Welcome To Bah-stan, Pt. 1

After five weeks of isolation in the Grand Canyon, I was beginning to feel it. I missed normal things--like air conditioning, television, internet... family, friends, wal-mart. This internship is amazing, don't get me wrong, but imagine being on your own pretty much all of the time, without social media to fall back on. I can't even get my Women's Health magazine here!

So with the walls of the canyon closing in on me, I opted for a break before my study really commenced and I wouldn't have the time to go.

My parents had just moved to Boxford, Mass (outside of Boston) and I hadn't seen the new place. Also, I hadn't been "home" since, oh, spring break of last semester. It was time to go.

And since I was going to Boston, I thought, hell, let's throw in some college trips too. I emailed Boston University and Tufts University and set up meetings. Of course, to do this, I needed a nice outfit and as anyone living here knows, this can't be found in Flagstaff. The solution: the day before my flight I went to Phoenix and found a mall. A REAL mall, not the Flagstaff's excuse for a mall.

I arrived in Boston Thursday night, glad to escape the blistering Phoenix heat and daily grind of the canyon life. Here there were people, Americans(!), not shoving past you blinded by maps. Regular, everyday people sitting around in Boston Commons talking about nothing. Oh, the life I've been missing. We met up with my uncle's family (in visiting as well), and I had the first Italian food I've had in months. In a restaurant!

Friday morning I decided to go for a run before we had to meet (Tufts at 10, Boston U at 3:30), but managed to get myself locked out of the house, but locked into the yard with my dog. Thanks for not explaining how the driveway gate works, family. Subsequently, I had to wait until my dad let the other dogs out to get in the house and do a speed dress/makeup/shower session. I'd been stuck out in the yard from 6:30 to 8:00 and decided to just jump in the pool and wait.

Tufts, I was pleased to discover, was right in the middle of both Chinatown and the Theater District. Downside? No parking. The school of public health is small and classes are shared spaced in the medical building. Technically, their program is in the medical school. The woman I met with was enthusiastic and explained to my skeptical father what public health degrees were. I could almost see the cogs in his brain doing the math on my future education. Public health? Who goes in to public health?

People like me, of course. The journalist/psych hybrid who loves health and marketing and wants to help people. Not in the "holier-than-thou-I-went-to-med-school-to-save-lives" kind of way, but the "i'm-frustrated-no-one-understands-what-they're-doing-to-society-with-bad-lifestyles" way. Take a look around! We are now in the first generation of people who will not outlive their parents! Health in the US is declining and no one seems to care.

I really think you need some kind of weird personality quirk to want to do something like this. To study biostatistics and package it in a way to change behaviors. Even just typing that makes me excited for grad school. Personality quirk right there. Also, my brain functions more like a rolodex than a social human's. My hobby? Sitting around and searching for information online. Over the past five or six years, I've taken a real interest in public health, I just didn't know what it was called. When I found out that people did this, as a career, it changed my whole outlook on my personal life choices.

So as I was sitting there in Tufts, hearing the woman talking about the programs, I heard all the things I've already been doing and actively seeking out (in pieces) throughout college. If I could have added nutrition as a third major, I would have.

I was impressed by the atmosphere at Tufts. It was very informal, very personal. I could tell the people who went there got one-on-one attention, and were comfortable there. The program only had about 50 people in it, 48 of whom are women.

Boston University was the complete opposite. It had a separate campus and the school of public health is in this old, ivy-covered castle-looking historic building, completely out of place in the modern medical compound surrounding it. There were facilities, student activities, and far more people in the program. While Tufts was intimate, Boston U was everything else but that.

Both schools were amazing, and are highly rated for public health. The choice is between Tufts (good education, great location, personal attention) and Boston U (good education, more social life, out-of-the-way campus). Luckily, I don't have to choose right away. And I may not get in, so there's always that.

I take the GREs in September and have given myself a long time to consider my options. I want to go to grad school, but I don't need to rush into 60 grand of debt!

(In part 2: hiking adventures, pictures and Salem!)