Turning a New Leaf

The past five months have brought many changes and milestones for this former dietetic intern. Let's take a month-by-month review, shall we?

February - Joseph and I move into a house with another married couple with whom we went to high school. Plans to garden commence immediately. I get trained in as HEN web co-chair.

March - I finish my clinical rotation at Abbott Northwestern, making two presentations ("Registered Dietitians and the In-Patient Treatment of Eating Disorders" and "Tetraplegia, Pressure Uulcers, and Malnutrition: A Case Study") and riding the plateau of the steepest learning curve I've experienced to date.

April - My groupmates and I present our final project to our TEP preceptors: "Eating, Moving, and Your Body: An Eating Disorders Prevention Curriculum for 6th-8th Graders." High fives and diplomas all around. 

May - I hunker down for some serious studying and light gardening (beans, basil, tomatoes, kale, beets, corn). RTB welcomes me back to record the show Nutrition and Health. I apply for an instructor position at HECUA (no go) and a web design contract consultant position (so go!), which has its own sharply inclined learning curve.

I can ha-RD-ly believe it!

June - I sit the registration exam for dietitians and pass, just as everyone told me I would. Mhonpaj Lee of Mhonpaj's Garden offers me work managing communications - I pounce. The chair of the Hampden Park Co-op Board of Directors encourages me to apply for an open position on the board - I do so and am appointed forthwith.

I can hardly believe how blessed I am to have become gainfully employed straight out of the internship, with work that is not only gainful, but also thoroughly engrossing. Each one of my positions includes room for tremendous growth of varying degrees - now I just have to figure out how to do it all!