Happy Monday! I am finally back to blogging after taking a few weeks off. We went to St. Augustine a few weeks ago with Alec’s side of the family which we really enjoyed! I had never been to that part of Florida before so it was fun to see/explore.

I especially enjoyed all the fresh seafood, running on the beach in the morning (more like run/walking since it was extremely hot/humid), exploring downtown St. Augustine, and spending time with family.

When we got home from Florida, it was a quick turnaround at home to do laundry/re-pack and then we headed to my grandparents’ house for a long 4th of July weekend with all of my cousins/aunts/uncles/immediate family on that side of the family. It was quite the fun weekend with 22 of us all together in my grandparents’ 4-bedroom ranch!

We spent the weekend boating/tubing/waterskiing/wake-boarding, playing games/cards, hanging out, and enjoying some fireworks, of course!

When we got back from all of the family time, it was a quick turnaround before I began my dietetic internship. Needless to say, we are feeling a bit worn out from everything that’s been going on (it’s all been mostly good things though, for sure!) and in need of some more downtime and hopefully a slower pace soon.

I started my internship last week on Monday. Things started off relatively chill with a (mostly) virtual internship from home! It was totally virtual except for one in-person lunch where I also got my laptop, badge, RD exam study materials, etc. It is crazy to think that it was the first time that I have actually been inside the School of Public Health since mid-March of 2020 when all of my classes went virtual for the rest of my program!

During orientation we mainly went over expectations, reviewed MNT concepts (medical nutrition therapy), and did other typical orientation-like things such as talk about professionalism, goal setting, ethics, etc. I know most of the other interns in my program already because most of them were also in my graduate program. There are also a few new people who didn’t do Michigan’s graduate program who I am looking forward to getting to know!

My internship consists of a lot of different rotations, each lasting anywhere from 1-6 weeks. I will finish up at the end of March 2022. The rotations are all really different but are generally in the areas of community and clinical nutrition, as well as food service, maternal/infant health, and more. I am most looking forward to my rotation at Michigan Medicine’s eating disorder program, a private practice rotation focused on functional and integrative nutrition, a rotation at St. Joe’s farm, and food service with UofM Dining. Most people tend to dread food service but I feel like it will be kind of fun since I really enjoy my (very relevant) job at Juicy Kitchen and I am also doing it with one of my good friends in the program! Unfortunately for most of the rotations we are all going to them on our own, so there are only one or two rotations where I will have someone else there from my program at the same time as me.

I’m feeling both anxious and excited about getting started – anxious because I tend to generally be somewhat anxious when I am in a transition, and excited because it is one of the final steps before I become an RD and I am looking forward to all that I will learn/experience! It is also a bit anxiety-inducing to me with how often our rotations change – it seems like once I finally get used to a rotation it will quickly change again. (Although this is also a good thing in some ways, like if I am not really enjoying a certain rotation). It is also challenging with COVID because so many rotations are still all or partially remote, and we won’t know for sure if we will be remote or in-person until we email our preceptors the week before the next rotation starts. So it feels hard to envision what things will look like without knowing if I will end up being remote or in-person for most of the internship. It’s hard to say what will happen, as things will likely continue to evolve and change as the months go on!

Today I am starting my first rotation at Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels. This rotation is only a week long so seems like a good “intro” to things. I will be doing two days in-person and two days from home. (I am only doing the internship four days a week). We’ll see how it goes!! Next week I have a week at home of “motivational interviewing bootcamp,” where I will be practicing my counseling skills more in-depth before beginning my clinical rotations. I’m looking forward to that as I want to continue improving my MI skills!

That’s all for now! I will keep updating on the blog with how the internship is going, what I’m learning, and more. I hope to get back to posting 1-2 times a week (probably on Monday and Wednesdays) with more life and nutrition/food-related topics as time allows! Hope you have a wonderful week!