I realized while I was chatting with my boyfriend after an essay exam describing the cardiac cycle in Human Physiology... that I'm juggling a whole heck of a lot of things.
"Working full-time, taking a class, training for a marathon, and maintaining my important relationships is HARD!"
God, for all the times I've ever felt inadequate and paralyzed in my life... I never stop to realize how much I'm accomplishing just by doing things. I was talking to a classmate of mine and describing my life story: how I was born and raised in SoCal, went to community college, got a scholarship to get my undergarduate degree in Chemical Engineering in Hong Kong, paid my own room and board through tutoring and played basketball on the collegiate team (lucky stroke, I guess), got my Masters degree from Cal/UCSF in Translational Medicine (a program that trains engineers, clinicians, and the business-savvy to take technology from benchside to bedside), and am now working at UCSF as a research coordinator/project manager en route to a potential startup that uses machine learning to predict cardiac arrests in the intensive care unit. It's not a perfect story as there were definitely hardships and obstacles and things I could have done better or even embraced better along the way (there still are). But DAMN. Am I lucky to have such a rich life, or what?
I stop, though, for a second and I think:
"To the outside world, I must seem extremely unfocused--doing so many things at one time and going so many places with so many different focal points. Maybe for other people, they need a straightforward trajectory. But me? I guess I've always needed exploration. I've always needed to throw a bunch of dots on the wall, albeit loosely connected, and paint a picture that way."
So that's how the whole life cartography (the title of my blog) thing comes in. That's me. I am mapping out my own life, my way. Maybe I'm just a free spirit that acts caged. Or I'm a caged spirit trying to sing. Whatever is happening, I've only begun to scratch the surface of the final masterpiece of life....
The following is an attempt to illustrate the current picture of my life:
Big themes:
- Sports and athletics, specifically, rehab from personal injury or self-imposed limitations.
- As reflected with all my previous posts which are ALL race reports, my current obsession is in the form of marathon training and cycling training. I'm constantly trying to take my training to the next level but need to be patient with aerobic training and injury prevention. My current foray into training involves low heart rate (Maffetone-influenced) pacing to build up my aerobic base.
- I'm currently taking classes that will help my fulfill the pre-requisites for PT school. So far, I've finished a Human Anatomy course (A) at CCSF and am working on a human physiology course. Here are the current requirements for the SFSU/UCSF DPT program: http://ptrehab.ucsf.edu/prerequisite-coursework. I'm taking this, literally, one class at a time. But I will be taking a break from it next semester (if I feel like I can handle it, I will be taking a SQL database course instead). Ideally, I'd love to be the first dual degree PhD student in the DPT program, but I would also aim for the Northwestern dual degree program in DPT/PhD (Eng): http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/pthms/admissions/dpt-phd/index.html
- I feel like in order to "fit in" with the PT school stereotype, I need to finally achieve some of the lofty goals I set for myself: specifically, a sub-8 pace HM and a BQ Marathon time. LOFTY. But why set the bar any lower?! What is it that they say: "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars."
- In addition, I'm finding it hard for the extrovert in me to break out of the safety of my "I'm a nerdy engineer" shell.
- Healthcare technology/Bioengineering/Data science/and All things nerdy.
- I'm neglecting this quite a bit in my distractions with running and cycling. But I do feel like these things are a part of me. As mentioned, the classes are taking quite a bit of my commitment to work and research. Next semester, I will be reinvigorating my dedication to that.
- Data science: it's a love-hate kind of thing. I sort of just "fell into it" and so I never have had formal training. But I feel like I'm the person who could understand complicated patterns in healthcare. Specifically, EMR. But I think I could stand to learn more about physiological signals.
- Other goals in life:
- Volunteer mission. Before going to PT school, I want to volunteer my time in either my parents' country: the Philippines or another country (Nepal?) on a mission to improve sports education and physical therapy there via health programs, improved and affordable technology, and a better EMR system.
- Before the volunteer mission, I need to volunteer time in a dream PT clinic that will teach me the specific skills I need to learn.
- Learn Chinese. Ugh. I wish I had learned Mandarin when I was in Hong Kong. But it's nothing an immersion program couldn't solve? And maybe I could manage my mission in Hong Kong? I DON'T KNOW.
- Maintain a happy, long-lasting, mutually supportive and dedicated relationship. (Come now, who doesn't want this?)
What's next?:
- 5 year plan:
- Y1.25(remainder of 2016 and 2017):
- finish physiology class
- personal athletic goals
- learn more data science and physiological signals.. co-author 1 paper (EMR-related)
- superalarm development (startup?)
- Y2+3 (2018, 2019)
- work.. co-auther 2nd paper (physiological signal related)
- volunteer mornings at PT
- network and meet more PT and find more tech related to PT
- develop volunteer mission plan
- Y4 (2020)
- work work work
- volunteer mission! (3-6mo.)+language immersion (1 mo. or simultaneous)
- apply to PT school/PhD Eng
- Y5 (2021)
- PT school!!
- Y10.... be the director of a full-fledged neurorehab clinic. :O
Okay. So the dreams are lofty. But now that my crazy far-out ideas are here in the electronic abyss... maybe it will happen. Maybe I'll be unashamed or I'll learn how to be unabashed on my ideas in life. Maybe it'll go faster or slower than the 5-year plan proposes. But wow, I'll be 31 by then.... hey, if that's what it takes.
Everyone arrives... when they arrive.
