Hi everyone!

As I get started with the blog, I wanted to give a life update in terms of what I’m currently up to. It’s crazy to believe it’s my last semester of school (likely ever)! As you may know from reading the About page, I am in grad school at the University of Michigan School of Public Health studying to be an R.D. I will finish my Master’s degree in nutritional sciences this spring, and then will start my dietetic internship in July. Once I finish my internship (which will take about 8 months or so) and take the R.D. exam, I will officially be licensed and able to start working as a dietitian!

Despite my program being totally online the past year due to COVID, it has been a really great experience overall. Thankfully, the material and work that we learn/do in nutrition is relatively transferrable to a virtual format (since we aren’t trying to do any labs or much hands-on work). While I’ve missed the in-person interaction with my professors and classmates and being on campus in general, there have been a number of positives to working from home. I’m definitely more efficient working from home and feel like I spend less time overall working on school than I used to. I also used to have about a 45 minute commute (I live only about 6 miles away from campus but would take the bus since parking is so expensive/frustrating) so that also saves a lot of time. That being said, while school still keeps me quite busy, I’ve appreciated the extra time that I have to devote to other areas of my life!

This semester I am taking six classes – five required classes (Nutrition Counseling, Nutrition Assessment, Environmental Health Sciences, Food Science, and Medical Nutrition Therapy II) – and one elective – Environmental Epigenetics. I am most looking forward to Food Science (where we learn about things like cooking techniques and recipe development!) and Environmental Epigenetics. Epigenetics is studying how different exposures (many different things like nutrition, stress, toxins, etc.) affect how our genes are actually expressed. This can have vast implications for our likelihood of developing any number of health conditions and for our lives/health in general.

Beyond school and career-related things, my time is filled with working at the cafe one day a week, getting going on the blog more, cleaning/cooking/getting things done around home, spending time with friends/family/Alec, and spending time on personal hobbies/rest. Lately for fun I have been running outside a lot (despite the cold), finally getting back into in-person yoga (!!), learning to make bread, and reading a lot.

We also went on a trip to Phoenix, AZ, with family recently – the warm weather and time outside was amazing coming from the cold Michigan weather!

As we head into February, I’m looking forward to the days getting a little longer, continuing going to yoga once a week, heading up north with friends at the end of the month, and seeking to enjoy the little things each day as life can continue to feel stressful/unpredictable with all that’s going on in the world.

Thank you for reading!