The first semester of the program is almost to a finish. Only 1 more block exam is left and it is unbelievably crazy how fast the time has gone. The weather is becoming much cooler and at times chilly. I truly love it.
I honestly have no idea where all the time went these past four months. This is the first time I have ever lived somewhere on my own so far away from where I grew up and it has been a great experience. At times, I still cannot believe that I am in New Orleans, I often think to myself, "Who would have thought that I ever would do this? How did I even manage this?" I still think about it, but now I am not as shocked about being in New Orleans. I am very glad I made the choice to do this program. It was very scary, nerve racking even, but I try not to ever let the feeling of fear stop me, and I am glad I did not. I am also very much thankful for the help I did receive from my family in helping me get here because I do not think I ever imagined myself moving so far away and I do not know how I would have managed everything by myself.
The days, the weeks are a blur; they happened so quickly. I have participated in an intramural soccer team this semester with some of my fellow classmates, probably one of the most fun activities I have done so far in the program. I have continued to volunteer at KIPP helping the teachers and staff around the school. I try to go as often as possible. The children are adorable with their shy little smiles and they say hi to me whenever I help out. I helped with their Fall Festival and had to count individually 800 candy corns for their "guess how many jar." Never have I counted one-by-one so high and handled so many candies. I most likely messed up a few times. There were just so many candy corns. They were everywhere! I helped out right before Thanksgiving break while they were having a book fair. It brought me back to the days when I was in elementary school. Showing my mom all the books that I wanted, and asking for money so I could buy them all. One-by-one the classes would roam around the books, deciding on what they would buy. I completely forgot about the book fairs that my school had when I was a child, and it was nice to see the students walk around excited to buy something.
Something else that happened right before Thanksgiving break is my family visited me for the weekend. I had them all go to the seminar with me. The seminar was about Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists. The seminar talked a bit about hypertension and my grandmother found it interesting because she has hypertension. I asked her about her medication and I actually knew about all of them. It was an awesome feeling to really understand what she was taking and why. I know I am learning many things here, but that experience showed my how much I really am learning. I am getting something out of being in this program. I knew I would be, but now I know just how much...
The program is practically halfway over. I did not expect that to happen so quickly.
Volunteer Hours: 15 hrs (Total 35)
October 8: 1pm - 4pm
October 28: 9am - 1pm
November 17: 1pm - 5pm
November 20: 11am - 3pm
