#I started med microbio and immunology classes :’)

[yuutaok]

I am trying to cope with life soooo hard I’ve gone back to school LOL

[drnucleus]

Little update on my life.

So I know I’ve only been on here in fits and starts lately. Reblogs mostly and sometimes a post here and there. I am alive. I was for a while battling a particularly rough depression spot. I had a disappointing application season into doctoral programs (after moving away from pre-med). But then I got word that I had been put into the MS program at Drexel where I’d applied PhD because they’d wanted me for the PhD and just didn’t financially have space for me (thank you Trump budget cuts to the NIH). And that I can with good academic standing and good research rotation performance petition into the PhD after the first year and start as a 2nd year PhD student (since the MS is identical to the first 2yrs of the doctorate).

This has been super exciting and as a result sent me into an anxiety episode because now I have to plan a move 2,800 miles away. When I’ve only ever lived about 40 mi away. It’s a big adjustment and I’m excited but also terrified of something going wrong. I know this is mostly just my anxiety brain cooking up all manner of possibilities but it’s hard to shake. I am very happy because I really liked this program I am going into. It’s for Microbiology and Immunology. I have to figure out what focus I want to do. Virology, Bacteriology, Parasitology, Autoimmune, Microbiome, etc. 

The biggest thing I’m worried about is I’m moving to a city I’ve never lived in. I’ve visited and it’s great. But I’ve never lived in a big city where you DIDN’T need a car. Phoenix, AZ is huge, but geographically so spread out that you kind of need a car unless you live near the light rail or want to take the really unreliable bus. But Philadelphia is different. It’s got a subway, and a pretty reliable bus system. I’ll be close to friends in NYC, and family in western NY, and NYC (still need to email my 2nd cousins and let them know I might drop by for a visit). I also have a friend in the city. My friend Kayla who majored Microbio with me in undergrad is at Temple’s Podiatry program. So I will have at least someone to hang out with. And the guy who’s like a baby brother I always wanted but never got is starting at Yale Med which is a 3hr train ride to New Haven. 

I’m looking for apartments now and probably going to try to live near campus, well the medical campus where most of my classes/research will be. So I have a lot of exciting things going on right now. I mean even my mom finally finished her doctorate. She graduates in a couple weeks with her educational doctorate and passed her dissertation which was entitled “Fostering Critical Thinking in Nursing Students” in which she studied her own students at CONHI (the nursing program she teaches at ASU). She’s so excited that I’m going to my own graduate program and that it’s one that I wanted even if it wasn’t my number 1 (but then my number 1 is a dream school that so few get into). This one was much more accessible.

Over St. Patty’s day weekend I went to an open house at Drexel just to let them see my face and get to know them and let them get to know me beyond my application. The director told me that he remembered my application and that if I didn’t get in it wasn’t that I wasn’t competitive but a space issue due to funding. Which sucked but then he told me about how I could be slotted into the MS and then petition into the doctorate. So when I got the initial rejection I emailed the graduate advisor and got the ball rolling. I was happy that they had that option and made sure I knew about it. So the trip to Philly, and staying with Kayla (my dear friend at Temple) was well worth it.