Ask and Ye Shall Receive

I did something uncharacteristically bold today and drove myself halfway across the state to meet a stranger and talk about myself. Not the driving, nor the meeting a stranger, nor the talking about myself that was weird – it was the fact that I asked for this meeting and actually got it. None of my potential sites did interviews! I am so much more than what I can explain in 1000 words, so I really wanted the chance to show I’m a real a person and not just words on a paper. I’m grateful she tolerated me for 45 minutes. I talked a lot more than I planned on, but I get so damn excited about this stuff. So much of dietetics is the person – both the RD and the client – that it seems unusually reductive to me that there isn’t an extensive interview process before matching occurs. Like, why waste your time on a A+ scholar who is a bucket of spare parts and acts like an egotwit?

Historically I’ve been afraid to ask for things. My knee-jerk reaction is to assume the answer will always be “no,” but I’ve found a surprising amount of people have said “yes” to me lately – my academic advisor, professors, friends, coworkers, other RDs, and two strangers – who took time out of their day to talk to me about their DI programs. The DICAS customer service dude Ryan, who I complained to on Monday said “yes” to me, and got my last transcript posted – he didn’t have to, but he did, and saved me from having a giant week-long panic attack. Thanks Ryan, you’re a real one.