I arrived in Denver one week before the internship started to settle in and complete a health screening for the onboarding process. I am lucky to be living in my brother’s apartment this summer in downtown Denver. My brother, Luke, has lived in Denver for a few years and knows the surrounding area very well, which is a total bonus!
In the week before my start date, I got some nice shirts for the internship, took my car to the shop to get the horn fixed (a necessity for city driving), and found a nice coffee shop to review literature sent to me by my PI, Dr. Donahue. Aside from that, I became a member at my brother’s gym and attended a couple of late-night candlelight yoga classes at a studio near the apartment. It was my first yoga experience, and I found it extremely relaxing for my body and mind. I will continue to attend classes over the summer when time allows.
The weekend before my start date, I took off into the mountains with my dad to do some fly fishing. Using my brother's raft, we floated the headwaters of the Arkansas River from Leadville to Granite, roughly a 13-mile float. The fishing was pretty slow, but I was able to land a few nice Brown Trout. Regardless, the float was amazing! Having the Rocky Mountains nearby is a luxury, and I imagine I will be escaping the city to spend many more weekends up there.
Finally, the long-awaited first week! On Monday morning, I arrived at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora a little before 8:00 am. Living in downtown Denver, the commute is a little less than half an hour. All of my fellow interns arrived around the same time, and we were able to introduce ourselves before we were given a tour of the hospital. I am very impressed with the other interns, and learning about everyone’s background through stories around the lunch table has been fascinating. The hospital is full of driven, hard-working individuals, but there is a strong sense of community and teamwork towards a goal greater than oneself. All of the staff members have been friendly and have made this first week smooth and easy (I was a little nervous leading up to the start). Also, because I completed my health screening early the previous week, I received my hospital badge on the first day, which gives me staff access to the building.
The rest of the week at the hospital was pretty uneventful. Although my onboarding was complete, we had a lot of online employee training modules to do, and we had to log into our new emails and computers. Multiple times I met with Dr. Donahue, who has been extremely helpful and has given me a good understanding of my project. This summer, my main project will be writing a manuscript based on a data set showing the association between concussions and sleep quality post-concussion in adolescents.
For the weekend, I joined my brother and his coworkers for a couple of days of sailboat racing up at Carter Lake Reservoir, about an hour's drive northwest of Denver. Our crew lacked experience, and we did not sail too well; however, getting out on the water was awesome and helped knock off some rust.
Under sail on Carter Lake with brother, Luke, who is working the foredeckLooking forward to many weeks to come!!!