I just finished my second week at WEGO yesterday, and I’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty awesome. I’m really happy about the two blog posts I’ve written so far — The iPad and Your Health (Activism) and Connect to Your Mobile Health –, and I’m glad that I’ve been helpful to people other than my direct supervisor.
That’s not the reason for this post though.
A lot of what I’ve been doing has been research, specifically looking up blogs about depression and compiling them into spreadsheets for various uses. And even though reading about depression for a few hours can be, well, depressing, what some of these people have done to overcome their depression is quite amazing.
Many of them have created websites and blogs to help others who are battling depression and other mental illnesses. I see the same people subscribing to each other’s blogs, and it’s amazing to me. Many of them are WEGO members, but the fact that the depression community on some of these sites is so tight-knit is incredible. I see them providing support to each other, offering tips, and sharing their own stories, and it makes me really happy that I decided to take the internship despite the fact that’s unpaid.
That’s exactly why I’m giving this grad school for psychology thing another thought. I would love to be able to provide that kind of support, to help people through their depression, to help eliminate some of the stigma behind it, and maybe even other forms of mental illness.
I’ve been playing around with the idea of grad school for psychology for about a year now, but now I can actually see myself doing it. I mean, anything can happen between now and the time I graduate from Hofstra, but I think I’m going to start studying for the GRE soon. I just have to figure out where I want to go, if I want to stay in Boston or not.
I think I may have found my calling with this internship.