Personal Blog

Welcome back to my blog! It once again has been a while since I’ve updated, but I am trying to stay consistent with it. In the past few months, I have gotten into rock climbing, started a podcast, and also ran a half marathon. I also went to three concerts since I have started work…

Today, I finally started my new role at the Durham VA Medical Center as a biostatistician. I have been looking forward to starting for so long! In my last blog post, I highlighted what the onboarding process was like; however, I left out most of the goal setting and career brainstorming I did over the last five months. I often find myself motivated by setting actionable goals by specific deadlines. It helps me brainstorm what I value and how I can achieve that end result in a sustainable, path-of-least-resistance way.

I will admit, it has been a while since I have updated my blog. However, it’s for good reason- I moved to Durham, began a part-time babysitting job, and also have been undergoing the paperwork process for the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Since my full time role will be based in Durham and I am assigned to be full in-office for the first 90 days, I decided early on that it was important for me to move close to work. I am not a fan of driving, and in an ideal world, would like less than a 15 minute commute to work. Therefoe, I reached out to my former classmate at UNC that I stayed in touch with about living together. While she and I both studied biostatistics at UNC, I chose a more applied path at NCSU while she chose a more rigorous, math-heavy path at Duke. She’s currently a second-year master’s candidate at Duke’s M.S. in Biostatistics program. The timing was impeccable for a one year lease in Durham.

During my first week in the program, the question I received the most was: “What made you want to come to the Institute?” Although my answer is complex, most often, I would respond that I studied biostatistics at UNC for my undergraduate studies – as if this was an explanation for pursuing graduate school. In this post, I reflect on my monumental experiences in undergrad by exploring my gradual realization of why I needed a master’s degree and discussing why I chose data analytics.

A Conclusion. (One Year Later)

“I feel like the past month has just been planning for the end, yet, it’s all the start for a new beginning.”- a quote by me from my journal.

Looking back, April is tied with July as my happiest month abroad. SO much happened this month, and in the back of mind I knew I only had three more months left until it was time to go home. I suppose I mentally started wrapping up my year way too early, but with my friends in college finishing up and with warmer weather on the horizon, it felt like it was almost summer. But, I was still happy to be in school and learning a lot in classes.

After taking a four month pause from my blog to concentrate on my first semester of college, I’ve realized I need to finish recounting this journey. So much in China occurred that has shaped my life back in the US. I can’t even begin to explain the amount of influence this gap year has had on my mindset, on my interactions with other people, and the mentality that I can now take with me in my everyday activities. Reflecting on my school life at UNC, I’ve come to understand that I need to wrap this blog up for me, for closure.

A Dedication to My Cat, Tootsie Roll

January was a really, really good month and every one of my days, for the most part, were different.

As I return to the inside my grandparent’s lake house in Michigan from a nice summer boat ride, I began to think, how can so much beauty be in such familiar things? Actually, my first thought was the common saying, “beauty is in the simple things”. However, if I think back to December, I know that beauty is not always in the SIMPLE things, because simple things can be foreign, too…

November in the United States is a special month; it is a month of being thankful, rejoicing with family, and being glad you survived almost another year. For me, however, November was one of the hardest months being abroad. Perhaps it was the hazardous pollution that reached into the 200’s (where anything above 100 is technically unsafe), or maybe it was still a matter of an adaptation period. After all, it is only Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving, so being around non-Americans celebrating different holidays abroad was quite weird at first.

Looking back to October, I’d have to say my second month abroad included a whole lot of mixed feelings. Unfortunately, when we go abroad, we not only pack up our suitcases, memories, and belongings, but we also bring our expectations with us.

Since I’ve returned home, life’s kept me moving. I came back to an untouched bedroom, an ever-busy and hectic schedule with my dad, a similar lifestyle at my mom’s, and the same high school friends doing the same exact things around town. However, over the last few days, I’ve felt like I need to recapture my experience abroad: to reflect, to think, and to improve from my experiences. So my first real blog post here is about my Month 1: September.

I’m sitting on a bench. Crying. Not because my legs are full of mosquito bites, not because I have to wait for my friend to finish her project and meet me, and not because I’m sweaty from hiking.