Kat's third post

Who am I and what am I doing here seems like it should be an easy question.  On the surface, I’m Kat and I’m here at Northeastern to get my degree. I think surface answers are boring.  

I’m Kat.  I am a student and a daughter and a sister and a friend.  Until recently, my life looked really different. Obviously college is a completely different experience than living at home is, but it has changed significantly more than I expected it to.  At home, I went to church every week to mentor the sixth graders, and I rode horses competitively and practiced almost every day. The time that I did spend at home was usually not with my family; I felt as if I needed a break whenever I was at home for a prolonged period of time and interacting with my family felt draining.  Now that I’m not living at home in good old Minnesota anymore, I’m away from my home church and horses. These changes I expected. One of the biggest changes that I wasn’t anticipating was the huge increase with talking to my family. It never occurred to me that my brothers might miss me, or that my mom would actually find time to call. Although a welcome change, it was definitely unexpected.  Things with my family have changed a lot, and most of my personal habits have remained steady, but I have also developed new ones. I still knit as much as I can and I try to read when I have downtime, but now I actually choose to go to the gym since I don’t have riding anymore to keep me in shape. I keep my things much more organized than I do at home since I have such limited space in the dorms.  Throughout my time here at Northeastern I hope to keep growing and adding new habits to the old.

As to why I am here, yes the bottom line is to get my degree.  I am a health science major and as of right now I plan to attend medical school post graduation.  I have always had dreams of being a doctor, but they seemed far off and unattainable, but now everything seems to be rushing at me a million miles per hour.  I always knew that I wanted to come to school on the east coast because I was in desperate need of a break from the midwest. Northeastern wasn’t my first choice, but it was definitely my best choice for the major I was looking at.  The other schools I applied to would have worked out alright for me, but my best friends sister attends Northeastern and she had a hand in convincing me of the benefits that this school had to offer. Also, at the end of the day my mom was breathing down my neck to commit to a school, so I chose as soon as I knew what my options were.  Even though my decision to come to Northeastern was perhaps a tad haphazard, I am very content with choices that I made in order to get here.