Laidlaw was a fascinating experiment in truly living independently for the first time in myself; cooking for myself, creating structure for myself, and of course, journeying through the process of independent research for the first time. One of the great things about this program is that, without the added pressure of academic stress, I was able to set my own priorities and invest time in what was important. Given a rather rough first year of college, marked by some struggles with wellness, I decided to focus on improving my physical and mental health as well as work on my research, with training and licensure courses for my job as an EMT rounding out my time. Through discussions with my friends, folks at the Georgetown Academic Resource Center, and meetings with Colleen, our Laidlaw Coordinator here at the Hilltop, I put together a list of strategies that helped me accomplish these goals.

Prioritizing my physical and mental health- One of my key personal goals this summer was to improve my physical conditioning and build a habit of daily exercise. I was neglecting my physical fitness in the past school year, and this had a negative effect on my energy levels, social life, and academic performance. This summer, I made sure to set aside time every day to exercise. Initially, I tried working out in the mornings, but realized that that would eat up the most productive hours of my day and also leave me tired in the afternoon. I then shifted to working out in the afternoon, after completing my work for the day, and that greatly improved my productivity.  

Creating an efficient working environment- As my research is mainly computational, with no laboratory work, I often found myself going outside less, with my efficiency suffered as a result. However, I brought this up with my faculty mentor, and I eventually started going out to the lab space used by the Center for Global Health Science and Security to work on my code, a decision that proved quite good at improving my productivity.

Balancing my job training and research demands- During my research period, I was also undergoing reciprocity classes and company trainings for my job as an emergency medical technician in Maryland. This involved online courses as well as a few day trips up to the company office in Baltimore. After a few missteps, I learned to communicate the days I had to leave with my faculty sponsor well in advance, and we structured our meeting schedule and expectations around days I was out of town. Additionally, I was able to take advantage of the excellent commuter rail here in the northeast, a rarity back home in Texas, and get some reading done on the trips up and down.