Week 6

In terms of spill your guts… I agree with what other people have been saying, I think sometimes people just want to talk. I totally agree with what Dr. Engelberg said about sometimes people ask for advice, but they don’t really want it, they just want to talk. As Sarah said, sometimes they will sort things out on their own by talking through it. I used to work at a car wash and we had regular customers that came in every single week at the same time to wash their car, most of the time, not because it was dirty, but because they wanted someone to talk to. They would tell you the craziest stories just to talk. Same thing with my job now. I do a lot of phone call recruiting and people will go off on tangents telling me totally unrelated stories. While I think it is important to listen to people, sometimes there is a time to cut them off.

I also thought it was interesting when Dr. Engelberg mentioned that people expect us to know everything about Public Health because we are getting (or have) our master’s. I mean we are supposed to be “Master’s” in the subject, right? How daunting! How can in 2 years we possibly know EVERYTHING? Here’s an example just that happened to me. Just the other day I was on the phone with my mom. Since I am running a marathon this weekend my mom was talking to me about eating healthy and making sure I get my vitamins, etc. In the background I hear my step dad say to her, “Don’t be telling Lindsay how to eat, she’s the expert”. I laugh because while nutrition is important to me (I’m doing my thesis on it, geez), my whole life my mother has been my nutrition resource. I guess now I am supposed to be the “expert” because I mean, I am getting my master’s in public health. : )

In response to Crystals question (why are we, in the U.S. so into putting ourselves into categories), I think whether you like to be in a “category” or like to be “labeled” or not, in general we like to know about ourselves, where we fit in, what kind of person we are, and things of the like. I think it is always interesting to read what those evaluations have to say and see if you think that description fits you.