(A winter sunset in my backyard.)
I have been home for six days and I really don’t think it’s hit me that I am not going back to campus for over three months. Well, maybe it hit me today since I just decided to unpack my boxes and bags, which has resulted into an avalanche in my living room. Nevertheless, I’m home in New Jersey trying to learn as much as I can about Brazil while also trying to learn Portuguese, spend time with my grandma who has been visiting from California since my brother’s graduation, make a mark on our garden (including a blueberry patch!), try to get back in some sort of shape, and so on. Before life gets any more chaotic, I thought it would be good to reflect on my sophomore year and recap my blogs from this past school year…
I should first say that if you are just finding this blog and want to read about my freshman year, check out my archived blog.
September 25th, 2008
Welcome
An introduction blog about Roxi and me and the idea of a shared blog.
October 5th, 2008
“Parade of Gold”
An entry about fall semester happenings including finding my first research assistant position, volunteering, and seeing Michael Phelps in the “Parade of Gold.”
October 18th, 2008
Caught in Academics
A blog entry about my fall semester courses (my favorite overall semester of classes): Population Health & Development, Environment & Your Health, Global Public Health Since WWII (my favorite class thus far at Hopkins), The City in Time and Space, and Environment & Society Towards Sustainability.
November 2nd, 2008
Staying Happy
I took a break from homework one night and decided to write this blog. This entry is simply about how to stay happy when it seems like you are just loaded in work. “… I have also learned that studying hard doesn’t go hand-and-hand with liking Hopkins. In fact, the times that I have been stressed out the most and trying my hardest not to fall asleep go hand-and-hand with the times that I wish I was back at home, in high school, only worried about doing a worksheet for math class due the next day. So what have I learned then? That even while I’m academically driven, I have also had to learn ways to keep myself optimistic and happy to be here.“
November 16th, 2008
Choices, Choices, Choices
Here I write about how many choices a student really does make in college (and how it is a useful skill) whether it’s picking classes, deciding what to do for the summer, or where to go abroad. “Although, I would love to live in the present in college, it’s definitely not always possible to do that. College is a fast and forward-moving four years. Last week, I discussed with my academic adviser intersession, next semester’s courses, summer, study abroad, and my future. This put things into perspective for me.“
November 29th, 2008
Hibernation
A quick update from me while home in New Jersey for Thanksgiving break
(parades, Gilmore Girls, sleep, and WALL-E, yay!) where I decide that much needed relaxing is more important than getting out the books while at home. “And, so, yes I told you that this blog would be short. But I hope that if you’re a prospective student you’re able to get something out of this. I’m one of those people who is known (and has always been known) to try to “do it all” aka overexert myself. However, no matter who you are, everyone needs a break sometimes. And I’m very thankful that I have this one.”
December 18th, 2008
Coping With Death While at Hopkins
This blog entry started off entitled “Coping With Family Emergencies While at Hopkins” and quickly turned into “Coping With Death…” On December 6th I talked to my mom (as I do on every Friday while at Hopkins) and was told that grandpa wasn’t doing very well. I took it from her tone that this was serious and literally cried the entire night. At one in the morning I called my aunt in California and said, “Can I visit today?” At 9 in the morning I called my dad, “I need a ticket to California.” And so with that, I took off to see my grandfather, my hero, for the last time. When he passed away, four days later, my mom called while I was in the library and said, “I’ll pick you up right now.” But I knew that Hopkins was the right place to be at until winter break. With no funeral and five finals in front of me, I had to decide for myself the best way to cope successfully. Read about it here.
December 31st, 2008
It’s beginning to feel a lot like SPRING SEMESTER!
It’s New Year’s Eve and what am I doing? Writing a blog, of course! This entry is about the reasons why I was excited for the next semester. I absolutely love the spring not just weather-wise, not just because of the choices I was excited to make, but because the Hopkins vibe just changes. “Most importantly, I am beyond excited for next semester. Today, I finally started to get motivated to finish my “leftover” work knowing that once I finish that I can start getting psyched about spring semester. I absolutely loved my spring semester last year. And with that I give you my top five reasons why I am looking forward to Spring Semester 2009.”
January 26th, 2009
A Twenty Minute Winter Break
This blog entry is about how it feels to have had a twenty minute winter break. Don’t worry prospective students, Hopkins actually gives you a five week winter break. However, because I had make up work to do (including a 20 page paper on Malthus), I was doing lots of work during intersession. Hey, at least I wasn’t studying for the MCAT. I ended up finishing my last final 20 minutes before my first class of spring semester. Even so, I did get to get some fun in during my break and overall was proud of myself for being able to start the semester fresh. “At lunch today I got asked, “How was your twenty minute winter break?” I laughed, but it actually feels great knowing that finals won’t be on the horizon for another three months.”
February 7th, 2009
Classes
An introduction to my spring semester courses: Epidemiology, Population/Community Ecology, Medical Sociology, Oral Presentations, and Sociology of Disability. Certainly a mix of classes to hear about. And if you know me, you know that creating a schedule doesn’t come easy.
February 22nd, 2009
An Unexpected Burst of Happiness
Suddenly I was happier than I was during Valentine’s Day weekend and happier than during my Birthday weekend. Why? Well find out by reading the blog, but I’ll give you a hint, “So why the happy weekend? It must have been a combination of my plead to a prospective student to “please not stress” and my words of advice to “just take care of yourself.” These words of advice formed a great weekend surrounded by friends and provided me with what I need to plow me through a week of five meetings, ten hours of research work, fifteen hours of classes, a paper, a presentation, a homework assignment, hundreds of pages of reading, a proposal deadline, and an environmental health day of awareness that I co-planned, and whatever else life has in store for me.”
March 12th, 2009
Why should graduate students be a part of undergraduate education?
Prospective students and their parents often ask if graduate students teach courses at Hopkins or if there are teaching assistants and if they are graduate students. (The answer is yes to both). Colleges without graduate students as part of undergraduate education oftentimes pride themselves and publicize this fact. As a prospective student, I simply thought that graduate students being a part of undergraduate education has got to be a “con.” However, now a current student I have learned that sometimes my best academic experiences have been because of the graduate students that have made my experience what it has been. Please, if you have any doubts about graduate students being part of an undergraduate’s education, then read this blog! :-D
March 22nd, 2009
CRIBS: Charles Commons 1016
I absolutely loved my room this past year. I loved the view, my roommate, my wall decorations, my bed, etc. Check out this blog entry to see video and pictures of my room.
April 5th, 2009
An Ode to Hopkins
I will admit that I frequently say how much I like Hopkins. In this blog I finally write about why this is. This entry is divided into two parts. One part about why I picked Hopkins and the other about what I have already gotten out of my Hopkins education from academics to extracurricular activities and beyond! “This is what Johns Hopkins University has done for me. Just imagine what it could do for you. I hope that by reading through our blogs you can see that we all picked Hopkins for different reasons and have all gotten different positive experiences out of the University. Sure, many of you reading this are not interested in public health (although rumor has it that many of you are since we are expected to become the largest major on campus), but many of you can get involved in research in whatever field you are interested in. And that begins me to my last point..I am often asked what is it about Hopkins that makes you love it so much? And the answer is that I simply love looking around campus and seeing how diverse the student body is.”
April 19th, 2009
Bacana
A note to Roxi updating her on the happenings in my life, after she wrote a hilarious note to me about the happenings in her life in Chile. “As you can see spring at Hopkins is eventful and the weather here is absolutely gorgeous as well. And although I am not adventuring in Chile and watching first-hand Roxi’s entertaining actions, I honestly am happy to be a Hopkins student and really can’t believe that I am less than a month away from home sweet home.”
May 3rd, 2009
A Quick Hello
A quick post about the end of my spring semester before the dreaded finals period. I was even able to get in a flight to see my brother graduate college and well of course go to Spring Fair. He has since done the “impossible” and got a job with Merrill Lynch. “It really is beginning to feel like the end of the semester here (I’m sorry for the high schoolers reading this who feel like they’re still stuck in the middle of things).”
And that, my friends, is a wrap! I hope you enjoyed following me throughout my sophomore year (and will continue to follow me this summer and throughout my junior year). I promise it to be exciting. I will be posting one blog each month this summer (I leave for Brazil on June 2nd for two months), so stay tuned! And I’m already looking forward to meeting the class of 2013 (and those future SAABers) this fall.
And, of course, Congratulations to the Hopkins Class of 2009 (and especially the senior SAABers), we’ll miss you!
