These 5 Long Islanders embraced career pivots

Some people look back with regret at the road not taken. Others get a second chance and are bold enough to take it.

Daniel H. Pink, author of “The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward,” published in 2002, said those who take a chance may fare better than those who wonder ‘what if?’

“People in their 20s tend to have an equal number of regrets of actions and inactions,” Pink said. “But as individuals age, the inaction regrets take over.”

These five Long Islanders all came to a fork in the road at some point in their careers and made sharp turns. Here, they reflect on venturing from their initial path and exploring something completely different.

From acting to social work

Bay Shore resident Terri Muuss, 55, believes that leaving the bright lights of show business for a career in social work has enabled her to be an involved parent. Muuss, who is married, has a daughter, 29, and two sons, 19 and 16.

As an actor, “you’re always on the road — when you’re touring in a play or on location when you’re filming — and I would not trade my children and my life,” said Muuss, a social worker since 2001 and, for more than 12 years, a school social worker.

During her acting career, Muuss, who has a BA in theater from Kean University in New Jersey and trained at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, said she performed in Off-Off Broadway productions, regional touring companies and Ireland’s West End. She had also done voiceover work for Japanese animation and commercials.

While teaching theater to supplement her income between acting parts, she decided to pursue a social work degree simply to provide her students with the emotional support they sought from her.

“I wasn’t qualified to help them with the issues they shared with me, and it made me want to go back to school,” said Muuss, who earned an master’s degree in social work from Hunter College School in Manhattan. “I got an amazing education, and that pivoted my life.”

Still, the acting bug hasn’t entirely left Muuss. Since 1998, she has periodically performed her one-woman autobiographical show, “Anatomy of a Doll,” in theaters and at conferences and universities.

“I think it’s human nature to look back and think ‘what if,’ but it’s foolhardy because every person’s life has a trajectory and makes an impact,” said Muuss. “And if we’re driving a car and just keep looking in the mirror, we’ll crash, so we need to look forward.”

The doctor becomes a developer

Oyster Bay Cove resident Robert Miller, 70, had enjoyed his medical training, but he said he has had no second thoughts about leaving the practice of medicine permanently for his family’s real estate management and development firm.

Miller said that he initially thought his entry into real estate would be temporary.

In 1984, after receiving his medical degree, as well as completing a three-year specialized training program in family medicine, Miller said he joined a Plainview practice, which consisted of two older doctors who were partners.

The following year, they invited Miller to buy into the firm and become a partner. But the principals required him to shoulder what he considered “scut work,” which often meant waking up in the middle of the night to handle hospital admissions for patients from Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.

“I was working my tail off, and I was underappreciated,” said Miller. “I started looking elsewhere for a job.”

During Miller’s employment search, his father suggested he work at the family business as an interim measure.

“I found the quality of my life in my new job much better, and it gave me the personal freedom to run things as well as I possibly could,” said Miller, who is married and has a son, 41, a daughter, 36, and a grandchild.

Last year, Miller retired as partner, financial manager and head of construction for the firm. About four years ago, apart from the family business’ projects, he and his son began pursuing developments together, including a five-story, five-unit condominium in Greenwood, Brooklyn; units go on the market next month.

Miller, who said he has maintained his medical license, noted that he keeps up with his medical journal subscriptions and likes helping his friends by researching “in detail” their health issues to respond to their concerns.

From ‘Seinfeld’ to Sands Point

Jeremiah Bosgang said he would not have believed it if anyone had told his younger self, “When you get to be in your 60s, you’ll be working in public service and nonprofit.”

But, Bosgang, 63, the executive director of the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy since 2022, is passionate about his job. “I love the impact I’m having on the community,” said the Malverne native, whose organization offers health, wellness, special events and adults’ and children’s programs.

Back in 1982 and for decades after, Bosgang, who is married and has two sons, 27 and 23, only wanted to write and perform comedy. Achieving that goal was sometimes elusive, and in the ensuing years he experienced some breaks, but also disappointments and detours.

During a year off from college, he entered the comedy world with an internship that turned into a production assistant gig for “Late Night With David Letterman.” But after graduating from the University of Chicago, he had no luck getting a permanent job with Letterman.

He wrote for Fox’s “In Living Color” and created, produced and directed an autobiographical indie film, “Good Money,” according to his credits on IMDB.com.

Bosgang veered to network executive posts.

He worked for NBC on developing “Seinfeld” and once auditioned to play an NBC executive named Jeremiah Bosgang on an episode of the sitcom, but he did not get the part, according to an anecdote recounted in the book “Seinfeldia” by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.

His tenure as executive vice president for Howard Stern’s Los Angeles-based production company ended after Bosgang’s mother became ill and he and his wife wanted their younger son to know their extended family back East.

About 13 years ago, Bosgang leaned on his show business experience and joined the Sands Point Conservancy as film and television production manager, overseeing all media production at the 200-plus acre facility. Two years later he sold his Sands Point ranch and his family moved into a rental apartment on the preserve, where they still live.

These days, Bosgang has his sights on becoming mayor of the Village of Sands Point, a position that would allow him to retain his Conservancy post. He faces incumbent Peter Forman in the June election.

“At some point, you have to get on with your life and be open to opportunities when a new opportunity presents itself,” Bosgang said. “I look back gratefully on all the good fortune I have experienced.”

Police officer wears a different uniform

When Billy Polanco retired from the New York Police Department, he steered clear of jobs in security, a sector where many of his retired colleagues work. Instead, he ventured into nursing.

“I was tired of telling people what to do and being the enforcer,” said the former Marine and 26-year NYPD veteran. He had joined as a police officer and retired as highway sergeant, a supervisory position he held for 13 years.

During his law-enforcement years, he had seen individuals at their worst, but Polanco, 54, said he still liked people and sought to “make a difference in a different manner.” Plus, he said, if he, his wife and two teen daughters ever wanted to move closer to family in Michigan or Texas, he would have other transferable skills for employment.

About 18 months before retiring, the Rockaway, Queens, resident started taking courses at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn to meet the requirements for its nursing program. Four years ago, he earned an associate of science degree in nursing and by 2023, he received his BS in nursing from the online Aspen University. Upon completion, Polanco joined Northwell’s yearlong RN Fellowship Program, which entailed on-the-job training under a nurse educator’s guidance in the operating rooms of Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital.

Since then, as an operating room “circulator,” Polanco verifies patients’ medical information and the completion of all relevant documents before they head into surgery. He also ensures the operating room’s sustained sterility.

“I like making the connection with patients prior to surgery,” said Polanco, “and helping ease some anxiety and uncertainty about what’s going to happen.”

Photo bug catches up with educator

Carlton Brown said working as a school principal for more than 30 years, and before that a counselor and school social worker, supported his long-held desire to keep young people on the “straight and narrow.”

Now, set to retire in July from a Long Island public school, Brown, 73, said he occasionally thinks about another livelihood that would have enabled him to merge two of his passions, photography and social activism.

Brown said he did not see photography as a viable way to support himself financially when he was younger so he did not pursue it as a career.

“I let it fall by the wayside, but it never left me,” he said.

In 1974, the Detroit native got a taste of that calling when he submitted his photos of anti-apartheid protests to different outlets that ran his work, including the Black World newspaper at Stony Brook University, where he was a student, and the African Liberation Support Committee paper.

“Photography captures the moments frozen in time, and I enjoyed that,” said Brown, who said he had been a photographer on the student newspaper at Stony Brook University, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After college, he occasionally worked a side hustle as a wedding photographer.

Around 2010, some of Brown’s travel photos, which he had entered in photography shows, began to generate sales, and now he intends to make photography a main pastime in his retirement.

He said he plans to photograph different cultures and scenes in his future travels, as well as political demonstrations.

“With the wave of activism going on now, I’m looking to photograph people protesting to document the changing political landscape,” Brown said.