Cohort Concept Map

One of my goals for the week has been to make attempts to get to know as many people in the class as I can. Never know who is going to be the ambitious one (not me), the smart one (not me), the fun one (not me) who might be of great assistance at some point in the future. 

Those attempts so far have been largely successful in that I've engaged most everyone in conversation, and most have been receptive and friendly back to me. Some have not. Maybe they're shy, or maybe they just don't care. But at this point I figure I've put out the good energy towards most everyone and I'm not going to waste any more on trying to win over the ones that haven't been receptive.   

In my own mind, lines are already being drawn, and the personal Concept Map of my Cohort is being drawn. Right or wrong, I've been filing the different people into categories and subcategories, groups and subgroups, clusters and even more clusters, all of which orbit around me, in the center. Which ones of them, if any, will become the inner circle of good friends or confidants? Who will be fun to go to a happy hour with? Which will be the over achievers, and which will ones will I avoid? 

Or how much will it change over the next 16 months...

... And So It Begins...

Since I arrived in town, and for many days before, the weather had been typical DC August - hot and muggy. But like in a movie, today came around and it was cloudy and cool. It was like summer was suddenly over and with the flip of a switch it is now Fall. 

I left my apartment early, dressed in my crisp white shirt and preppy striped tie, and rode my bike under the grey sky down 16th St. and down New Hampshire Ave. through the morning traffic and past the sidewalk pedestrians. I looked like one of those Mormon kids. Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor II" played on my iPod and filled my ears ("Now my feet won't touch the ground...") and I cracked a smile through DuPont Circle feeling good about the weather and the first day of orientation ahead of me.

When I walked into SMH 107 with Meredith, the classroom was already filled. We took a seat towards the back and I looked for faces that I knew, recognizing a few from Friday’s happy hour and also from Facebook. I wonder if and when the rest of these faces will become familiar. How many – if any – would I really get to know? Of the 50 of us in the program, close to 40 are WHC Scholars who, like me, will be living in DC for the next 4.5 years – how many will become friends?

Naturally, over the course of the day and during breaks, I was drawn back to those I already knew – at one point, Meredith, Mackenzie, Adi, Katie, Dana, Wheeler and I got together and talked about the weekend; a bit later Tim and I hung out as part of a group the went over to the Medical Bookstore to get scrubs, then over to the Bookstore for our Health Assessment books.

$400 for scrubs and books. For just one class. FML.

At the end of the day, I hung out with Adi and Erin at the bus circle, while they waited for their bus to Arlington. Adi wanted to know how to tie a tie, so I made a poor attempt to teach her. It looked like a scarf.  To add insult to the $400 textbook injury, I then had to transport these heavy bitches home with me, and as I secured them to the back of the bike, my bungee cord broke, so I had to strap them to my back. I looked ridiculous, and as predicted the climb up Meridian Hill along 16th St. was a dream come true.