Caught in Between

The beginning of last week was beyond stressful. I had two summer applications due, one of which involved 8 pages of essays, and had meetings with professors in order to develop a research proposal that is due this Friday. On top of this, I had three presentations all of which ended up having technical difficulties–in the one for my oral presentations class, none of the pictures showed up and I had to just “go with it.” I’m beginning to believe that when it comes to presentations, we should all just ditch technology. There were long nights in the library and all I could think about was, “I hope this pays off.” And in a month we’ll know if it did.

On Friday, after watching the lacrosse team win, I called my mother for our weekly phone conversation. And we said the usual, “How are you?” to each other. I couldn’t help but say, “My week has been stressful, I had horrible presentations, I just feel “off”, and grandma in Mexico (on dad’s side) isn’t doing well.” And she simply said, “Just keep taking care of yourself…” After I hung up the phone, I couldn’t help but think about what “taking care of yourself” really means. I didn’t feel exhausted and I didn’t feel sick. However, I was mentally exhausted and the only treatment I could think of was happiness…

And this weekend I couldn’t be happier! Happier than Valentine’s Day weekend, happier than my birthday weekend…I have decided to just simply enjoy myself and treat myself to hanging out with friends. This shouldn’t have to be a “treat,” but it would seem that I am one to get caught up in school work and forget about how great it is to be surrounded with friends. I realized that I simply needed a good weekend. But, how could I possibly find “cheer” so quickly. I think I have a theory…

So, I eventually stopped this endless list of questions and went on a tangent. I told the student not to stress. To be happy simply knowing that she will have the chance of going to college. And I told her that although I love Hopkins and have reason to believe that Hopkins has added benefits that I wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, I also know that I would be happy at any of my top choices. There were few schools where I said, “This is absolutely not the place for me.” And rest assured for her and her father, I know that she too will love where ever she too ends up. However, I later realized that this was hypocritical of me.

PS I introduced myself to a freshman guy this weekend and said “Hi, I am Jessica” and he said, “Jessica…as in Facebook Jessica?” And then he went to his friend saying, “Do you know who that is?” And he said, “Jessica” And the guy said, “Not just any Jessica, Facebook Jessica, the girl that helped me out so much over the summer…” This made my weekend.

…and I love it.

So Saturday was my MCAT and I’ve been celebrating/living my life ever since. And what, exactly, have I been up to you may ask?

I know, maybe not everyone’s idea of relaxation, but I’m in a program called ProjectHEALTH and part of the program is taking responsibility for your clients, and seeing as I’m leaving the country, I wanted to make sure that mine were in good hands before I left.

So what is ProjectHEALTH? Basically it’s an organization manned by college students who want to help low income families provide for their children. What we do is help those families with the socioeconomic factors that would normally harm the health of their children and get them in touch with the public services they qualify for.

So what exactly is a socioeconomic factor? Well, what about having adequate food for a  growing child? Maybe the parent is unemployed (lets face it, college graduates have trouble finding jobs, what if all you had was a high school diploma or less?, and on top of that you having to provide for yourself and your kids?), there are programs like WIC (Women, Infants, and Children that provides vouchers to pregnant women and mothers with children under 5 for them to buy the kinds of food important to growing kids like eggs, milk, and bread) or Food Stamps. We have databases with local food pantries and we help clients find places close to them if they don’t have transportation.

And there are plenty of other resources we help clients get in touch with. I’ve helped clients fill out the paperwork to get everything from Birth Certificates to passports, energy assistance to…well, you name it.

ProjectHEALTH Website

Check out the website but do be forewarned: it’s a huge commitment. This isn’t one of those show-up-once-a-week-and-you’re-done kind of organizations. Part of what we do is weekly followups with the families we’re helping on top of physically being at the clinic for 2 hours a week.

Truth be told, ProjectHEALTH has probably been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done at Hopkins thus far. The Homewood campus is really an oasis, and undergraduates are pretty effectively sheltered from the realities that face the greater Baltimorean population. Having to provide for yourself and a child at age 19 isn’t exactly the kind of situation your typical Hopkins student has experience with, but I can’t recall a single visit to the clinic where I didn’t see teen moms younger than I am and I still can’t imagine being in their shoes.

In other news, my final days in Baltimore were sad and exciting at the same time. I made a trip down to Washington D.C. to get my student visa to study in Chile (and ran into the Johns Hopkins SAIS campus, small world, eh?) finally made it out to Fort McHenry like I’ve wanted to the last couple of years, and threw an alien themed birthday party for a really good friend. I’ll miss you Baltimore…but the countdown to Chile has begun!

So, it’s the day before my birthday, but I am basically treating the whole weekend like it’s my birthday (well at least trying to)…which means catching up with friends, going out to dinner, and just plain relaxing. So, I thought I would write a quick post about my classes this semester. I had an annoying first week of classes where I must have sat in 9,843 classes (ok, well not that many, but still, I sat in a lot of classes). After meeting with my adviser on that Friday, we finally decided on a schedule.

There are two types of students at Hopkins: those that spend a good week revising their schedule and those that just go with the schedule that they made to begin with. For me, it definitely takes me a while to develop my schedule. For me, it’s especially hard since my major is flexible in terms of requirements and my major, because it is so interdisciplinary, doesn’t have distribution requirements, and I’m ahead in terms of major requirements. In addition, I have to find chunks of time free in my schedule to go to the School of Public Health to work. And lastly, there are some classes that I simply just really want to take–like Modern Japan this semester–which unfortunately I decided wasn’t worth the headaches of trying to fit it into my schedule.

Anyway, to make this blog on the shorter side. Let me tell you what classes I finally decided to take. I know this is a stereotypical blog to have. But honestly, I think it’s interesting to find out what classes people take and what people are learning about. Plus, I think it says a lot about Hopkins to find out what classes people are taking. Someone who reads the blogs on Hopkins Interactive can find out the variety of courses offered by Hopkins.

–Medical Sociology: I start my week with this class, which is actually nut until 1:30 (meaning I can work on Monday mornings). When I walked into the class on the first day, I knew I was going to stay enrolled in it. The course introduces students to medical sociology, basically the application of the sociological perspective to health and medical care. Major topics include stress, social epidemiology and organization. I was happy to see so many pre-meds in this class. This seems like a weird opinion to have, but often people, especially medical professionals, see illness and death simply as a result of biology. Next week, I will present with two other peers in my section on how Something’s Gotta Give relates to medical sociology.

–Sociology of Disability: I didn’t know if I would fall in love with this class or not. I originally thought I would be dropping this course–it’s a writing intensive course and not necessarily something I thought I would find relevant to my interests. However, on the first day of class, the teacher said “This is going to by your second favorite course. And I say second favorite, because everyone already has their first.” How could I turn that down?! Plus, the first week of class presented disability in an international context, something that I had not expected. Lastly, I quickly realized how confusing disability actually is. Is obesity a disability? What about pregnancy? And should disability be defined as a problem resulting from a poor environment? These are just some of the questions we have already faced and I’m excited to find out what next year’s classes will have us discussing!

–Population/Community Ecology: This class is actually cross-listed with public health. Surprised? I quickly realized that understanding how animals interact with the environment is extremely important. Understanding why animals are distributed the way that they are can tell us a lot about our environment and the influence that the humans have on it. The best part of this class may be the two full-day Saturday fieldtrips. One of which involves hiking and canoeing! Sure, I was a little disappointed that they happen to land on TWO home lacrosse games, but still, learning outside of the classroom is going to be a lot of fun.

–Epidemiology: This class is one of core public health classes that both natural sciences and social sciences public health majors have to take. However, it is meant for just juniors and seniors. Since, I have taken all the other core classes and am planning to study abroad and graduate a semester early, this was the ideal time for me to take this class, especially since it is only offered in the spring. I am super excited to take this class. I don’t necessarily think the material is going to come easy, but I know that it’s going to be rewarding. Epidemiology is the science behind pubic health–ever wonder who is behind tracking down the peanut butter scandal? Epidemiologists!

–Oral Presentation: My last course I am taking not for my major, but for myself. This is actually the first graded course I am taking that will not count for my major. And it actually may be my hardest class, even though it’s my 100-level course. Presentation skills are something that I have lost when coming to college. I have become more nervous before and during presentations. Although not relevant to my major, this will probably will be the most relevant to life. Everyone needs presentation skills. For this class I will have a different type of presentation every week (from interviews to technical presentations). The class is filled with people who are actually less nervous when it comes to presenting, but I decided to stay in the class because I know in the long wrong everything I learn in the course is going to be valuable.

So, that’s my schedule! Once again, it’s another well-rounded schedule which took me a week to craft. But, I’m excited for it…and that definitely means it’s a good schedule!