My, oh, my a lot has happened since my last post! I’m going to get right into catching you all up with all my major soul searching that’s happened over the summer. But before I dive in, I just want to extend a welcome to anyone newly following my blog this year. I’m Eleanor; it’s nice to have you here, and thanks for reading my little blog. I have some majorly exciting, life-transforming events coming up as I embark on the process that is being a junior, and I’m so fortunate and grateful to have you along for the ride.
Speaking of majorly exciting life-transforming events, let me tell you about my internship(s) this summer.
I spent the first month of this summer semi-contentedly resigned to three months at home. I joined a local orchestra, the Freelance Ensemble Artist of New Jersey, and played principal 2nd violin. I may have watched the entirety of the Bachelorette. I walked my way around my hometown hunting Pokemon.
I also ended up having two amazing internships. The first internship, podcast editing, indirectly brought me to the second: working at Columbia Presbyterian at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. Let me explain: the previous summer of 2015 and January of this year, I was working on the podcasts for my dear friend and mentor Julie. That fall, while I was still at Wellesley, Julie was working on TEDxMet talks. One of the people speaking was Dr. Robin Goland, one of Berrie Center’s co-directors. Julie had the chance to work with Robin, and visit the Berrie Center, and I came back to glowing reviews. “You would just love it there. The cutting edge diabetes research is going on one floor above the clinic. You should just send an email and ask.”
And so I did. I mustered up some courage, and several drafts, and pressed send. This was back in April, I think. I pressed send, and I didn’t hear anything back. For four months. Cue the semi-contented resignation to an idle summer back home. And then July 1st, I woke up to the most unbelievable notification on my phone. The Berrie Center had an unexpected opening for the rest of the summer, and would I be available? I was on the A train the following Monday.
Said A train, the site of many commutes and “ladies and gentlemen, it’s showtime”s
Let me tell you about the Berrie Center, because (not unlike Wellesley) it’s an inspiring and moving place filled with whip-smart people looking to make real change. It’s the room where it happens. It’s the place where the research facilities are going to one day be a bowling alley, because with a cure, they won’t need them anymore. It’s the place where people learn how to take control of difficult circumstances, and it’s a place that saves people. Sitting at my desk doing data entry wasn’t as much of a chore, because I got to be in such an inspiring place. And the best part? I can go back next summer, but into the research labs this time!
<3 <3 <3
Why is so much of my first post back not about Wellesley? It’s because Wellesley prepared me to succeed in that moment. Wellesley prepared me to go into a lab full of Columbia graduate students as the only undergrad and ask smart questions about difficult scientific procedures. Wellesley prepared me to be the youngest person in a room full of Columbia doctors and educators and fellows and not feel like I didn’t deserve to be there. And I am so grateful that it did.
I got to work in this building! I got to work in this building! Every time I walked through the doors, that was what was going through my head.
Next week, we can talk about another life-transforming realization this summer: I’m spending next semester abroad in Copenhagen!
Until then and ever lovely yours,
Eleanor