Many people romanticize the idea of having a college experience. The people you meet, the unbreakable bonds you create and the memories that will last a lifetime. But nobody talks about the pressure to choose a career, the realities of living with roommates, the unforeseen changes that occur… and in some cases a pandemic that will completely alter this romanticized version of reality. My college experience has not been the perfect picture that everyone paints and hopes for but it has taught me so much more than I ever could have imagined. I have been so lucky to create my own life in San Diego, establish a close-knit group of friends, become exposed to different-minded people, and acquire more knowledge in my field of study.
In 2019, I went through the college application process as a senior in high school. I had recently gotten back from the Dominican Republic, where I followed my passion for helping others through volunteering abroad. I volunteered abroad on a public health initiative where I was able to build a house out of plastic water bottles as an upcycling project, work on a water sanitation project, and distribute vitamins and medications to local towns. I fell in love with the work I did and the impact I was able to make and the study of public health. I chose public health as my major for this reason but little did I know, I had a narrow-minded scope of public health at the time. In the fall of 2019, I began studying public health at San Diego State University. Everything was brand new, exciting, and overwhelming as big changes always are. I moved into a small dorm room with 2 roommates I barely knew, in a city I barely knew and began taking classes that exposed me to different ideas. I slowly navigated my new world, learning to be independent while making time for everything: grocery shopping, studying, hanging out with friends, cooking, exercising, and time for myself to relax. I felt that the first semester was my learning curve and that I mastered the navigation at the end of the first semester, preparing myself for an even better experience my second semester.
To my surprise, my second semester didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. When COVID-19 was issued a public health emergency in March of 2020, my entire life changed for the second time within a year. On March 13th, I was told I had 24 hours to get all of my personal belongings out of the dorm and move home. I called my parents frantically, telling them that they had to drive down to San Diego immediately. They hopped in the car, I packed up my new life in San Diego and when my parents arrived, we loaded the car and drove straight back home to the Bay Area. As the COVID-19 pandemic changed everybody’s lives, college students were taken back at how their experience was impacted so quickly.
Fast forward two and a half years and I am still living my college experience through a pandemic. During my second semester, I stayed at home and had to navigate my new realities of online learning, social distancing, quarantines, and mask mandates. I was upset that the new life I was loving was turned upside down but I was thankful that I had a supportive family and close friends who were experiencing the same changes. During my second year of college, my friends and I decided to move back to San Diego. We desired some sense of normalcy and the idea of a normal college experience. Although we did not get anything close to a normal year with virtual classes and campus being closed, we did our best to create our own experience. We bonded while facing the same challenges, agreeing that online learning was not our favorite thing ever but took advantage of our situation by doing our classes on the beach and exploring San Diego in our free time. During my third year, I was finally able to go back to some in person classes and I created some of my favorite memories. As I am about to enter my fourth and final year, I am taking a new leap to study in a new place. I will be studying abroad in Seville, Spain for my first semester and will be back in San Diego for my last. It has always been a dream of mine to study abroad. The COVID-19 pandemic along with the specific sequence of classes I have to take for my public health requirements hasn’t allowed me to study abroad thus far but I am ecstatic to finally have this opportunity and create one more year full of unique memories.
Although I do still have one more year in undergrad, I now look back and find it ironic that I am a public health student during a public health crisis. My classes have taught me the vastly different areas of study within public health, preparing me for different career opportunities and for living in a world where public health emergencies are frequent. I have also been able to gain interesting insight into COVID-19 and other ongoing public health issues from many different public health officials, researchers, and professionals. Public health is a field that I believe a lot more people need to be familiarized with. I am constantly questioned about what public health is when I tell people that is my major. I have learned that public health is much more than the hands-on experience that I have had the opportunity to have; it is a field with endless opportunities and areas of study. Public Health is abortion care, clean drinking water, transportation access, firearm safety, sexual health, infectious disease response, racial equality, health equity, and so much more. This is an extremely broad field where many of the issues are often politicized. I like to believe that if more people were exposed to public health, that there would be a different framework of thinking when looking at these issues, allowing a deeper understanding of the social determinants of health and generating a more collaborative and compassionate response.
As I am someone who wants to know all of the different career opportunities available before I commit my life to one career, this has been hard in the public health world and realm of work as there is always something new to learn about. The societal pressure of choosing a career at an early age doesn’t make this decision any easier either. I am glad that I have had opportunities outside of the classroom to learn more about public health and my interests within it, like my time here as an intern at HOP! The last three years in San Diego and during the pandemic have helped shape me and have allowed me to understand that sometimes there are situations out of my control that I will have to navigate and find my own way through. I believe my past experiences have given me the tools to navigate new experiences, my many interests, and create my own unique path along the way.
By Camille Cline, Associate Project Manager – Intern, for HOP’s series of monthly staff blogs.