About Me
Welcome, again, to my portfolio! I'd like to introduce myself more and explain my background. I was born and raised in Brownsburg, IN where I attended St. Malachy School and Brownsburg High school. I am currently a senior at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the Anthropology department. I tend to consider myself an unconventional student because it took me a very long time to figure out what it was I was meant to do in my career. I started out as an English major my freshman year at Indiana University Bloomington where I spent two years, jumping from English to Telecommunications to Elementary Education and finally to Undecided. Even before all the changes to my major, I felt that Bloomington just was not quite the fit I wanted. I had always been a homebody and decided I missed my family and Indianapolis too much, so I put in for a transfer to IUPUI. I fell upon Anthropology, by an expert suggestion from my oldest sister, and knew as soon as I took my first course that this was the major for me.
At this point, I was in my third year of college and still had a lot of courses to take in order to graduate, due to my many changes. Around my fourth year – knowing that I would not complete my degree in the normal four-year time frame – I began to get burnt out. I had completed a majority of my Anthropology requirements, but had recently moved to Lafayette, IN and began a job that I loved. I decided that in order to succeed in my pursuit of happiness, I needed to take some time away from school and allow myself to explore and enjoy life in the present. I put all of my energy into my job as a youth counselor (see T.C. Harris for more details) for children who were dually-diagnosed with cognitive and behavioral disabilities. I worked with a large range of children and young adults, but my main focus was with non-verbal autistic children. I began to analyze my future goals and how I would be able to utilize my eventual Anthropology degree in a caregiving setting. After spending almost two years as a youth counselor, I decided it was time to return to school and work towards a goal of caregiving.
As if by fate, soon after leaving my job my pap-pa, with whom I was extremely close, got very sick. I say “as if by fate” because I know that I would not have had the time with him that I did if I had still been working. I spent an extended period of time with him in the hospital after he had emergency surgery and we were told he could pass away at any moment. I found a lot of peace in caring for him and being by his side – even at the moment he left us with all of my family surrounding him. My family, including Pap-pa, gave me the nickname “Nurse Erin”, because of my dedication to Pap-pa's comfort and being at his beck and call. I felt then and now, that the whole experience was a calling for me and I had finally discovered the true meaning of my life. I was determined, more than ever, to complete my Anthropology degree and find a way to become a nurse.
As I complete my degree now, I am planning for my acceptance into a second-degree accelerated nursing program in northern Indiana to become an RN. I have an unbelievable passion for human beings and Anthropology has taught me how to understand that every person has a story of their own. I hope to be able to give every person I meet a voice to tell their story and an ear to listen to them. I hope for a future that allows me to care for those who need comfort; a future that allows me to heal physical and metaphorical wounds.
With Pap-pa as my driving force and my anthropological knowledge supporting me in every interaction I have, I feel that my future is looking very bright. I truly feel that the medical field can only benefit from an anthropological perspective and vice versa. I am so looking forward to what life has in store for me and know that the collaboration between these two amazing and productive fields can only bring positive results in the world!
On top of everything else, I am the proud owner of Daisy Lou, the Saint Bernard-Great Pyrenees mix pictured above, as well as Sheika, the cat pictured to the left. I am from a big Irish family and am pictured to the right (far left of the group) with my very similar-looking sisters. I currently live in northern Indiana, where I intend to attend and complete nursing school. I am an activist in many human rights issues and hope to contribute my Anthropological skills to community health concerns after receiving my BS in Nursing.
