First Year Reflection

Ümit Bulut

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” -Søren Kierkegaard

FIRST YEAR OF GRAD SCHOOL. DONE.

In a lot of ways, my first year of graduate school was nothing like I expected. There have been a lot of firsts in this past year. I moved out of my parents house and into my own apartment just before the start of the fall semester. I was obligated to shop and cook for myself, pay my own bills, and aspire to be a functional adult. With no car available, I learned to use the public transportation system. I took the “L” to school and navigated campus by bus. My humble undergraduate experience at a small rural campus of 2,000 students began to dwarf in comparison to the city that is UIC.

The “little fish in a big pond” mindset became even more apparent when I accepted a graduate teaching assistant (TA) position for an undergraduate class in anatomy and physiology. Six hundred students enrolled in the class -- bigger than my whole undergraduate class! I hit the ground running fall semester and was forced to navigate life as a full-time graduate student and a part-time TA (which often felt full-time).

The days were long, filled with classes, anatomy and physiology labs, review labs, and studying. But I loved every minute of it. I loved learning about macronutrients, the pathogenesis of disease, and culture and food, to name a few. Getting a nutrition degree is my dream! So any time I had a bad day I would just take a step back and be thankful, thankful for the opportunity to be accepted into the program and for the opportunity to work.

I got sick about a month before the end of the fall semester. I was experiencing symptoms I attributed to the business of my life -- fever, extreme fatigue, and muscle pain. Without going into all the details, I was hospitalized for two weeks on and off, with doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me. After what felt like hundreds of tests, I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called vasculitis. I was barely able to take my finals, but somehow I was able to finish my first semester. My entire winter break consisted of me slowly recovering. I was sick for a long time and had to delay treatment because of other medical complications.

I began treatment and medication and was well enough to start the spring semester in January. I finally started to feel like I was getting my normal life back when COVID-19 happened. Classes, including my anatomy and physiology labs, abruptly moved to an online platform. I was now an immunocompromised person living in the midst of a global pandemic. I put classes and work on the back burner as I tried to prioritize my health and process through everything I had been through the previous semester. Similar to the fall semester, somehow I was able to finish the spring semester online while still staying somewhat sane.

Online classes presented their own challenges to learning. It was a big adjustment. Although I miss having in-person classes with my cohort, I am thankful for the use of technology that continues to make education possible during this time. I’m thankful for my professors who made the transition smooth. And I’m thankful to be done (for now:)).

Despite all the odds, I finished my first year of graduate school!

Anthony Fomen