“Listen-- are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” Mary Oliver
My sophomore year was a challenging one, in many different ways. When I look back on it, it is imprinted in my mind as a constant uphill climb on some steep mountain slope. The kind where you don't want to look down for too long or you'll start to feel dizzy. I set incredibly high expectations for myself and tried to balance way too many commitments, spread myself paper thin and then felt bad about being too fickle. I was working in a speech physiology lab that was not a good fit for me and left me unsure of my future in research, and I had a job I loved at the OWRC but I was mostly too stressed out to fully appreciate it. I often felt isolated and I was much too hard on myself. I worried endlessly about my grades and neglected my health in exchange for workaholic tendencies. Luckily, I also took a few incredible classes that helped me slowly let go of this destructive mindset. The first was Pilgrimages and Idle Travels taught by Frances McCue, who revived the writer in me and encouraged all of us to make more time for creative expression in our lives. The second was Community Music taught by Marisol Berrios-Miranda, whose radiant enthusiasm and energy helped me let go, laugh, and dance unapologetically at a time when I needed it the most.
My sophomore year was a challenging one, in many different ways. When I look back on it, it is imprinted in my mind as a constant uphill climb on some steep mountain slope. The kind where you don't want to look down for too long or you'll start to feel dizzy. I set incredibly high expectations for myself and tried to balance way too many commitments, spread myself paper thin and then felt bad about being too fickle. I was working in a speech physiology lab that was not a good fit for me and left me unsure of my future in research, and I had a job I loved at the OWRC but I was mostly too stressed out to fully appreciate it. I often felt isolated and I was much too hard on myself. I worried endlessly about my grades and neglected my health in exchange for workaholic tendencies. Luckily, I also took a few incredible classes that helped me slowly let go of this destructive mindset. The first was Pilgrimages and Idle Travels taught by Frances McCue, who revived the writer in me and encouraged all of us to make more time for creative expression in our lives. The second was Community Music taught by Marisol Berrios-Miranda, whose radiant enthusiasm and energy helped me let go, laugh, and dance unapologetically at a time when I needed it the most.
Use the buttons below to learn more about my experiences in the classroom and beyond.