My classes this term are pretty awesome. One is on health promotion programs for children, one is public nutrition/health program creation, and the other is a base level required class on what public health is. Admittedly I was not excited about the what is public health class because I generally hate classes under the 300 level and all of the idiots in them. I have been pleasantly surprised with how useful this class has been so far. Our first guest speaker came in to talk to us about resume and cover letter writing and our first assignment is to write a mock resume for a job in the public health field. My fears of being under-qualified for things is slowly evaporating. I thought my resume had to be a lot more informative and experienced filled than it really has to be. I am starting to believe I actually have done enough things to qualify me for at least the internships I am looking into, which is a good start. And the cover letter just seems practical and a good chance for a potential employer to get to know you a big better. Not scary at all. This is something they should teach you in high school. Life skills. Hella practical, right?
So this weekend is resume writing for the 6 internships I'm looking into for the summer. 1 is in Portland, 2 are in Haiti, 2 are in DC,1 is in North Carolina and 1 (the dream one) is in Boston. I hate thinking of moving to the east coast. It sounds so gross to me. But one thing at a time. My dream internship is with Partners in Health. For those of you who don't know (and maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore if you don't know this), Partners in Health is Paul Farmer's organization. For those of you who don't know who Paul Farmer is you should stop reading immediately, google "Paul Farmer" and "Mountains Beyond Mountains," read everything about him and purchase and read the book and then resume reading my blog. And then maybe we can be friends again. I read MBM my junior year of high school and I've been hooked on Haiti ever since. It was like everything Farmer did and said made more sense to me than breathing. How one would live their life any other way was baffling to me. I fell in love with a country I had never been to or even knew anyone from. All I knew is that I had to get there. So I spent the next six years reading everything I could about Haiti and all of Farmer's books. (His books are amazing and inspiring but also pretty technical so I will not judge you for not reading them unless you want to work in Haiti in the public health field. In which case you should go read them all tomorrow.)
And then, two years ago yesterday, the earth quake happened. Initially, I didn't know about the earthquake. I was taking that year off from school and had disconnected myself from a lot of things I previously loved, Haiti being one of them. I found out about the earthquake via a text from my mom the day after it happened. I was shocked and devastated for Haiti but felt that there was very little I could do. A coworker found out about All Hands (HODR at the time) and decided to go to Haiti to work with them. She wanted me to come to but at that time I was still making excuses for not doing anything interesting so I didn't go. But I starting reading about Haiti again and raising money for earthquake relief through Mercy Corps. (You should still all give money through Mercy Corps. They do really awesome work around the world.)
In November of 2010, just after starting classes again, I was looking through my coworkers pictures of Haiti and thought, "I can go there. I can do that." So I applied with All Hands to go. The day I got the email accepting me to go in March of 2011 was the happiest day of my life. And it was the best time I've ever had. I met the most amazing people whom I am still friend with, saw the most beautiful sights I've ever seen, drank the best beer ever, and took the most amazing bucket showers under the sunset. It was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. I knew it was the place I was supposed to be.
The only downside was not knowing when I'd be able to go back. Although with All Hands you don't have to pay for room and board, the plane tickets there were expensive. Especially since I was a college student living on my own and paying for school myself. Through a series of random events including me getting a tattoo, a random email, my roommate getting pregnant, a trip to LA, meeting the boy and finding out he was going to Haiti, and a text message from my mom saying All Hands was looking for volunteers again, I ended up getting to go back. Life, God, whatever, seems to be directing me to a very specific place. The things I want (truly and deeply want, not just new-pair-of-shoes want) seem to keep manifesting themselves at exactly the right time. Writing about how this has all happened over the course of eight years is filling me with this feeling of being insanely lucky and insanely happy now. For all of the little ups and downs life throws at me everyday, I am so blessed. Some things are just meant to be.
Now I have to take a moment to address the role my mother has played in all this. My mom is a quietly amazing woman and mother. It has taken me a while realize all she has done for me but I would not be even close to where I am today with out her support. Every time I have an interest or new passion, she is the first one on board. She is getting signs up for e-mails from groups I'm interested in, clips articles for me that relate to things I've been talking about, donates money to organizations I take an interest in, and sends me text messages and updates about all of it. I wouldn't have ended up going to Haiti this last time if it weren't for her email. My mom is awesome. And I don't think I tell her that enough.
This is not at all the blog I set out to write. I was going to say more about my awesome classes but I think it will make this post entirely too long so I'll save that for another time. Now I really need to get to writing my resume so I can get the fuck back to Haiti.
P.S. Does it take away from the legitimacy of this post that while writing it I've been listening to the "Tell Me When to Go" Pandora station which includes gems such as "Back That Thing Up" by Juvenile, "Smack That" by Akon and "Disco Inferno" by 50 Cent?
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