You know how everyone has that awkward phase?
Mine started from the day I was born.
As a kid, I was the free-spirited, goofy, little ball of energy that was always doing weird things. I liked to wear two princess dresses because I couldn’t decide on just one. I would dance to no music and sing to no tune. I never realized that I was “weird”. I actually enjoyed school, I thought learning was cool and that there weren’t any social norms about the clothes you wear or the foods you eat.
I didn’t realize that how I ate was “weird”. In grade school, it was “cool” to eat beige chicken fingers, fries, PB&J sandwiches, and to throw out the carrot sticks and apple slices your mom packed. I didn’t realize that people ate dessert and fried food on a daily basis, never experiencing the clean feeling that comes with wholesome, real food. And high school me wanted to change that.
It started out by fundraising for my band trip to Europe by making healthy meals for our neighbors. Soon, I became the go-to person to ask for healthy meal and snack options. Then, I started cooking with friends and showed them how easy it can be to eat healthy.
But I was a high school student who was looking into colleges and deciding her future. I’ve always known I wanted to be in healthcare, so I automatically assumed that I was going to study pre-med or nursing. My mom suggested that I study nutrition, to which I responded, “You can study nutrition?” But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to just throw my cap in the air and go to college already.
My senior year of high school, after being nominated for Athlete of the Week. This goofy picture is still on the walls of my high school’s athletic office somewhere.
I started contacting local dietitians in the area to see if I can get any exposure to the field. I was lucky enough to meet Registered Dietitian Christine Palumbo, and she educated me on pursuing nutrition as a career. I started off by sorting through nutrition-related articles for her to post on her social media accounts, and now I write blog posts for her.
Fast forward to today. I have worked my 🍑 off as a Dietetics major with a Communication minor at Boston University, learning the ins and outs of nutrition and how to convey my message so that people will understand it and be motivated to incorporate healthy habits into their lives. Whenever I am not in class or hitting the books, I teach tennis classes at BU, I’m a CPT at a personal fitness studio, a writer, and now editor, for numerous outlets, and a .
I’m still a dorky geek, don’t get me wrong. I jam out to my playlists when walking down the city streets, I stutter and laugh too loudly, and I still can’t shoot basketball hoops or throw a football. I get giddy when friends talk about health or fitness and looked forward to waking up for a three-hour 8:30AM nutrition lecture. I am a geek with the goal of helping people live a healthy lifestyle, a geek whose life is aimed at encouraging other people to live. And I don’t think that’s weird at all.