The whole reason I started this blog was to write about internship in the hopes that I actually got accepted into the program. At this moment in time I am wondering if they would have been doing me a favor by not accepting me! Not actually, but at around 3 o'clock this afternoon I was seriously wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into. A hysterical email, text and phone call to the people I know will love me despite my serious issues calmed me down and I am feeling much more positive about everything now. I contacted my preceptor today and she seems really cool. She is a recent graduate from the UPEI program and I've heard nothing but good things about her which is comforting. I'm a little bit less nervous now anyways.
This week is Professional Practice week for internship so we have class from 9am to 3pm everyday on campus with the coordinator of the program. It's nice for all of the interns to be together for the week before we all disperse into our various placements for the next 8 weeks. 8 weeks sounds like an awfully long time, but given the amount of work we have to do in that time period, it seems almost impossibly short! We are going through the internship manual with the coordinator and discussing what we will be doing in our placements and what assignments and presentations we are going to have to accomplish based on the work we are doing in the placements. It will be a miracle if we make it through the summer with even one day free of school work. But I think it all just seems way worse than it will be. In one day we were presented 8 weeks worth of work to do. Needless to say, the entire room was completely overwhelmed and quite grumpy by the time 3 pm rolled around.
One of the major assignments for our clinical placement is a half hour presentation on some sort of dietary disease. The presentation itself shouldn't be that bad. It's the 40 registered dietitians and all of the UPEI faculty that will be watching and asking questions that is going to suck. 40! It will be our first presentation to a group of professionals and they are going to have the opportunity to ask us an unlimited number of questions on our topic of choice. The good news is that we get to pick our own topic, and luckily I am doing my clinical placement first so I will get it over with first. I'll be presenting sometime at the beginning on June, so at least I only have it hanging over my head for another 4 weeks. 4 weeks...I should probably get started! I am trying to think of a topic I would like to learn about for the next month. We have been advised to pick a topic that we have already covered in clinical class since we are expected to be absolute experts on the topic but there aren't any topics that jump out at me as something I want to spend hours and hours dissecting.
But as always, we will make it through alive and all the better for enduring what seems like a never ending bombardment of assignments and work and projects and presentations.
When I got home from class this afternoon, overwhelmed and grumpy and stressed out, I decided to skip my run and eat the most ginormous bowl of oatmeal ever instead. Really bad idea. It just made me feel soo gross and even more grumpy. Luckily my friend KA messaged me to go for a run with her since her running partner bailed and forced me out of my funk. With new found motivation for exercise, I walked down the street to pick up my bike from the bike shop where it was getting a tune up and new tubes and got really excited to start learning how to use it! I'm a little afraid to start biking because I have no bike pump, no bike fixing skills and it's not unusual to lose cell service on the island out in the country where I will be riding. So in the event of me being a spaz, I could quite possibly be screwed. I found a group to go out with, cycling PEI has a whole bunch of workshops and group rides for beginners and people of all levels and memberships only cost 30 bucks so I am considering joining. With internship in Summerside though, I have no idea what time I'll get back to the city and if I'll be able to make it to the group rides in time to make it worth while joining. I guess I'll find out next week after I start placement!
Tomorrow is going to be better than today. I can feel it in my bones. There is no way class can be as stressing as today's was, I am going to ride my bike, I have a free trial class of NGB Boot Camp to go to with some friends in the evening followed by a night out at Baba's to watch Chris play open mic before he leaves to join Age in BC. Where homework fits into this plan I have no idea but It'll get done eventually. NGB Boot Camp is run by one of the girls in the internship program. It's run outside (rain or shine!) in Victoria Park and they are offering a free trial class so that people can try it out before they spend the money to register for a bunch of sessions. I won't be registering for the sessions despite how fabulous tomorrow's class is so I feel a bit like a sneak even going. But it's always fun to switch up your workout routine and try something new!
The problem with telling anyone you are studying nutrition or wearing a hoodie that says UPEU Nutritional Sciences on it, is that EVERYONE asks you questions. If I had a nickle for every person who asked me what they should eat I would be able to pay my tuition. I just found myself in a lengthy conversation with two guys at Starbucks who run a strength training business. I am hoping to one day actually be able to answer all the questions everyone has, but I'm sure that will never happen. People expect dietitians (and even interns/students) to know everything about everything food related. I always feel like a bit of a failure when I can't answer questions because people expect me to know all of it. I have a feeling I should get used to this because it will probably never change. I am always more conscious of what I eat in public while wearing this sweater because I feel like people will judge me if I'm chowing down on poutine while advertising that I'm a nutrition student. What a funny profession. I feel like there are so many more expectations for us; we're expected to be fit and slim, we're expected to eat perfectly well all the time and we're expected to know everything about every food related topic at any given moment. We're only human people. No one can possibly know everything...that's what text books and google are for. Everyone is allowed to indulge in some dessert or pizza and various other crappy foods every one in a while. The nice thing about going back home to work once I graduate is I won't have to wear a trench coat, big sunglasses and a hat out every time I want to eat out to hide my identity like I would in PEI. I love small town culture but sometimes it's nice not to have everyone know who you are.
I know the feeling! People always expect that I can read their minds or know everything about every mental illness just because I've graduated from Psych. Having the Honours hasn't helped much and the funny thing is, my Honours project had nothing to do with mental illness at all so didn't really put me any closer to having answers to the questions. I think every profession has a string of questions that runs along with it!
ReplyDeleteYou are smarter than you think :)