Today

Today is a proud day. It is a historic day. It is a day that has brought tears of joy to my eyes and hope to my heart. Today, America has entered a new era. It marks a euphoric moment as my country embraces change and steps forward to lead once again.

Today, we welcomed our 44th President - Barack Hussein Obama.

Today, the doors of the White House have been thrown open by a new President who promises to listen to us as he goes about the tough business of restoring our nation and its reputation in the world. Equally as important, he is a President who will - if his career thus far is any indication - inspire us to be better and more engaged citizens.

As if it weren't historic enough to have such a transformative figure stepping up to lead us, Barack Obama is also our first black President. The gravity of this moment is breathtaking. What does this mean for the future of American politics? What will our future leaders look like? Will we have a rainbow of representation in another eight years time? This by no means solves the racial disparities that still plague our country but how great a leap forward we have taken today.

Today, I am so much more hopeful that our broken world can be saved. This is a turning point in history. The world is watching us. Change will not come quickly, but I have so much faith that in four (or eight!) years, we will look back, amazed at how different a country America is than it has been for the last eight years. Today is a moment of time I will always remember. The tears streaming down my face as I watched President Obama take his oath, the feeling of solidarity with my fellow Americans, and that hope that has characterized Obama's long run to get here. Oh, that soaring hope. Today has been a very good day.

New Year, New You

Ok, I realize we're already two weeks into the new year and I have yet to truly address most of my resolutions - run more, blog more, write in my journal more, and basically take time away from my computer screen to keep myself healthy. After all, how good am I at public health if I forget to keep up habits that contribute to my well-being?!

So...I'll try to do a better job of updating my Seattle Chronicles - if for no other reason than at the end of 2 years (well, 1.5 at this point, I guess) I'll have some record of what the hell I've been doing out here. In the spirit of starting fresh, here is a game that will help the non-public health people in my life understand what I might do with an MPH. This game is especially pertinent considering the latest "Block" of our program - epidemiology and biostatistics.

http://www.mclph.umn.edu/watersedge/

In other news, I started my practicum position today. For the rest of the school year, I will be interning with the HIV/AIDS Education team in the Seattle/King County Department of Health. Everyone there seems really nice and it's good to be back in the HIV/AIDS world. It's an issue that I remain passionate about, even though it's been a few years since I've worked at FIGHT. I'll be creating education materials - right now the priority is to create a fact sheet for case managers and other frontline workers explaining the risks of transmitting HIV if you have an undetectable viral load. For those of you who may not understand what that means, I'll post my InfoGram when I'm done.

Tonight, I need to work on my latest assignment - explaining what Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYS) are. And since it's almost 10pm and I have to work tomorrow AND this is due at 6pm...I'd better stop procrastinating and hop to it.