WANTED: Equilibrium

mental health n. (the psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment)

Mental health. Balance. We all want it. Especially in a mindful world of endless thoughts and decision-making. Especially now. I'm coming to a turning point of this internship, of my life. In 6 days I return to Chicago. SIX DAYS. And it's not so much the thought of this 8-month dietetic internship coming to an end, moreso, the mere thought of coming home. HOME. It's like making that transition as a post-grad to a job seeker all over again. Scary, nervewrecking, completely unknown and pee-in-your-pants excitement (for the lack of a more accurate explanation).

You know it's weird. Ever since I moved to Michigan, ever since I started this internship, it was like the beginning of a second life that no one really knows about. No one I already knew was able to witness it like they were able to witness it back HOME. Luckily, there were eight other interns in the same boat as me, five of them happen to be from outside of Michigan as well. Because of this, I was able to develop an inexplicable bond with each one of them. We learned from each other. We confided to each other when we didn't really feel like anyone else back HOME would understand. And it's funny, because I found HOME in them. So the thought of going back HOME after finding HOME here...it's a lot to take in. Six days between now and then just isn't enough time..

There's this quote...from one of my favorite movies of all time: GARDEN STATE, said by Andrew Largeman:

"You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

Because I love it so much, I got the trailer just for you:

Q: So what do I do in this state of mental mayhem?

A: Monica's Top 10 Self-Care Tips to Reduce Stress (Source: CMU Counseling Services)

1. Recognize the problem
2. Gain control where you can
3. Spend quiet time alone each day
4. Take new risks
5. Reduce or eliminate caffeine consumption
6. Keep a journal
7. Make a "To Do" list and cross items off when completed
8. Sing out loud
9. Have realistic expectations
10. Don't over-schedule yourself

First stop: road trip to Canada, 4th of July weekend.

Photo courtesy: http://danburgar.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/garden-state-dvd.jpg

Bittersweet

It's like running into your "ex" at the wrong place, at the wrong time; or seeing old classmates from college, nay, high school, shopping at the local mall; tastes like dark chocolate, smells like burning wood. Bittersweet. It's like that. It feels like that. Coming back to a familiar place with heart-felt feelings. It's a great feeling. Inexplicable, really.

This is what I feel like coming back to the health care channel of Experience, Inc. better known as Health Nuts. It's been over a year since we last...well, since I last talked...no, typed. But it feels good to be back! Kate has done an amazing job and is an exceptional blogger, and I will try my very best to fill her shoes.

Meet Mon: Quick Bio

• Location: Saginaw, Michigan
• Occupation: Dietetic Intern and grad student at Central Michigan University
• Goal: To become a Registered Dietitian
• Current Internship Specialty: Diabetes, Oncology and Cardiac Rehab
• What You Should Know: I live, breathe, and eat (pa dum chh) nutrition.

Pictured: CMU Dietetic Interns, Class of August 2009 pictured with Marty Yadrick, 2008-2009 American Dietetic Association President at the 2009 Michigan Dietetic Association Conference.

This summer I will be continuing my internship with a Renal rotation at a dialysis center in Flint, Michigan followed by a Marketing/Public Relations rotation for Weber Shandwick in Chicago, Illinois.

I'm a big fan of learning everything I can about the health field and diving into endless opportunities. So pack your things, and hold on. It's going to be a bumpy (and health nutty) ride! PREPARE YOURSELVES!

Photo by: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/images/1080932686742.jpg

Goodbye, Health Nuts (and health nuts)!

They might be trying, but Experience.com just can’t get rid of me.

I started as a nonprofit blogger in my last semester of college. (See my first-ever post.)

Then I took a little trip over to the green blogs and hung around Green Your Future for a few months. (One of my faves.)

I’ve been blogging here at Health Nuts since last fall and have shared my experiences, both personal and professional, in the health arena (and, yes, I admit, some non-health-related stuff, too). You’ve watched me go from running my first 10K to my first half marathon and from just starting grad school to finishing off my first year in one piece.

Now I’m moving again, this time to 3Gen – a blog that chronicles life in the working world from the perspectives of gen X-, Y- and Z-ers. Or W-, X- and Y-ers? V, W, X? Actually, there might only be two of us? Well, I’m not sure, but I do know that over there you’ll get the scoop on real-world work and life stuff through eyes of various ages…and eyeglass prescriptions (sorry, Ken).

I’ve loved Health Nuts and will definitely carry my health nutty ways over to whatever blogs I end up on the future, but it was time to admit it: I’m getting old. Not tennis-balls-on-the-bottom-of-my-walker or I-can’t-find-my-glasses-because-I’m-not-wearing-my-glasses old (yet), but can’t-quite-stay-out-as-late-or-drink-as-many-margaritas-as-I-used-to old.

And I think it’s time to own it. To admit that while I’m still a student, I’m a professional student, not an undergrad who can still pull off rolling out of bed and out the door in one fell swoop. To admit that I’m a working woman (in the form of a professional intern, but a working woman nonetheless). And to admit that – gulp – I’ve been out of college long enough to have some experience, thoughts and dare I say wisdom that I hope will help students and young professionals alike, in the health realm but also across other fields.

So please, head over to 3Gen and check us out. You know you can’t miss my stories of overhearing older coworkers on the phone desperately asking each other about Facebook, my motivation or lack thereof in training for my first marathon, and my *&#$@# frustration with the $#*&@(!# economy’s )*$#(@!# timing in tanking. (Check out my first post on emailing digital aliens here.)

It’ll be good. I promise.

Summer, 9-to-5 style

My boyfriend's coworkers have been making fun of him lately because, all of a sudden, Mr. Not-A-Morning-Person began showing up promptly at 9 a.m.

I don't know how he answered their questions about why, but I can only hope he said it was because he'll be driving his wonderful, brilliant, time-conscious girlfriend to her internship on the other side of downtown St. Paul every morning for the summer.

At least I know his explanation had the word "internship" in it because a coworker asked, "Oh, is it Kate's first internship?"

The Boyfriend probably laughed out loud. "No," he said. "I think it's, like, her tenth."

I am an eternal intern. That's all there is to it. I suppose I could have a real job. I have had real jobs (sort of). I've at least been offered real jobs. And really, I hope to have one sometime around the fall of 2010. But you couldn't tell that from the past few years. I've interned everywhere from my hometown weekly to the big-city newspaper, from nonprofits focused on everything from reproductive health to immigration policy, and from the morning TV news to a certain magazine many men treat as their Bible (no, it has nothing to do with bunnies).

So I think I'm reaching expert intern status, and I thought I'd share some tips for all of you doing internships this summer. You're probably just getting started or just ending your honeymoon phase, so I hope these come in handy!

1) Make the 9-to-5-ing bearable. I have major, major problems sitting at the same desk staring at the same computer all day--and, at a week into my fulltime government internship, I'm remembering how brutal it is. My absolute lifesavers are:

• Making my desk homey! Yep, bring in those dog pictures, favorite pens, cactus.
• Giving myself breaks. Sure, IT might be watching me take the occasional web trip to CNN, the New York Times...OK, OK...Facebook, Twitter, E!...but I allow myself those mini-breaks before and after I hammer out something major, or at critical losing-focus points.
• SNACKS. Seriously. Snack drawer is a must-have.
• Little strolls around the office. I will honestly get up and get my four copies of something from the printer separately just to walk around.
• Taking full advantage of lunch. I admit sometimes I fail at this, but I always find that leaving my desk--and preferably my building--for lunch gives me a nice break and, usually, the will to go on for the afternoon (until that awful 3 p.m. coma).

2) Make sure it's mutually beneficial. Unless your boss is either a) not very smart or b) not very nice, he or she knows that you're both supposed to be getting something out of this internship. I know goal-setting can be dorky, but I had to do it to receive school credit, and I actually think it can be extremely helpful. It forces you to have The Talk with your supervisor and gives you a contract of sorts to pull out and point at when things aren't going as planned. I try to reassess periodically and think, am I learning stuff? Am I developing skills? Am I being helpful?

3) Be proactive. Really. I swear the biggest complaint I've heard from friends who have interned--and from myself--is that they don't have enough to do. And trust me, it happens. Often intern projects are the things on an organization's wish list, the things their regular staff don't have time to do, so they're not necessarily anyone's priority but yours. That slows things down. But as uncomfortable as it might be the first time, take that opportunity to ask for more work or suggest a different project that interests you. Not only does it look good to get the ball rolling yourself, but you won't have hurry up and X out time-killing Facebook everytime someone walks past your cubicle. Working when you're supposed to be working is best for everyone.

Are you doing an internship this summer? Have you done one before? Spill your tips and tricks in the comments.

GUEST POST: Meg's got big ideas -- but no job (yet)

Meg Loftus is a recent graduate of Ithaca College with degrees in journalism and politics. She blogs regularly at megsgotbigideas.blogspot.com.

And we are super lucky to have Ms. Meg as our Health Nuts guest this week! Still looking for that perfect (or, um, any) job? She'll make you feel better--or at least not alone--by the end of this post. Promise. Take it away, Meg...

Four years ago, if someone had told me that I’d be graduating college without a job and have to move back home, I would have laughed in his or her face. “Please,” I would have said. “I’ll be one of the first in my class to get a job.”

So imagine my surprise when this doomsday scenario became reality. It’s extremely difficult to describe the high of graduating and the feeling of achievement contrasted so sharply with packing up, moving home, and facing an uncertain future. I couldn’t shake the disappointment and the sense of failure. I really felt like I had come right back to where I started, empty-handed with nothing to show for four years of college (literally – I still haven’t gotten my diploma in the mail!).

For a long time, I was really angry. It was hard for me to be excited about graduating, because I felt that I had nothing toward which to look forward. So I started blogging, attempting to share my miserable life outlook with the World Wide Web. Every day, I post about my job search and my life. 

It started as a way to stay on the radar, letting college friends keep track of my whereabouts and also letting potential employers out there know that I’m looking for a job. I’ve got contacted about possible job opportunities, which is a plus. And, surprisingly, people really enjoy the blog (or at least that’s what they tell me). It’s nice as a writer to know that people are reading my work and enjoying it. 

But it’s also brought about a major attitude change. Now that I have days upon days of free time, it’s hard to stay motivated. Blogging gives me a way to document my struggles and to keep moving forward. And it’s helped me learn some valuable lessons over the course of my (brief) unemployment: 

1. It could be worse. There are so many people that have families to support that are out of work. I’m lucky that my parents are financially supporting me during this period (don’t worry, when I do get a job they’ll reap the rewards). I hope and pray that those people who are in desperate financial straits are able to find ways to make ends meet.
2. Free time = fun time. I’ve been able to catch up on reading, bike more, and spend quality time with my family. I’ve really started to value this time, because I know I’ll spend the rest of my adult life working. And it’s nice to wake up every day and have the freedom to use the day as I see fit.
   
3. Have a routine. Not saying I need to schedule my free time, but I make an effort to get up at the same time every day, change into nice clothes, and set aside time for the job search. One day, I wore my good jewelry to write a cover letter – it made a difference! Taking care of myself helps me stay motivated. 
   
4. Ask everyone for advice… People want to help me out. I’ve been asking everyone for their thoughts, and learning from the experience of others has been instrumental.
   
5. ….but remember that this is my job search. Like I said before, I’m going to be spending most of my adult life working. I ultimately have to find a job that’s going to make me happy, not someone else. 
   
6. Be a cheerleader. No pom-poms required. I’m normally a glass-half-empty kind of gal. But it’s so important to maintain a positive attitude because I can get bogged down in the rejection. And it’s also important to be a positive force for other unemployed friends (we have to stick together, you know). 
   
7. Don’t take it personally. In the beginning, every unanswered application was a stab in the heart. Now, I realize it’s just business.
   
8. Don’t be afraid to “shake it up.” I’ve always been a planner and very risk averse. Now I realize that I’ve got to take some more chances. When my search wasn’t going the way I wanted, I made some serious changes. Using the same approach and hoping to get a different result will never work.
   
9. Find out what I want. For a while, I applied to any and every job, just to see if anyone would get back to me. But after learning the hard way, I’ve recently started applying to jobs that I would actually want to do. Novel concept, I know. 
   
10. One day, I will be employed. This is my mantra because, like it or not, I will have a job someday!
    

Make sure to check out Meg's blog all about the long, winding road to employment at megsgotbigideas.blogspot.com!

I'm back! And ready for summer.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous summer so far!

I wish I could say I've been MIA because I've been lying in the sun in a bikini sipping a big--lemonade! Yeah, lemonade!--and reading trashy magazines, but unfortunately that's far from the case.

In the almost three weeks since my final final of year one, I:

- came down with some sort of cold/cough/flu/plague that all but knocked me out for a week (and kept me miserable for two)

- made the six-hour trek to my home town to witness the marriage of two good friends and celebrate the new motherhood of another

- attended two orientation/social events at the Minnesota Department of Human Services in preparation for my internship that starts next week, and

- am slogging through two May-term classes that are fabulous but a LOT of work, continuing with my research assistant work and coordinating the marketing efforts for Twin Cities World Refugee Day

I also am proud to say that I ran my first half marathon this weekend in Minneapolis! (And then I went back to homework.)

Health Nuts will be up and running for the summer -- I promise! -- so stay tuned for talk about:

the pros and cons of taking summer classes,

making the most of an internship,

how the media covers health issues,

why your dog might be your best doctor,

how to cope with a not-going-so-hot job search

and much, much more (that may or may not be directly related to the topics at hand).

Hope you'll set down your lemonade now and then to check out what's new!