Bahama Momma

Took all these during my first trip to the Bahamas pre-college. 

Summer is right around the corner; I can practically taste it's sweet freedom! And freedom it is as this semester has been the busiest yet. My summer plans are awesome but are definitely very different from what I had imagined. I'd pictured something more along the lines of a traditional 9-5 internship here in Hot-lanta, but life has a way of bringing awesome opportunities. Instead, I have been lucky enough to receive a research grant to go to the Bahamas!

I will be living on the island of Eleuthera for 6 weeks with 2 other grad students while we conduct a hybrid needs assessment/program evaluation for the cancer society on the island. The organization just recently hired an outreach coordinator, who has a big job to do and isn't get paid a whole lot to do it, so our team is going to assess what are the biggest needs of the community in order to help craft a plan for the outreach coordinator to be able to do the best job possible. Again, coming into grad school I had never imagined that I'd get the opportunity to travel abroad. I hadn't even bothered to go to the research abroad information fair they had held in the fall because I didn't think it was something I really wanted to do, but after hearing that they pay you to go and do research that's actually applicable to what I'm learning, my interest was piqued. And the rest is history. So yes, I'm not getting paid to do this, but how often in life do you get to go on an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas for 6 weeks? That's my reasoning, and I'm so pumped I decided to take this opportunity. 

Post-trip I will be back in the ATL, synthesizing our project into something that will hopefully be publishable. I will also be helping this Emory emergency medicine doctor write up the results for this project he's doing in Ghana, assessing barriers to accessing EMS services (I'll actually be pilot testing this survey in Atlanta in the next couple weeks so be ready to volunteer to sit down with me). I will also hopefully be getting to continue to work at my CDC communications job; I sat my supervisor down and basically told him how much I loved working there and that I'd love to continue, even if it's unpaid (lets face it, I'd do anything for free at the CDC). My library job that I'll also be continuing to do over the summer provides me with some monetary cushioning. Yes, I have my fingers in a lot of different pies, but it's prime-time here for working my ass off to make connections and expose myself to as many opportunities as possible.

Let's go summer!!! 

My first and only encounter with a shark was in the Bahamas while we were kayaking.

I wouldn't mind seeing one again, as along as my leg wasn't in its mouth!

NeVer ForgeT

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Today's a day of remembrance for the 32 students and faculty who lost their lives at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Today we are all Hokies.

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Underrated parts of being single

Oh sweet lord I am addicted to buzzfeed. Not sorry. So they have this list of the 24 most underrated parts of being single, which you can/should/will read here. Here are my additions:

Thanks B via

25. You don't have to shave if you don't want to

26. You save a lot of money/hassle/headaches during the holidays because that's one less person you need to buy gifts for

27. You do what you want, when you want, with who you want

28. No compromises on what movies/tv shows you are going to watch

29. You get the remote all to your self

30. You don't have to share your food (that pint of Ben & Jerrys? all mine!)

31. (to expand upon the not having to share the covers) Being able to sleep in the middle of the bed, or diagonal

32. Not having to act like you like their friends or siblings

33. No awkward meet the parents interactions

34. You can talk to anyone you want to

Mean Girls Lives On?

Who knew that mean girls still existed? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people out there who totally suck, but apparently the catty, pettiness of it all doesn't end with high school. I was reminded of this fact over the weekend.

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Picture this: I'm being all nice and mingly at the giant Emory grad school mixer over the weekend. I happen to be talking to several fellows in the business school (one of whom is this beautiful Cypriot man who is so gorgeous I have trouble making eye contact with him) and we all seem to hit it off, so when it's time to leave beautiful Cypriot man asks for my number (yes I died a little) in case we decide to go to this bar they plan to hit up. Of course we do, but as soon as I get there, while hottie pottati is getting me a drink, this chick sidles up to me and starts warning me about "those business school guys."

Mind you, I have never seen nor spoken to this girl before tonight; though apparently she also is a first year public health student. Biddy proceeds to tell me how business school guys are really nice but be careful, they are players who will screw you over. I play along, nodding my head, looking appropriately serious/concerned, and even throw in the ole "thanks for warning me, I will definitely keep that in mind." But all the while I'm thinking "who the hell are you to be telling me this?!" Gut feeling tells me that she isn't doing this out of the concern of her heart, no no no, I think this chick is feeling threatened by little ole me (as well she should be, I'm quite the charmer). But seriously, who does that?! Starts warning a complete stranger about the player status of some guys; girlfrien, you don't know me. I would never deliberately flirt with someone's boyfriend or "steal" the attention from a guy someone was interested in, but I knew these guys were single. Are single? Will mingle!

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I was rather taken aback by the whole situation (I will also mull over any nugget of drama in my essentially bland academic life). Basically I was transported back to high school (or maybe middle school) this weekend, all sparked by the pettiness of some jealous chick. Amazing. So there you go, a little grad school drama for your week!

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Take it easy

Ironically this comes on the heels of my post about all the awesome jobs and things I've been up to. But I will be the first to admit to you that I've probably bitten off way more than I can chew. It's a 1 month sprint to summer so I can make it, but the days are long and free time is a thing of the past. That being said, I did cave today and emailed my unpaid gig to say I wasn't coming in so that I could take a nap (I did keep the whole, I'm going to nap part to myself).

When you are so tired that you just want to cry...well that's no good at all so it was time for a mini personal day. I do feel semi-bad, but the thing to remember (that we all should remember) is that even if you are busy, you need to take care of #1 (aka you!) first and foremost. Take those breaks a little at a time otherwise you are headed down the one way street to breakdownville, and ain't nobody got time for an emotional crumbling these days.

Yes, thank you. via the chive

Interestingly enough, I've heard this is why the public health school here throws us keggers once a month. Based on a legit public health needs assessment they had found that public health masters students work the hardest out of all the grad students; compared to our law and even med school peers, we party the least and are generally more concerned about others than we are ourselves. So in order to get us to loosen up a bit and not have emotional/physical breakdowns from all the stress, they throw us these keggers as a way to get us to be social and blow off some steam with our peers. Blow off steam I will, as Emory is having a school-wide beer and wine fest at the local park tomorrow. Mingling, men (!!!-- I'm sorry but I feel like I essentially go to an all girls school and am dying), and... it'd be cool if I could say martinis or mojitos just to keep with the m thing I had going on but it's just beer and wine. Good enough for me! I'm just going to try and not think about the fact that I have to be up at 8:30 am the next morning....