
- Get a treat after. My treat was going to the nearby antique store.
Walking in the doctor’s, I felt a bit self-conscious. Am I too young to be doing this? Looking around the room, no one seemed to notice or care. The person at the front desk gave me a packet and voilà, I had done it.
Next up: discuss the information with Mack.
The best form of self-care is preparing yourself and loved ones for when things go wrong. Peace of mind is the greatest wellness hack. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.
One step down, more to go
By Nora Hertel
Project Optimist
I enter this project with a head start.
I have a legal version of my advance directive that I started and finished THIS MONTH. Proof that it doesn’t require a lot of time or effort.
I had a medical procedure in mid-January that required anesthesia, and the clinic requested my health care directive. I had the form from my doctor’s office. I filled it out over the course of a week. And then I got it notarized at City Hall. Bing, bang, boom.
But it’s not quite right.
Nora Hertel
I still need to research what happens when someone is on life support. I’m honestly not sure what I want in that situation. When I think of it, I get flashes of sensational TV news sequences about Terri Schiavo. Yes, I’m a child of the ‘90s, and the controversy around Schaivo’s life support stuck in my mind.
I also want to research more to decide if I’d like to donate my body to science.
Then I need to pluck up the courage to discuss all this with my closest family and friends.
My next steps: Research. Get new advance care directive forms for myself and my spouse, Ben. And discuss the document with him.
These blog posts were edited by Jen Zettel-Vandenhouten.