09 September, 2012

Throughout my week I think of many titles and then forget them.



In the words of my genius quote worthy cousin, "Life."

Her eyes veer straight ahead,
the winking breeze tells her 
to run the river.

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Lately I've been writing sad posts littered with confusion and a dazed tone highlighted by run-on sentences. How unfortunate. I was told by who knows what that knowledge is invaluable and something that cannot be taken away from you. Shared knowledge is even more valuable and as I pursue my studies I'm actually very excited for the challenge. I feel that I am at a very lucky stage in my life. I'm smart, remotely pretty, young, and well-traveled. Yeah, I'm insecure and have way too many fears to count but at the same time I have a strong sense of self and generally have my shit together for the most part. I'm creative and observant. The first adjective I know, the second one I learned while in Vietnam. I wonder what the next adjective will be. Three is nice.

On another note, I'm going to share my graduate school application process with you because it's a scary one and you know quiet frankly these grad school forums that I've been frantically reading are not so human. So here's to being human. Right now I am asking for letter of recommendations. It is like asking a boy or girl out on a date when you are not sure whether they will say yes or not. Seeing that I've never actually asked a boy out on a date - this process is shit scary and getting rejected is not fun. I've narrowed it down to four programs which excite me:


·      John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
MPH – Health in Crisis and Humanitarian Assistance 

·      Harvard University School of Public Health
SM Global Health and Population 

·      Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
MPH Population and Family Health – Global Health Certificate 

·      Emory Rollins School of Public Health
MPH Global Health - Reproductive Health and Population Studies Concentration 

It's taken me hours of research and well over a year to narrow it down to these four. More so it took me hours of stress and mentally getting ready to choose programs. I don't want to go to any other school. I've also looked at the University of Washington in Seattle and George Washington University in D.C. but those don't have the type of global perspective that I'm looking for. I also considered UC Berkeley and UCLA but again those programs aren't strong in global health.

If this doesn't pan out - then I'll just find the next mountain to climb or perhaps purchase a one way ticket to somewhere.

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Ridiculous situations call for ridiculous solutions.

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I really love Sunday comic strips. I nostalgically recall flipping through all musty grey pages dotted with colored boxes and experiences that I had yet to have. I knew what each one centered around although I don't clearly remember the titles. I read the Peanuts because it was on the front page. There was this other political one below the peanuts that I always tried reading (last) but never understood. Non - sequitor because I knew what that word meant and I liked the girl in that strip. It runs top to bottom on the far right of the insert. I loved the ones focused on parenting because I had no kids. Dilbert was funny too and it always reminded me of Drew Carey. People were friends in Sunday comics and each week the characters returned to me exactly the way they were the week previous. Time moved slowly in comics. A new baby here, a toddler grown there, characters remained ageless. It was comforting to find them each week in their little boxes going about their little lives. That was life as I knew it.


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