#BlackLivesMatter

I haven't written a blog post in a while. And as much as I would like to update you all on the last couple of months of my first-year of grad school, that is just going to have to wait. 

Right now in American, Black men and women are dying. Police brutality is one of the leading causes of death in young men of color, and 1 in a 1000 Black men are likely to die as a result of a police encounter. 

All lives can't matter until Black lives matter. 

From the mutual foundation of slavery and freedom at the country's inception to the genocide of the Native population that made the "peculiar institution" possible to the racist promulgation of "manifest destiny" to the Chinese Exclusion Act to the codified subordinate status of Black people for a hundred years after slavery ended, they are all grim reminders of the millions of bodies upon which the audacious smugness of American hubris is built. Race and racism have not been exceptions; instead, they have been the glue that holds the United States together.

 

– Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor "From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation"

Please join me in supporting the Black community. 

Find ways that you can help: 

• https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#
• Virtual Protesting 101: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyFgY6jdE0/
• 75 Things You Can Do For Racial Injustice: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
• Petitions You Can Sign: https://twitter.com/rosiegguks/status/1266299358695141378

Places to donate: 

• To support Black trans, queer, non-binary folks and Black women: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA_BDVYjiS-/
• Movement For Black Lives: https://m4bl.org/
• Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com/
• Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision
• National Black Disability Coalition: http://www.blackdisability.org/
• Stream to Donate to BLM (turn off adblocker): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM

Educate Yourself: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11DKdCd4AUmwcG6igDLz9rlYJcdrJzGP6cmy3s7gNgDQ/mobilebasic

Anti-Racism and Allyship Starter Pack: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bUJrgX8vspyy7YttiEC2vD0DawrpPYiZs94V0ov7qZQ/htmlview

Black Revolutionary Texts (PDFs in Google Drive): 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/18y0_2wm85L113fVWYdgljq9uuIlmlbl3

Black History Month (Google Drive Library): 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0Bz011IF2Pu9TUWIxVWxybGJ1Ync

Anti-Racism Resources: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S5uckFHCA_XZkxG0Zg5U4GQGbY_RklZARwu43fqJH0E/mobilebasic

Anti-Racism Book List: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliawuench/2020/06/02/first-listen-then-learn-anti-racism-resources-for-white-people/#313ce5c316ee

Buy from Black-Owned Bookstores: 

https://lithub.com/you-can-order-today-from-these-black-owned-independent-bookstores/

Black Mental Health: 

https://blackmentalhealthmatters.carrd.co/

BlPOC Mental Health: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWShg0TZ7nJz5YJsCa1DyGCGTJMrUEd8du5vC6boVhs/mobilebasic

How is A Caffeinated Genetic Counselor handling COVID-19?

Here at A Caffeinated Genetic Counselor, we are committed to the health and safety of our staff and readers, so we will continue to have zero physical contact with all of you because this is an online blog. In exchange for your understanding during these difficult times, we want to share a very special blog post with you.

My Toxic Relationship

TW: Suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety

My toxic relationship with "busyness"

My relationship with busyness is complicated and at times, toxic. On one hand, my addiction with being busy is what helps me to get things done. It motivates me to have effective time management skills, and helps me to have a good work ethic. It also gives me that push I need to take on projects or hobbies that fill my cup, because at least if I engage in them, it gives me something to do. Idle hands do the devil's work, but isn't it okay to be idle sometimes?

Fall 2019 Wrap-Up!

Happy Holidays! 

I am writing this blog post from (not-so-sunny) Hawaii, as I am home to celebrate the holidays with my family! I just logged into my blog to see how many views my previous posts have gotten, and I am so overwhelmed that so many people are interested in hearing my complain about how hard grad school is. Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out to me via twitter or Instagram with such kind words of support! I cannot express how much your messages mean to me, and I always seem to get to them just when I need the pick-me-up the most. 

So, now that I am on the other side of finals week and am finished with my first semester of grad school, here is my November/December update! 

Update: Midterms Still Suck

Cheers to managing to get out another update amidst all the chaos of school!

The past month has been...quite a journey. With midterms, projects, and presentations the last month and a half has felt like a marathon, and it has me eagerly looking forward to Thanksgiving break. I know in my last blog post I wrote about getting into the swing of things, and I am here to tell you that school is starting to feel like when you would try to go really high on a swing, but then you realized that you were really far off the ground and with every swing you felt like you were that much closer to swinging all the way around the top. At least, that's how the last couple of weeks has felt.

The (Foreseeable) Future of A Caffeinated GC | Month 1 Update

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, and for good reason. Grad school is in full swing and the adjustment period took much longer than I had originally anticipated. I've got a full week of classes, and am enjoying every single one of them. It's kind of a unique feeling to actually like all of the classes you're taking, and it's even stranger to realize that everything you're learning in all of your classes directly applies to what you want to do with your life!

As you might expect, my blog will have to take a backseat for the next couple of years because school is obviously a priority. However, I do want to continue to update you guys about how school is going, new challenges, study tips, accomplishments, and my ever-changing self-care strategies. So, I will do my best to try to post once a month (ha ha). Hopefully this is something of interest to you, because realistically this is all I can offer for now. So, let's just jump right in!

GC Application Cheat Sheet: Shadowing Alternatives

One of the "encouraged" experiences many genetic counseling programs list on their website is shadowing a genetic counselor. While there are approximately 4,900 genetic counselors in the country, shadowing opportunities remain limited. With a large amount of genetic counselors (especially new graduates) being sequestered into the industry setting, in reality very few counselors operate in hospital or clinical systems that allow shadowing due to time or legal constraints (HIPAA). In reality, the amount of genetic counselors that have the capacity to allow student shadowing is far less, and with 1500+ applicants in the last application cycle, a number that grows every year as genetic counseling grows in popularity and public awareness, finding shadowing opportunities is probably one of the most challenging aspects of the applying to genetic counseling programs.

Let's Talk About It: Mental Health

Trigger Warning: Anxiety, Depression, Suicidal ideations

July is Minority Mental Health Month! So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about my own mental health journey. I want to help to normalize the conversation surrounding mental health. I know that talking about things like anxiety and depression can be difficult, but the more we talk about it the less difficult it gets. I also wanted to share my mental health journey in the hopes that it may resonate with someone, who may experience similar struggles, if anything to let them know that they are not alone. Finally, I want to talk about my mental health now, while I am in a place where my mental health is doing pretty well overall, because a lot of my anxieties and feelings of depression and worthlessness are closely tied with school.

#SCGC19 Reflections

I arrived at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus at around 7:30 am. The skies reflected the “June Gloom” that characteristically preludes the warm summers in Southern California. Despite the eerie fog that sat low on the cute little houses (it might be more accurate to refer to them as small mansions), the looming brick buildings of UCLA’s campus make it feel more like fall than the cusp of summer.

Sitting in the Garry Shandling Learning Studio (yes, the actor who played the Hydra-Associated Senator from Iron Man 2 and Captain America: Civil War), amongst genetic counselors, who range in experience from prospective students to 20 plus years in the field, I was surprised with how many familiar faces I actually recognized. In fact, this was the first time I met face-to-face with some of the most influential people in my journey to pursue genetic counseling!

What is 'All of Us' all about?

Last year, the National Institutes of Health announced the All of Us research program. The goal of this project is to collect genomic data from more than one million participants, in order to use that data for research. Ultimately, All of Us hopes to gain a better understanding of how biology, environment, and behavioral choices impact health, and to use that information towards advancements in precision medicine. By providing genomic and health data, the All of Us program considers it's participants as "partners" in research, and aims to contribute to advancements in precision medicine and improve methods of disease diagnosis, management, and treatment.

Reflections on the 2019 Application Cycle

As many of you may already know, Match Day was on April 26th! And at 6am that morning, I found out that I was accepted into Keck Graduate Institute's Masters in Genetic Counseling program. I was fortunate enough to be home in Hawaii when I found out, so I was able to celebrate with my family in person! My family is so important to me, and being able to celebrate my good news with them was just the icing on the cake. 

In the same week my mom was give a distinguished alumni award, my bother got into private school, my cousin was accepted into his biochemistry major, and my dad secured a big client at work! Woo Hoo!