Michael Sheahan on the importance of discovering your ‘why’

Publish Date: Feb. 24, 2026

It took Michael Sheahan years to discover his “why.”

Sure, the future respiratory therapist (RT) turned Crafton Hills College professor excelled at test taking, but when it came to landing a job in the field, Sheahan was going nowhere.

“When I was first starting out, I thought it was just a job,” he explains. “But over the years, through the experiences I’ve had in hospitals and health care, it became so much more.”

Today, the program director and faculty co-chair of Crafton’s Respiratory Therapy program, speaks directly to his students about the importance of finding their why’s both in- and-outside of the classroom. This spring, he’s taking his message on the road with speaking engagements scheduled at the California and Missouri societies for respiratory care.

Respiratory therapy itself is a multi-faced job where RTs are trained to make strategic life-saving decisions quickly in both emergency and non-emergency settings. But it’s the connections an RT makes with a patient and their loved ones that can be the difference-making in one’s day or, in Sheahan’s case, a lifetime.

At 21, Shehan began to follow in his sister’s footsteps to become an RT. At the time, he was working in a warehouse but wanted to make more money, a motivation Sheahan didn’t hide from his classmates when asked why he wanted to become an RT.

“I had to be honest with them,” he said.

After graduation, Sheahan began applying for jobs and going on several interviews, but he wasn’t getting hired. Married and with a baby on the way, Sheahan was getting desperate but finally landed a gig in New Jersey, a turning point in his career.

“One night, I was called to an emergency c-section. I went upstairs [at the hospital] and completed my normal to-do list, but I wasn’t smart enough to understand what was really going on,” he explained. “When the baby was born, it was having issues with its breathing and had to be put on a ventilator. It only lived for eight hours after that, but through this whole experience is really when I realized that this wasn’t just a patient—it was a human being.

“It was right then and there that I realized how precious life truly is. These parents would only be able to hold their child for its first and last time, and I was ashamed I hadn’t realized the importance of this job before then,” Sheahan continued. “To have to watch these parents say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to their newborn, what I had been missing, and it was that ‘why,’ my reason for choosing this career—helping others on either their worst day or their best.”

Sheahan and the baby’s care team were invited to the child’s funeral. He used the opportunity to be there to support the family, a gesture that meant very much to them.

“I wanted the family to know what their experience meant to me,” he said. “A week later, they gave me a bookmark for my Bible with a picture of [their deceased baby] Tory, on it. That bookmark is my daily reminder of that valuable lesson Tory taught me. What we do is not just a job, these people are human beings, someone’s someone. That night was the night I discovered my ‘why.’”

Shehan wrote extensively about his experience in his book Beyond the Breath: Finding Passion in Respiratory Care, available now on Amazon. He also hosts the podcast, Let’s Get Ethical, where he and co-host Robert Fishwick explore ethical decision-making in the complex world of healthcare. He also most recently delivered a TEDx Talk—available via YouTube—where he shared the realities of working on the frontlines of life and death and how to navigate the ups and downs of working in the field.

Sheahan continues to share his message of hope, growth, and the impact of connections at speaking engagements on-and-off CHC’s campus, and has no plans of slowing down.

“I want everyone who goes into respiratory care to know that there is no magic formula to finding one’s why, but they must be open to the lesson,” he said.