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In 1923, my Austrian great-great-grandparents boarded a boat called “The Amsterdam” in Holland, which would eventually make its way to New York.  They wanted to come to America to see how great it really was.  When they arrived, knowing their destination was Chicago, they began to make their way toward the Midwest.

Note: In doing some research I found a website where you can find the ship and passenger boarding information about your ancestors, what year they came, where they came from and possibly a picture of the ship as it was coming to America.  My name is quite common in Austria so I wasn’t able to find anything.  There are many versions of my last name.  It could have adapted from something else.  Very cool though.  You can actually get your hands on those boarding documents. I’m assuming if I spent a few hours, I may come across something.

When they arrived in Chicago, they settled in a building around North Avenue and Pulaski. This building had a store on the first floor.  My great-great-grandfather was a contractor and his son (my great-grandfather) was a bricklayer but they eventually opened a live poultry store on the first floor of their building.

My grandfather and his family went to St. Philomena Parish and elementary school on Kedvale and Courtland.  After elementary school, he attended Austin High School.  When my great-grandfather passed away, my grandfather took over the family business.

My grandmother and her sister came from Poland with her family.  They settled down near Augusta and Ashland, otherwise known as Ukrainian Village.  Her father worked in a factory and her mother stayed home.

After coming back from World War II, my grandfather met my grandmother.  They had four children, Larry, Marilyn, Tom (my father) and Donna.  My father attended St. Philomena for elementary school and Prosser for high school.  He also eventually worked at the family store.

When my parents met, they moved to an apartment on Pulaski and Milwaukee.

When my grandfather turned 42, he sold the poultry store and became an insurance man.  Twenty-three years later, he retired.  He and my grandmother moved to where they still live in Jefferson Park.

After a few years, my parents moved to Carbondale in Southern Illinois, where my oldest brother was born.  They moved back to Chicago by Kildare and Fullerton, then to a house by Lamon and Fullerton, where my other brother and I were born.  They were there for 13 years until my father got a job offer on the other side of the city.  So, in 1990 we moved again to the house we live in now by Harlem and Grand.

Chicago has not only been the place where I was born and raised, but it’s where my heart and soul is.  As a little kid, I wasn’t sure If I would ever leave Chicago.  As an adult, I know this is where I’ll stay.

“The adventure continues…” is a phrase my boyfriend and I constantly said during our spring break staycation.  We planned an exciting getaway together and things just kept going wrong.  Some points we really just had to laugh it off.

1.) First, we booked a room at a bed and breakfast, we meant to check in at 3:30 p.m., but the traffic was horrible.  Right when we were leaving my apartment, we encountered some intoxicated guys watching March Madness games. They were having trouble catching a cab and thought it would be fun to pretend my boyfriend’s car was a cab. One guy tried to open the car door.  I may have said some pretty bad obscenities.  The adventure began…..

2.) When we finally got to the bed and breakfast, the proprietor had issues finding the key to our room.  The adventure continues…

3.) After we get settled, we had issues turning on the TV.  Somehow I turned on the childlock for the DVD player and ”50 First Dates” just kept playing over and over again (how appropriate).   So then we decided to play some Wii.  After spending about 25 minutes trying to hook up the Wii, there is no color on the TV.  We decide to live with it and get our Wii on, but one of the Wii controllers did not work!   The adventure continues….

4.) The next day, after eating a nice breakfast from the bed and breakfast, my boyfriend and I went out to grab a chess set from Walgreens ( I really wanted to learn chess during spring break).  As we were sitting in the car….someone hit my boyfriend’s front bumper.  The adventure continues…

5.) After we made it back to the room and played a little chess, it was time to get ready for a surprise my boyfriend had set up.  I just knew I had to dress nice.  I probably spent about an hour on my hair.  We went outside to catch a cab, but it was SUPER windy and the cabs just kept passing us by.  All the work I spent getting ready was for nothing.  The adventure continues…

Pre-surprise. I decided to even ditch my signature braids for the occasion.

6.) We went to my favorite restaurant, Karyn’s Cooked. Luckily, this was incident free. Afterwards we got into another cab and my boyfriend made me close my eyes.  He wrote down the location where we were going and told the taxi driver “this is a surprise, so I don’t want to say where we were going.” The next thing I heard the taxi driver say is “Oh, State and Monroe, OK!”   I could feel my boyfriend’s anger with my eyes closed.  The adventure continues….

7.) The next part was great. We got out of the cab and I realized we were going to see The Book of Mormon!  Not only that, but my boyfriend bought VIP tickets.  We had an open bar and a semi-private bathroom.  I highly recommend The Book of Mormon!  It was funny and entertaining. The adventure became awesome…..

8) The next day was spent staying indoors.  We played chess, watched cable (we both don’t have it) and relaxed for the first time in about a month.   Life just could not get better until…..

….Someone hit my boyfriend’s car again, really doing a number on the driver side door.  The adventure just keeps on continuing…..

Hello UIC!

Happy April! Hope your spring break was fabulous! I know mine was! I didn’t do anything too fancy or fun, but I spent a lot of time preparing myself for upcoming exams for after spring break. I didn’t want to procrastinate on studying because it gets too overwhelming. We have about a month left of classes so it is safe to say that we are in the final stretch!

Other than studying, spring break did give me the chance to do some spring cleaning. I looked through piles and piles of old high school test scores and homework assignments and memories and decided to recycle most of it. I also looked through old clothes to donate and I got rid of pounds full of old clothes. I also helped my younger brother do the same thing.

In addition, spring break gave me the chance to think about what I want to do for the summer. I want to make sure I am being as productive as possible!

How did the rest of you spend your spring break?

A lot has been on my mind lately. I wrote last week about not rushing into things and really exploring what it is you want to do. What was I conflicted about? Well, deciding to go to medical school (more like just applying) is an expensive choice that can lead to great things if I really want it. And I was very sure I wanted it, but with my lack of clinical experience it’s still kind of hard to prove to myself (and the person who reviews my application) that it is what I want to do. It’s hard to find doctors who are willing to let you shadow them, and I heard volunteering doesn’t get you much experience to really understand what it is to be a physician. I’m going to be trying really hard this summer to do well on my MCAT and to get that clinical experience (long-term) that I need to prove to myself that this is in fact that I want to do.

Over spring break I had to cook for myself (I know, very lame), and it was great! I used a packet of ramen, cut up some green onion, and added Taiwanese meatballs. It tasted soooo good! I'm excited for my foods class next semester and pretty soon I will have fulfilled my nutrition minor.

I was also thinking about teaching. Last semester I went to an informational session about the MEd in Instructional Leadership: Science Education and I really enjoyed learning about the program and meeting the faculty. They were so awesome! When I think about the work I do as the Activities Chair for my pre-medical club, I always keep the students at the schools we teach (Health Activism Committee) in mind (even the students’ parents). I try my best to motivate the members to be filled with energy, willing to help those in underserved communities just near UIC and it is a very rewarding experience. It’s also the only time I give to volunteering (darn tuition tripled so I had to work a lot more to make up for it) and I was a pioneer of volunteering my freshman year! I loved it so much and wanted to make it an integral part of each semester, so thankfully I have HAC. Although, elections for next year’s e-board members will be coming up soon and we’ll see who gets the most votes.

I’ve also had a lot of other experiences with teaching, such as tutoring at the writing center and my volunteering experience in Taiwan where I got to teach English in disadvantaged areas. To serve is the greatest honor (in my opinion!).

And so, my “in the moment” plan was to take a year off to get clinical experience while pursuing a masters, and if I didn’t get into medical school right away I could at least apply for teaching jobs because I know I’d enjoy that, but then I was wondering if I would still even want to go to medical school at that point?

And then it hit me (after watching a terrifyingly sad “Walking Dead” episode all by myself), my freshman year had it all right. I should have known, and I think I did, but somehow along the way my mind got clouded (perhaps from miscellaneous sad events) and I grew doubt of everything. The whole reason I got into research in the first place my freshman year was because of a speaker who was at my pre-medical organization to talk about her dual degree (MD/PhD) and she said the earlier you get into it, the better. I immediately was all giddy after her presentation because that was what I wanted to do, to not just care for patients but to find new therapies and contribute to the field so that others can be aware. Not only can I do research, but I can teach and see patients as well. There are a lot of career opportunities too! Thinking about all of that, it’s never made me happier to be out of my net, with one goal in my mind and to do my best this semester as well as my coming senior year (can you believe I’m going to pick my classes already?). Speaking of which, here’s what I have tentatively planned:

• HN 110 – Foods (I get to learn how to cook, finally!)
• HN 202 – Food and Culture (I get world culture credit AND learn about food? Yay!)
• HN 311 – Nutrition and the Life Cycle (This will definitely come in handy with pregnancies)
• BIOS 221 – Genetics Lab (I heard this class used to be so easy and you didn’t even have to do the labs, but apparently they are changing it and you have to stay the whole time and actually do the labs. Well, more work to do but hopefully I learn something…)
• Biochem lab? I’m not sure if I get credit for it towards my degree but you get to write actual top-notch lab reports that look like the stuff you see in published journals, and I DEFINITELY want to do that…even though it’ll be a heck of a lot of work and a slight pain in my back!
• Anatomy? The kinesiology waiting list for this class still isn’t up, but I’d really like to take it!!!

Anyways, spring break wasn’t too bad. I didn’t do as much studying as I’d like to (exam on April 4, eep…and MCAT is in a month!), but that always happens whenever I come home. I just tend to choose my family over studying, but I also try my best to tell them, “HEY DON’T BOTHER ME WHEN I STUDY OKAY?” but they still come into my room and say things like “What are you doing? Do you want food? Hey look at this! Does it look good?” There’s no avoiding it, but I don’t mind. I took another practice MCAT and my score went up two points! Now I am at least competitive for DO schools, yay! I had an erhu recital on Saturday at the Elk Grove Village Library and I practiced so hard for that song. I only had a week to practice it, and it’s like freaking 9 minutes long. I’ve never done a solo on the erhu! When my teacher scanned me the song and I looked it over, I was like “heh heh…you want me to play THIS? O___O” in my head I kept thinking “this woman has too much confidence in me…” but I’m glad she does because I practiced for hours and hours to get this right. I’m not up to speed as the woman who plays in the video (the link above) but it’s pretty good for only a week! Maybe I will post a video of me playing it…

One more month and then this semester is OVER! Man it still feels like I just came back from Taiwan…

Grr…back to school. On the bright side, there are only six weeks left of classes and finals.

In a sense, this school year has gone by super fast. I often have random moments during the school day in which my mind thinks we are still in the fall semester and still have the spring semester to go. I’m not sure if this is due to the lack of sleep I have had this academic year, or just because the year has gone by fast. I really hope it’s the latter and I’m not losing my mind.

Nevertheless, I have to say I have been proud of my academic achievements this year. I have been able to stay afloat in my classes, especially this semester. I learned a lot about planning my days and using time wisely – something that has taken me a while to learn. I’m just glad it’s come now rather than never. Prioritizing is the key to time management. Do I really have to look up more celebrity gossip at 1 a.m.? It could wait until tomorrow. Should I spend an hour on the phone talking to my best friend? Nope, having a cap of 20 minutes will do. In order to learn time management, you have to figure out what is important and prioritize it according to your daily schedule.

Juggling 18 credit hours, an internship, the Undergraduate Student Government and sanity is difficult – but it could be handled well.

Here’s to six more weeks!

Cheers –

Mike

Usually when you think of spring break, you think warm weather, bathing suits, no work and no school work.  Well, NOT ONE of those things were present for me.  It was cold, I certainly am NOT bikini ready, I had to work and I had a ton of school work to get done.

Bottom Line…It.sure.stinks.being.an.adult.

Monday: I had little sleep and had to nanny. All three boys. All day. It was Sam’s 2nd birthday so I decided to take the boys to Chuck E Cheese’s.  They were pretty well behaved most of the day (which is nothing short of a miracle).  I ran out of money pretty quickly, which then triggered the puppy dog eyes for more tokens.  I tried to ONLY eat a salad because the pizza is not that great.  But I was so hungry that I ended up eating a few pieces (which I IMMEDIATELY regretted).  I felt awful after I ate.  Just totally exhausted and felt like I was moving in slow motion.  That’s what junk food does to me.  After I wrangled all the boys in from choosing their Made in China, probably going to break in an hour toy that they “won”(courtesy of Lauren’s wallet), we headed back to their house.  Ben went with his dad to run an errand, I was able to put Sam down for his nap and Jack grabbed a book and read.  I thought, “Finally, I can start working on my homework.”  Nope.  Distractions. Distractions everywhere.  Ben came back from running errands with his dad and started playing on the Ipad right next to me.  I couldn’t tell him to stop because he was playing an educational game and was asking for help.  On top of that, dad started doing some work in the basement putting up drywall.  Not exactly a quiet project.  At that point, I knew I wasn’t getting any work done.  So, after an hour, or so, I started to make the boys a snack and in runs dad telling me they have to leave ASAP to go an event for mom’s work.  I had to wake up Sam, get him all dressed, yell at Jack and Ben for wrestling on the kitchen floor, and get all of their stuff ready so they were ready to go when Mom came home to pick everyone up.  A pretty exhausting 9 hours.  When I got home, I LITERALLY sat on my couch staring at the wall thinking about a) how much stuff I had to do b) how exhausted I felt c) how I HAD to find the energy to go to the gym.

Tuesday: The day began with Jack and Ben fighting. The day continued with Jack and Ben fighting. The day ended with Jack and Ben fighting.  Dad and I ended up splitting up for the morning.  I took Jack and Sam to the library.  But I forgot that Lollapalooza tickets were going on sale that morning.  I tried doing it on my phone and it wasn’t working.  I was that girl walking around with my phone in the air looking for a signal.  So, I had Jack watch Sam for a little bit while I hopped on the computers and got tickets.  I’m glad I did. The 3-day passes ended up selling out.   Things were fine during lunch. They usually are when they have food in front of them.  Then, Jack and Ben started fighting, AGAIN.  So, I told them I’d prefer if they didn’t play video games when their friends came over for a play date.  The IDEA was to make them come up with other things to do with their friends.  Little did I know it would start World War III.  Dad left to do something so it was me against 5 boys. The rest of the day is sort of a blur with flashbacks of name calling, tattle tales and the sound of my quiet sob in the background.

Wednesday: Was less stressful.  I spent the morning at St. Edmunds doing some observation hours.  I always look forward to going there and spending time in the preschool class.  Those kids genuinely make me laugh.  They are only 3 years old have have such amazing personalities.  Just for fun, I want to collect some data on how many times I see the kids fingers in their noses.  HUNDREDS. In the afternoon I went back to nanny.  The boys were a little less crazy.  Still fighting…amazingly.  But I kept them busy which always helps.
Thursday: DAY OFF! Well, kind of.  I still did a couple observation hours in the morning.  The rest of the day I got to spend with my guy.

Friday: Homework. All. Day.

That was my spring break.  It wasn’t very springy and it wasn’t a break from anything.

Now summer break…THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!

One of the perks of living in the city is the amount of things you can do! This week has been full of actually having a life. A couple of friends and I went to Ghiradelli Chocolate yesterday and their sundae was absolutely mouth-watering! My friend and I had to share one because we didn’t think we could finish one on our own. It’s funny because for the past two months I have been living in a cave. This semester has been super busy and has required me to study A LOT. This week was a little more relaxed because all my exams were the week before.

My friend Priyanka (left) whom I met in high school! She's a fun one to be around!

This was a good start to what is going to be a somewhat of a spring break… I have exams right after spring break so I’m studying the majority of the time.

Hope you all are having a wonderful spring break!

There is no rush to get into medical school. What was all of the hype earlier? When I had this inclination a few months ago to take the MCAT by the end of March and to apply to all of the medical schools in the state of Illinois no matter what, I think I might have been overly confident in my abilities. I mean, writing my personal statement has been very difficult, mainly because I know why I want to be a doctor but I lack the clinical experiences that would really PROVE to someone that I know what I am getting myself into. Sure, I am capable, but I think when it comes to choosing when it is you want to pursue such an occupation is crucial (or any type of graduate school post-undergrad) for you.

How do you know you’re ready? Medical school sounds like all of the science classes at UIC, jam-packed into one semester for four consecutive years! Imagine being an incoming freshman bombarded with that…everybody would drop out! I hear a lot of people who go into medical school right away get burnt out and wish they had taken a year off, and I hear a lot of people who do take time off before going to medical school are really glad they did. Of course, there are also those who wish they went in right away and did not take the time off.

So, back to the question, how do you know you’re ready? You don’t. Not unless you’ve really experienced it. I’m not sure if I’m ready to drop $200,000 and four years of my life to do this (especially not after reading In Stitches by Anthony Youn in my ASAM 105 class). As exciting as it sounds, it really takes a lot of persistence, maturity and motivation to survive and push forward to the end goal of becoming a doctor (because it is what you want to do, right?) and then working the rest of your life as whatever physician you choose to be. But coming out of medical school you don’t really have a choice to not work because you’ll be in so much debt (unless you signed up for a program that relieves that debt).

And what is a world without choices? Every day we should be making decisions so that in the end we can work towards our goal, but some people may not even know what they are working towards and that’s okay! There is no rush to figuring out what it is you want to do. It’s easier if you do know, but life is not easy (obviously). What should be done, however, is pursuing what you THINK your interest lies, even if you think it’s “stupid.” After all, you don’t know if you like something until you try it (please stay away from drugs though o_o). Occupational-wise, it is good to do your research, get some experience with that field and really understand what it is to do what a person in that field does. It will either make you even more excited to pursue that interest, or it will make you realize you could never see yourself doing that and then you can move on and explore your other interest.

And while we can do that AFTER pursing our original interest, we could not be able to do so until retirement (if that is possible) — let’s say around 50 years old — and by that age you probably don’t want to go traveling and taking pictures anymore.

We’re still young and have a lot to learn. Don’t be scared to push off some things if you’re not ready because when you are ready, you’ll be able to do just about anything you want.

–

Anyway, update with me:

1. Received a fellowship for the summer to do research at the same lab that I’ve been working in (very excited and can’t wait to fully immerse myself into research)…also got published
2. HAC had a successful time at Clemente High School! Looking to go to more schools in April
3. Did really well on my second biochemistry exam as well as my quizzes for my other two biology classes (studying = huge pay off)
4. Improved my MCAT score even though I didn’t study for two weeks and got sick
5. Plan to study a lot during spring break for my homeostasis exam (on April 4), and to also study for the MCAT..do research, get my allergy shots…OH and play at my erhu teacher’s recital (I have to play this really hard erhu piece that you can listen to here).
6. Sign up for classes on April 3 (can’t decide what to do still)
7. Plan for my Honors College capstone project for the fall and spring of 2013-2014 (eep!)
8. Work on my personal statement, think about who can write me LORs, and find shadowing opportunities…

As a communication major, I frequently study the impact and mechanisms of social media and technology. Now I won’t bore you by citing research, but I do want to highlight something I noticed in regards to the popular Facebook page, UIC Confessions.

The page basically posts anonymous confessions from UIC students. Through an external website, students can submit text up to 300 words. The unknown page admin then posts the confessions on the page for all users to see, comment on and like. It’s pretty a simple, straight-forward format. But it in a weird, sick-twisted way, it’s bringing the students of UIC closer together.

Most of the confessions consist of secret admirers, silly pranks and stories. Some are so farfetched that it leaves me wondering if some of them are real. Nevertheless, all of the confessions make for a good laugh. I have found myself constantly refreshing the page for more hilarious stories. Its a good pick-me-up during a long day. And based off of the many comments and likes on the page’s posts, it seems most students are enjoying the page also.

I love examining the comments on the confessions. Sometimes people respond with snarky feedback, clever comebacks or lengthy laments. It’s also great to see people tagging their friends that the confession could be about. Although it’s entertaining to look at the page’s feedback, I also noticed that the page in itself is a community. Many UIC students are connecting through the page to share stories, experiences, laughs and more. It seems that people are even being connected to crushes through the page. It seems as if the UIC Confessions page has brought together students in a way that I have not seen other outlets do so far in my 3 years at the university. To be quite honest, it seems like students are meeting and conversing with other students more through the UIC Confessions page then through classes or campus social events.

The fact that the UIC Confessions page has brought a sense of community is commendable. It’s very telling to see that this community is taking place online – especially since it’s on Facebook. As a communication major, it really tells me a lot about the shift of communication from in-person to social websites. Is it that hard to talk to someone and share a story or secret in class? Why are we resorting to a Facebook page to air our dirty laundry?

I think what makes the UIC Confessions page so successful is the fact that it’s anonymous, convenient and entertaining. I felt I had to spotlight it this week because whether we notice it or not, what we’re seeing develop before our very eyes is a new form of UIC communities and communication. Welcome to 2013.

PS – Who wrote this about me?

You may have heard about this so-called “Sugar War.”  It has been on all over the news. It involves a fight about the lack of moderation of super-sized sugary drinks consumed by our country.  Mayor Bloomberg of New York wants to ban drinks with an extremely high amount of high-fructose corn syrup and sugar in large quantities to help combat obesity in this country.  On the other side of the debate, people feel that this ban infringes upon their rights.  It has been very heated, becoming yet another debate that eventually is turning into conservatives versus liberals.  An “attack on people’s rights,” if you will.

When I was in grade school, we did not have a pop machine in our lunchroom (I say “pop” because I’m from Chicago and we don’t say “soda”).  We had a “Fruitopia” juice machine.  I rarely used that machine.  I usually just drank the milk they offered.  They actually didn’t even allow any one to drink pop, even if it was brought from home.  I remember my mom packed me a ginger ale and put foil around it so I could have it with my lunch (which was a very rare occurrence).  The lunch lady caught me red handed!! She was nice and let me finish it because obviously my mom had packed it for me.  Where have those times gone?

Today, when I go to the movies and I get a medium drink, it’s 20 oz. A large is 32 oz.  That is insane! No one should drink that much pop.

DID YOU KNOW?

17% of children ages 2-19 are obese.

In 2012, the New York City Board of Health with Mayor Bloomberg approved the restrictions on the sale of large sugary drinks, which was blocked in recent weeks.  Supposedly, the judge said that the rules on this legislation were “arbitrary and capricious,” because they only applied to certain drinks at certain locations. Mayor Bloomberg claims this is an error and plans to appeal.

Obesity is expensive

It seems on the surface that people are obese because the fast food that they consume every day is all they can afford or all they have available.  However, I don’t think people are educated about how important healthy foods.  In the long run, obese people have medical bills that are almost $1,500 more annually than medical bills of people who are not obese.

Approximately 72.5 million American adults are obese 

That number is astounding.  Why?? It seems as though, perhaps, adults within this statistic have not had the proper knowledge of the importance of healthy food.

When I stated earlier that this debate has been heated, blown up and turned into an “attack on people’s rights,”  in the words of Joe Biden…that’s a load of “malarkey.”  My question is….If the people against the regulation of the sales and consumption of large, fully-loaded with sugar, not healthy for you, not necessary and never SHOULD be necessary beverages, say the government is infringing on the American people’s rights, then WHY…tell me, why is it that being against issues like abortion and gay rights DON’T infringe on people’s rights?  People would protect their super-sized 32-oz. or 40-oz. drink over a fellow American’s human rights?

All we are trying to do is get this country healthier.  I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  So, ladies and gentlemen…treat your body like a temple, because you only get one.