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HEADACHE, HEARTACHE, HEARTACHE, HEADACHE, & HAPPINESS HAPPINESS & So, it really might just be the graduation goggles speaking, but I truly believe that my time at City College has been one of the best periods of my life so far. Anyone reading this probably won‘t believe it’s me saying this, as I have spent the last four years completely slamming the school to anyone that will pretend like they are listening. But while reflecting on my undergraduate career and the things I have done, I have realized that I owe a lot to this institution and the people in it.
I came to CCNY knowing almost nothing about it, but it had the only requirement I demanded of the college I wanted to start my medical career in: a reputable science program in Manhattan. I was really lucky my freshman year to be dorming at the Towers, where I made friends I would keep for the next 4 years. One of my roommates, Katie Herchenroeder, the previous Editor-in-Chief, introduced me to The Campus and is the reason I started writing for the magazine. Fall 2016 was a tumultuous year to join college; with the presidential election looming over the semester, I found the worries people had about their futures were more visible in the students at City College, and I was starting to understand that I did not have a firm grasp on how the political system worked in our country, especially with regards to healthcare. In addition to my biology major, I decided it would be a good idea to pick up a public policy minor to learn how I could change the healthcare system I was unsatisfied with due to its further marginalization for those already disadvantaged by the system. After my freshman year, I joined the executive board, as the Events Coordinator, for the Medical Roots Project Club on campus. For
the last two years I have been the president of this organization, and our work on and off campus to educate the community of the essential skills and tools they need to maintain their own health is one of the things I am most proud of having accomplished. Over the last few years, I have also been involved with two research projects; one is conducted at Mount Sinai where we work with pre-diabetic teenagers in East Harlem, and the other is at NYU and has to do with cardiopulmonary function and air quality in hookah and e-cigarette users. My interest in public health research and eagerness to disseminate the preliminary findings of the e-cigarette study are the reasons my first print issued article was on the 2018 vape flavor ban and how students at CCNY were reacting to the news. Writing that article was a turning point for me, as it made me realize how important communication is with regards to public health. After the initial article, I continued to write health related articles, as well as some about current political discourse, issues around campus, and our beloved CCNY sports teams (my passion for which is what ultimately led to me becoming this year’s sports editor).
While a good majority of my time at CCNY centered around my school and the ungodly amount of time I spent under the migraine inducing NAC fluorescent lighting, I prefer to frame my time here around my more fond recollections: the countless hours spent listening to new music and plotting schemes in The Campus office, walking through the rotunda during club hours and losing my voice trying to scream my iced chai order to the barista over the always too loud music, and meeting up with pals at Grill on a Thursday night because the week was just that hard and we were dramatic and couldn’t wait any longer.
The last four years of headache, heartbreak, and happiness at CCNY have all brought me to the next part of my life as an MD/ MPH student at SUNY Downstate MedicalCenter in Brooklyn. Though I do wish I could have had my last memory of CCNY be me walking in a cap and gown across the stage set up on the South Lawn, I truly am grateful for the ones I have, and could not have imagined a better place to spend the last four years of my life.
By Anu Shetty A . S H E T T Y
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