Connection

April 12, 2024

Wow– it’s been a whole year since I last blogged. I actually stopped paying for the domain oops. Colin’s Corner is back and better than ever! I’m hoping to do frequent updates. Today’s is more of a thought I had, but I think I’ll start just posting little life updates about what I’ve been doing.

I hope you have all been well. Sending well wishes your way. I want to give some updates about me, where I’ve been, etc. The last year of my life has been so super awesome. I have been kind of all over the place, meaning both physically and mentally. I have explored parts of the world I haven’t dreamed of exploring, specifically in Vienna, Austria. I hope to write a post about Vienna. I have a film I still haven’t developed since then, and I will make a separate post about what I did. That will have been a year ago in about two months, which is absurd. I think that's where many things clicked for me, and I changed my outlook on many things. As my summer experience concluded, I was welcomed back to Villanova to basically a brand new life… one full of love, activities, late nights, clubs, you know. I had the best time ever last semester and was encouraged to branch out of my shell… I ran a brand new event in SpO and was an orientation counselor! It was sweet! Besides that, I have become much more serious about my academics and future goals– not that I wasn’t before– but now I am just interested in growing up a bit more. I still have my fair share of fun; I even got an earring. But, truly, I had to lock in. And that I did.

Once 2023 was over, I made a deal with myself to use 2024 to its full potential. I remember sitting at dinner during winter break, and my Mom told me I had lots going for me; I just needed to tighten it up. And that was true. I needed to tighten all of the things I love up, make them stronger, and find a balance.

Every year since my sophomore year of high school, my mom has given me a word to live by. Because of our conversation, she gave me “connection.” This is a bit of a double entendre, because she didn’t just mean connect all of my activities and desires to one common goal, she also encouraged me to connect with people in uniquely along the way. I have made it a pretty big mission to find new ways to find common ground within connections that I have already had and ones that I have newly made.

This year, I have already connected much of my academic passion with physical work, and I hope to continue finding ways to impact my community in health and wellness. I have been exploring new ways to get involved in student health and addiction prevention on campus. Also, my love for Special Olympics has let me connect with many new friendly faces, and I have been working extra hard to make sure everyone knows that I am here to listen and to be a true friend for life. Connecting with people in these ways has been so rewarding. Though I am not perfect at it, I continue to want to be better at listening and hope to be a known space for my friends to feel comfortable with. Connection with professors and mentors about what they do and have done has motivated me to do well in my courses and continue in the medical field. Truly, I could think of no better word than connection.

Internally, though, it hasn’t always been easy to connect my passions, friendships, and really everything else. But I’ve realized that we aren’t meant to have just one string connecting us to other things. It is perfectly normal and okay to have various interests that have nothing to do with your career, friendships/family, and well-being. Sometimes, it’s just fun and passionate.

This blog is one of those things, too. I like writing out my thoughts and feelings, nothing else.

In retrospect of the (almost) four months I’ve spent thinking about this, I feel that I have been able to embrace parts of myself and my friends that I hadn’t before. For instance, my lovely friend Natalia was welcoming enough to invite me to her home in Mexico, and it was so fantastic. Part of why I loved it so much was that I connected her home, family, and cat to a bigger meaning of a friendship I had made within the bounds of my campus. Similarly, I feel like I am continuing to learn about my roommates– the ones I have lived with for almost three years now– and I really like how much we are growing together. Shoutout to Sam because she is my best friend. I feel like I know everything about her every day, but then I realize I don’t. I continue to learn.

Learning as I’ve gone has made my relationships so much more meaningful.

I guess what I’m trying to get at with this is that it is very appropriate to attempt to connect all of your interests to some common goal. Understanding yourself better, where your priorities lie, and more can be helpful. But it’s more than likely that you might get to a point where you can’t find a similar narrative for everything you do. Because why would you? I like to take pictures and paint, which has nothing to do with wanting to be a doctor or my passion for Special Olympics. It’s okay… it’s human… to have layers.

Thanks so much for listening. I have a few thoughts and ways I’ve done what my mom encouraged me to do.

I am super excited! This semester has been lovely, but I think the summer will be awesome sauce. I got VURF! It’s this research fellowship at school, so I’ll be on campus all summer with my best friends! It’ll be so super freaking cool. We are going to have so many picnics, barbecues, and ice cream runs. WOOOOO. Also, I turn 21 in two weeks. ABSURD.

Love you lots!

CBN