Well that’s it. Two years sure flies by. And now, I’m sitting in my apartment surrounded by boxes, some packed and some waiting to be packed, eventually all will be shipped to Madison where I’ll begin my public health career. Sounds so mature, almost shocking for me.
To backtrack a little, my master’s project was fine and I felt very satisfied with the final result. The paper got better and better, right up to the end. The presentation, after I rehearsed it a few times, came together when it counted and I got a lot of positive feedback from my peers and some faculty, which felt really great. After the presentations were all done, faculty and students celebrated at a local pub which was a blast. And now all that is left are the goodbyes.
In reflecting on my time here at the U of M, two things are particularly striking. The first is the amount that I learned. Whether the admissions committee knew it or not, when they admitted me, they were admitting someone who was a good student and who was very interested in public health, but probably couldn’t tell you the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. I mean I didn’t know jack. To transform that person from that into someone who is accepted by a fellowship program with great opportunities is significant, and that’s a credit to both the program and myself, so I’ll give a pat on the back to both of us. I really was satisfied in the program’s ability to teach this material and provide some hands on experience and analysis of current health care policies.
The second thing is that at least for me, the program has planted this drive within me to continue to get better in this field. No doubt I will have a lot to learn in my position in Wisconsin and about real world public health practices. But after this education, I feel myself raring to go and not only gain that experience but get better as a professional as soon as I can and start setting some goals for myself. Maybe this isn’t the same for some of my peers, but I think this degree has taught me to be fired up about this field and that my own professional success will be tied to the success of programs and policies that promote health. That’s a motivating aspect that I really like.
Thanks to all of the faculty who helped me out. Thanks to my advisors at the U of M. Thanks to my family and friends for reading this blog. Thanks to everyone who supported me during these past four semesters. Thanks to you all who took the time to read this blog.
See you around.
Monday, May 19, 2008
5:00 p.m.
Northrop Auditorium
84 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Commencement Speaker: Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan, Minnesota Department of Health
Word of the Day, Sunday May 18, 2008 (dictionary.com):
tirade \TY-raid; tih-RAID\, noun:
A long angry speech; a violent denunciation; a prolonged outburst full of censure or abuse.
Week at-a-glance (weather.com):
Let me be up front. I'm a long distant Arab by way of being Pakistani. A splash of French, a pinch of Italian, a glimpse of Swedish. A solid 0.25 Native--1/8th Cherokee + 1/8 Mohawk. My gramma could sure fry some mean chicken and make black eyed peas. Oh, and I'm Bengali...I'm a refugee, a displaced person in my own country. An American-born confused Desi--you heard it. I'm a solid US-er with global citizenship. Somebody ought to do a SWOT analysis on me.
So let's talk about race baby....I'm not a politician, although I am running for president in 2020... ;) Yeah, it's about time we got real. Wait, I gotta get back to my social epi paper which I have yet to start. Sorry Professor Oakes...
Sweet! I finished my LAST Excel exam/homework for Biostats yesterday!! Ah ha. Take that, Microsoft. I think it went well enough... It felt better than the last one, for sure. It just takes me FOREVER to do a test at home. It's like 'hey I'll answer one question and... call my mom' or 'I'll work for like twenty minutes and I'm hungry'. But it did take me probably seven hours total. But hey, no more. Now I just have to worry about the in class test tomorrow. I have sucked at those in the past, so wish me luck. And I'm working on my paper for Community Health Assessment but haven't written a word yet. But I have pages of data. Hopefully the paper will essentially write itself? That's what I'm banking on at least. I actually cancelled plans to go out tonight to do homework. Yipee for me. And I guess I'll start my epic research paper for eugenics after Thursday and after I've done everything else. I think I can write it fairly fast as I've been thinking about it for a month... and years. I just want it to be really fantastic. It's kind of sad when yesterday I decided to go on an hour and a half run in order to procrastinate on homework.
I had an interview with the American Heart Association last Friday for an internship over the summer! I've worked with the organization through my field experience with the MN Dietetic Association. I'm really just not getting what I wanted out of a field experience through them and this would be a perfect overlap of interest for the AHA and the MDA. I'd be working on policy reserach and grassroots advocacy if I get it. It sounds absolutely perfect! In fact that's pretty much what I think I want to do after I graduate, so I REALLY hope I get it. It's unpaid, so hopefully it won't be too competetive? I should find out this week!
As far as fun stuff, boy, I've been doing my share and the share of someone else. Last weekend I saw Dosh, a local electronic musician, at the Walker Art Center. It was instrumental/electronic post-rock-tastic. Then last Sunday was the May Day parade. It was perfect. The weather was phenomenal, the puppets were spectacular and the energy was infectious. It was a day that would have been tragic to miss. Everyone must see it! Then I saw Devotchka last Wednesday at First Ave. They put on a hell of a show. The string section, the tuba, the ribbon acrobat artists... it was sensory overload. In a good way, of course. And Saturday morning I participated in my first official race! It was a duathlon- run 5K, bike 20K and run another 5K. It was really actually quite fun. I finished in about an hour and 45 minutes, which seemed pretty good for me. I thought it'd take about two hours. I'd like to do more organized stuff like that. And then Saturday night I saw a fantastic local show at the 400 Bar. The Hasbeen, Action vs. Action and International Espionage! played. I really love all those bands. It was just one of those really fun nights wiith lots of friends there and everyone was having a swell time.
So, I have lots to do in the next few days. I'll be back though. Promise.
Hi everyone,
I am finally starting to believe that I will actually graduate on time! YEAH! I presented and defended my Plan B last Thursday and passed! I am happy to say that it went very well. A LOT of people came to my presentation which made me pretty nervous (shaky voice, etc.) but I made it through. I really DO NOT enjoy presenting at all but thankfully I can pull through when necessary. I am a little weird and actually enjoy the question portion. I spent 7 or 8 months on this project, writing a 61 page thesis (12 pages of which were SAS codes) and read a lot of articles - I was ready to share what I'd learned! Without diving too much in, my thesis was a simulation of an HIV trial that should start enrolling this fall and my results are pretty controversial (I've pasted my abstract through the link below if you are interested). It led to some great discussions with my committee members and reminded me of why I someday want a PhD - I LOVE academic research and discussion. But right now, I'm ready to be done with school and just enjoy life. I think I've reached a new level in how much I need a break. This past weekend I did NOTHING but set up my new computer (thank you 'economic stimulus') and play old school Super Nintendo with my roommate. It was great but now I'm realizing that I can't quit working yet, with a final project due next week and a final next weekend. But trust me, after that is over, I will be sitting for a long time!
I must apologize for my loooooong absence from this blog. I got caught up in just a little thing called trying to graduate, along with finding an apartment, and as always, writing my master’s project. And now, we’re just eleven days from presentation day. I get chills of joy just thinking about it.
At this point, it looks like the master’s project will end up being a total of 45 pages, which really isn’t that much, but when you’re writing the majority of that from scratch off your own research…well let’s just say it’s a process. But I have learned a ton through that process. My advisors have been fantastic (and also very patient with me) and when this is all said and done I’ll be very happy with my final product.
Classes are nearly over, with just a final group project and a take-home final left for me to complete. But now that graduation is so close, I start to feel paranoid and look at extreme possibilities of how I might not graduate (although they are unlikely). Like I’ve been telling my friends and family, I’ll relax when my name is on the diploma, and when my name is on this lease to this apartment in Madison (boy I forgot what a process that can be).
Speaking of which, I was in Madison about a week ago to look at some places and meet with my future supervisors. Turns out that I will be working with the Wisconsin Medicaid population as well as the state’s division of public health. I’m very excited for this opportunity and really can’t wait to get started. What a concept, coming home after work that I enjoy and not having to worry about homework and papers.
Well, as a friend recently told me, you have to sprint to the finish line. It’s in sight, but until my name is on the paper, ‘none shall sleep.’
See you around the blog.
Yep..it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I am here stuck at Java City to work on my projects. I truly wish that I could be running by the lake right now shredding off some excess calories rather than sitting here feeling a bit lonely. With all the projects deadlines, I was managed to go out a bit last Friday afternoon to attend the Minneapolis Women Choir. Okay, I have to be honest with you, Tran (a very closed friend of mine) is a member of the choir, so you can say that I have no choice, rather was required to be there to support her. However, I was so happy that I went; it was one of the best concert I’ve ever attended. The music was so beautiful; attending the concert benefited my ears and as the same time the desserts they served really made my stomach very happy. Well, before the choir, Jooyeon (another great friend of mine) went to Ichiban for a “all you can eat sushi” – we have such a wonderful time. I was a bit flirted with the sushi chef so he made some extra special sushi for us. Just to let you know that I do study and work very hard, however, I do enjoy my life at times too.
So I am writing a paper right now that is due TOMORROW (yeap..so scary) for my Emerging Infectious Diseases class; this paper is my chance to show to my professor that I have grown since my midterm. However, the problem is, the topic is hard. I am planning to pull all night today and continue working on it until 4:45PM tomorrow (we have to submit the paper before 5:00PM). Just to keep you all inform of my life – I will update you later. In the mean time, if you have some free time – go out and run for awhile.
After almost an entire academic year of blogging, I'm realizing a couple of things about myself. A) I do the same things over and over again. I'm a creature of habits, what can I say. At least I try to make them fun, happy habits. B) I must really like being over-committed for I keep doing it. And C) I like blogging. I'm not sure if anyone likes reading it, but there's been something cathartic about at least reflecting what I've been up to and feeling for the last week at a time. You know, make sure I'm not screwing around too much. Or maybe to make sure I'm screwing around just enough? I don't think it's quite time for the 'official reflection' blog, but I think I've managed to keep my promise to myself after my first year of grad school. That promise was to have a good balance with life and not get all wrapped up into one thing to the point of suffocation. I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping work, school, health and relationships in check. Perhaps I haven't done any of those things as hardcore as I could, but I'd rather have them all at a B+ level than any at a C. I'm interested in so much that I can't really commit (not want to) to any one or even two of those things. I want them all all the time.
That paragraph makes it sound like I suffer from TMSE (too much self esteem). I could have studied more for biostats but I'm really all right with what I've done with it. So I'm nearing the finale. I have one presentation down, one small paper- which I've started-, a non-cumulative biostats test and a large paper left to go. I can do that in the next couple of weeks, for sure. It's just hard because the weather's nicer now and touring season has officially begun for national bands. And also movies on rooftops are about to begin. And marathon training. And I joined a softball league. And it's biking outside weather. And friends are coming back to Mpls for the summer. And I have a fun vacation to the Northwest coming up. Phew. I wish I could blame something on ADD, but really, it's a conscious choice sometimes not to pay attention. But I need to. I thought maybe if I typed that out, I would better convince myself to not have fun like every night this week. What the hell.
I saw the Fiery Furnaces last night (again...). I'm also realizing that after nine months of blogging, you readers have had to suffer through multiple rants on the same bands now. I won't go into detail about their avant garde-ness, but it was a better show that their last one. It was at the Whole- the 'venue' on campus in the student union- and everyone was painfully sober. Maybe that's why their show was better? I don't know. Personally, I liked that fact that they served coffee there. I wish other venue bars did that. I love coffee. All day long.
Ummmm. tomorrow's the May Day parade!!! It's a fun day full of crunchy hipsters and puppets. I will view and report next week. Hope it doesn't rain and stuff! Ok, well my ride will be here in a minute. I'm going to the Walker tonight for a show.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Last modified on Monday Jul 02, 2007
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.
Last modified on Monday Jul 02, 2007