Two weeks ago my friend and I attended a professional development event hosted by the Global Health Initiative club. On top of having our resumes reviewed, the five members that we sat with talked to us about internships, interview tips, and general tips for success. The biggest thing I took from that meeting was that I should never decide to do something just to put it on my resume. I learned that it is more important to be interested in any internship, research, or job that I participate in. After talking with the Global Health Initiative club for almost an hour, I realized that I would peruse my interest in psychology by adding a minor in general psychology. I also learned about opportunities that would give me experience in that area of interest. After this meeting I feel confident that I can still be successful if I participate in opportunities that interest me outside of my main curriculum.

With a few months into the semester, I have been studying and doing work for the majority of my time. About a month ago I finally had some down time and decided to play sand volley ball with other students in the STEM  program. Afterwards, my friend asked if I wanted to get insomnia cookies with her. I agreed and we walked to the shop not far from our dorm. I ordered chocolate ice cream, and patiently waited. When she gave it to me, I began to devour it right away. Then I noticed something. My tongue started feeling itchy, it was getting harder to breath, my throat was swelling, and my lips doubled in size. I was getting worried that I was having an allergic reaction to peanuts, but that couldn’t be it because I got chocolate ice cream. A girl in line asked for chocolate ice cream and the employee informed her that they ran out of chocolate ice cream. When I heard this I rushed to the front desk and asked what was in the bin that appeared to be chocolate. She told me it was chocolate peanut butter. I told her that one of the other workers gave it to me in place of chocolate and that I had an allergy. My friend called my roommate to get my epipen. We met her on our way back. On a casual Wednesday night, I injected myself with an epipen on the side of High Street. I then had to ride in a police car to the Wexner medical center where I relapsed, had two anaphylactic shocks. I was given two extra injections of epinephrine, steroids, and benadryl. I had to stay the night at the hospital. What I gained from this experience is that I realized how good my friends treat and take care of me. I also learned to always be careful with ordering food that may contain peanuts. 

So far at college I have walked passed thousands of new faces each day, unfortunately knowing I will never be able to know all of their stories or aspirations. While studying on the mirror lake steps a few weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet one of these faces that I would normally just walk passed. We sat on the same step, and I decided to go out of my comfort zone and talk to her. She was also a first year on the pre-med track majoring in chemistry. We both shared our desire for becoming physicians to help anyone we could. When I had to go to class we both wished each other luck in our first years.  This was an impacting experience because I was able to grasp the fact that everyone here has a purpose and that I should stick to mine. It gave me motivation to continue working hard in and out of class. With what I learned from this little chat is that if I am really passionate about something, all the hard work is completely worth it.