My First Week at my Internship

1. The bike ride was supposed to be a challenge, but it’s the first time I’ve ever done something like that regularly. I go at least four miles each way, and I’ve been doing more lately because I have to go other places, like the grocery store and bookstore, and my legs have been feeling it. Waking up at 6:30 a.m. to bike 30 minutes uphill isn’t exactly the greatest experience either. Especially if it starts raining.

2. The work they do here at Spring Harbor Hospital is amazing. It’s a psychiatric hospital, but it’s very specialized. It only admits patients that are both developmentally disabled and have some other condition, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.* Usually, they are admitted because of aggression, self-injury or property destruction. With such difficult patients to work with, the people at SHH manage to be extremely effective. They have a 75 percent success rate, and the change that the patients go through is nothing short of incredible. They go from high rates of aggression and self-injury to virtually none within something like two months.

3. This is the kind of work I want to do and these are the kind of people that I want to be, at least with respect to programs for developmentally disabled children. I went on rounds today, and when I saw my supervisor talk to the patients, I realized that I was working with one of the best in the country at what he does. I’ve been around my fair share of autistic and developmentally disabled people, and I could see right away that I had never before seen someone work so naturally and so well with a developmentally disabled person.

4. There are only around eight or so hospitals that are this specialized, and there is a need for more. What’s more is, I can see myself doing something like this. Does that mean I’ll actually become pre-med and go for it? I don’t know yet. I could still just start a program separately or pursue a non-medical course of action. I would be fine with OT as well. Or maybe I’ll just stick with becoming a teacher or professor. Who knows what the future holds?

Maybe I just really want to do this right now because I’m experiencing it right now. Maybe I’ll change my mind later. We’ll see. But it’s inspirational nonetheless.

One Day, One Room

Dr. Gregory House: They're out there, doctors, lawyers, postal workers, some of them doing great, some of them doing lousy. Are you going to base your whole life on who you got stuck in a room with?

Eve: I'm going to base this moment on who I'm stuck in a room with. It's what life is. It's a series of rooms and who we get stuck in those rooms with adds up to what our lives are.

- from House M.D.


Last year, I went to Korea in the middle of summer for a program to improve my Korean. Before I left, I considered what would happen in terms of the people I would meet. I thought to myself that, in all likelihood, I would meet new people, make new friends, hang out with them for six weeks, then ... most likely not meet them again. I mean, it's Korea I'm going to. What would be the chances of meeting someone I met at the program again? The chances of keeping in touch with them?

Of course, the answer to the latter question is now pretty obvious because I met someone from Amherst class of 2012 there. But the other is still compelling. I'm still facebook friends with the people I did meet in Korea, but we don't talk much. Josh comments on these things once in a while, but that's the extent of it.

But, before I went to Korea, it didn't bother me that it wasn't likely that I wouldn't really keep in touch with any of them. Now, that doesn't mean I don't want to hang out with them or anything. It just means that the temporary nature of it wouldn't take anything away from it. Just because we would hang out together just for the summer and then be scattered didn't mean we couldn't be as close or that it would take anything away from the time we had together. In life, we run into people all time. Some people we see our entire lives, others, only for one day or even one minute. But, during that minute, that person can be a big part of our lives.

I'm thinking about this once again because I'm about to go to an internship in Portland, Maine as a research assistant for an autism and developmental disabilities program at a hospital. And though I think I am the only intern for my supervisor, I am bound to meet other volunteers or interns there. I mean, there have to be pre-med kids, right?

What will happen then? Will I make friends with them like I did in Korea? Will I keep in touch with them if I do? What will happen after we all leave?

Maybe the right question is, does it matter? Because I'll just do the same as I've always done and be the same person that I always am. I am not going to act differently just because it's a ten-week internship rather than a career path. I'm going to be stuck in a (figurative) room with other interns for the ten weeks that I'm there. In those moments, that's what my life will be. And that's what I'll base what I do on.

And then, I'll go on to the next room. And the next. And the next.

Blogs

Man, does anyone even follow this? At the rate I update, I doubt anyone does. And I've basically moved to the whole weekly facebook note by now, I guess.

Geology - The Study of Pressure over Time

It's time to get busy living.

The Semester

It's not looking too good in terms of free time for me.

After Korea

I lost a good amount of weight.

Goodbyes

xkcd.com/270