Tuesday December 23, 2014

The last two weeks of my internship at Asian Liver Center (ALC) have come to a close. It was a strange way to end, with people gradually leaving here and there; a drawn-out series of small goodbyes. The first goodbye kind of hit me unexpectedly, it felt too soon and as if I’d be seeing them again after the weekend. We were busy too, and that was a kind of distraction. (PS. I’m writing this in a rush one week later, so dear reader, forgive me for the chaotic and somewhat unstructured post.)

Since it’s all jumbled up anyways, here’s an update on what I was involved:

Outreach is never a cookie-cutter exercise. You’re constantly learning on the run and adjusting as you go. Flexibility and people skills are key, and it makes a huge difference to be doing it with a partner or a team so you can encourage each other and continually evaluate/refine how things are going.

I was presenting on a fitness/awareness walks program we had been developing for a few weeks, which involved Taichi exercises for the liver, a short walk around the company campus, and an educational booth. The purpose was to develop an engaging and time-efficient (sustainable) way to update the current program, which involves a lecture from Dr So and onsite screening for hepatitis B. I’m not going to go into full details of what happened except to say that I was very nervous, feeling out of my league amongst all the older executives, the discussion didn’t really go as we expected but it was a good learning experience for all of us.

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I keep saying this again and again, but I felt like another week or so would have given me time to tie up some loose ends in those projects. I wanted to follow up those calls in Cupertino, especially having said to the restaurant workers that we would call one week later. Next year won’t be soon enough, they may have forgotten or stopped caring by then. I wanted to consolidate the work on the youth leadership conference themes, to continue developing the pitch for the online store. Leaving that work unfinished is unsettling, and makes me question myself. Did I work hard enough during that period? How will the next person be able to continue where I left off? Will it be dropped and go to waste? Did I make a worthwhile contribution, or at the very least, did I try?

In retrospect, I can see that this internship has taught me a few things. The first is quite simply that although I do really care about public health, I could not forsee myself working in a public health department without a direct connection with the patient-doctor front. The more steps between the people we are trying to help and the program we are developing to help them, the harder I find to feel that sense of purpose and really direct it towards fulfilling a need. Conversely, I really admire people who are suited for these roles, because we do need them for sure.

Another big lesson I’ve learnt has been the importance of planning. Oh boy, I’ve never been much of a planner, which is why a lot of the time I can feel chaotic and confused doing things, as if I’m constantly running around and recalibrating like a headless homing chicken. But by planning ahead, there’s a much greater chance you can make sure gaps are covered, and once the foundation is set, you can see even more potential for new ideas. I believe that you need good intention + good implementation for things to work out, and planning is inevitably part of good implementation (I begrudgingly admit).

I’ve got a few more days here, visiting places with friends, touring around other parts of California and beyond with people so kind to take me. I’m in awe of how much time has passed, how quickly it all accelerated towards the end, with every day packed full of things to do and people to meet. That’s really been the most incredible part of being here: meeting people, getting to know them, sharing meals and car-trips and New Year’s resolutions. I’m excited to go home, I really am. My head is swimming with ideas and things to do (more than the time I have!! ARGH!!) Things are still messed up in my mind, with lists and responsibilities and plans.

But golly gosh, there is something more that underlies everything that’s happened and everything that is about to happen. Why has this experience been so fulfilling, so rich with awesomeness!? I can’t answer that to completion, but what I do know is that spending time with people and being the recipient of so much love and kindness has really made this time meaningful and full of joy. It feels unfair, the amount that people have helped me during this trip, whether it has been giving me a place to stay, showing me around San Francisco (do not call it ‘Frisco’!!), taking me on roadtrips into the great beyond, letting me tag along for the ride and sharing a bit of their lives. And dear reader, whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you for reading this story and I can only hope that these things will inspire you to appreciate everyday as it comes, be honest and open, give back as much as you can. These are things I’m constantly learning too. One more special post to come and then that closes this series!

Mate, what a journey! Hope you have a very merry Christmas and embrace the new year :)

Carrie

Thursday September 12, 2014

Palo Alto, California

On the road, San Francisco

They say you should never start by describing the weather, but I’m going to start this post by describing the weather. 

We’re having the “worst storms since 1988”, schools have allegedly been closed due to flash flooding and cars are clogging up the big highways like blocked plumbing. It’s kind of exciting (floods! Storms! much needed rain in a drought-stricken area! Drama! Exclamation mark!) but mainly because I know it won’t last for very long. Soon things will go back to normal.

I’ve passed the half-way point in this internship. This week has been 1000x better than the last. In retrospect, it feels like week 1 was orientation, week 2 was idle-thanksgiving-everyone’s-gone-home time, and week 3 things are getting more exciting!

Quick overview of what I’ve been doing since my last post:

There’s a lot of stuff I could go on about Cupertino yesterday. But let’s just say that when it comes to non-profit/community outreach – it comes down to people. You can prepare all you want, write out scripts, but in the end reality is messy and slightly unpredictable. You need to be flexible, adapt to different people and environments, and this is definitely something I’m still getting the hang of. Little people skills like speaking slowly, smiling, introducing yourself, listening, all these things matter. No one is perfect. But we can try our best to be genuine.

Being able to take part in this internship has been an incredible opportunity. On one level, it’s given me a huge insight into how ALC operates, the kind of scale and logistics involved, what public health looks like in an institution, picking up skills etc. But moreover, it’s granted me time – time to spend getting to know the other interns, meeting people around the area (including family!) and understanding life in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley/AMERICA. Sure, I’m not going out ticking off all the touristy attractions. But I’m getting a real experience by engaging with everyday people and their lives here, which means so much more to me.

Carrie

3 for Life - Week 2/3 at Asian Liver Center (ALC)

Wednesday, December 4, 2014

Thanksgiving came and went in a blur of turkey, pumpkin pie and online sales. Meanwhile, I had been taking a break from ALC, which was closed for the thanksgiving weekend. Things had gotten a little quiet at the office in the lead up to thanksgiving. Some of the staff and interns had gone to their respective homes for the week. In those fragmented days, I floated, pottered, was assigned a few tasks, sat in on a meeting or so.

Justin (social media), Angelica (corporate) and I (general/miscellaneous) joined brains and came up with this masterpiece, wishing the invisible social media audience a happy thanksgiving. The expert artwork was the product of peer-teaching, Justin and Angelica evoked a sense of childhood nostalgia in their demonstration of tracing around one’s palm to draw a turkey.

Ie. I drew a turkey by tracing my hand (masterpiece shown below).

Here’s a brief overview of what I’ve been working on lately:

***

I’m going to go ahead and be a little bit honest for a moment. It’s challenging sometimes, finding ways to be real and honest whilst realising that an “audience” will be reading these words. (By the way: Hi there, thanks for reading!) But that was the point of this blog; to be honest, or at least to try and be honest.

So, for the past week or so, I’ve had a few ups and downs. There were times where I felt idle and useless, questioned what I was doing here, whether I could have any contribution, or if I was just a random pleb floating around, not really having much input and kind of being in the way. Basically, I was having doubts. For sure, it’s been amazing getting to know the people at ALC, especially the other interns, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. But I’m not used to the idea of stringent quality control, just pushing through and revising what I think are menial things again and again, sometimes just to be scrapped when they’re sent for approval. At other times I felt like I had nothing to do, and was almost ‘making up’ tasks to do.

Somewhere in that period, I was caught thinking about that idea of expectations vs reality (yup – go re-watch that wrenching scene in 500 Days of Summer, it gets me every time). Things weren’t going how I expected them to. And that meant something: I was actually hanging onto expectations, which contradicted the very task I had given myself in the first place. Wasn’t the point to come in without expectations, be open to learn, and contribute wherever I could?

***

I’ll just tie up this post with a little comment about travel. I’ve been finding that travelling abroad makes me feel a stronger sense of connection with Australia. I feel proud to be Australian and embrace a sense of Aussie identity, something I rarely experience at home. Perhaps being surrounded by a foreign environment and being around people of different backgrounds has an alienating effect. Perhaps then, the instinctive response is to cling tighter to what is familiar and feels like home.

Carrie