introductions

Hi, and thanks for checking out my new blog! I believe introductions are in order. I’m Amanda. I’m a nursing student in Denver, Colorado.

I never thought I’d be the type to keep a blog. Who knew they’d be such great tools for networking and sorting through / sharing ideas. But, as I wrote this while I was living in Honduras, I found blogging to be practical and useful. So here we go again.

I spent my undergraduate career studying Spanish and Portuguese. I read some books, traveled a little (I’ve lived some short-term stints in Brazil and Chile, too), and I have become convinced that culture and language permeate and affect all aspects of people’s life, including and especially their health and healthcare.

While completing my language degree, I also chipped away at the various prerequisites to apply to nursing school. It was quite the combination of classes in college: I would spend an hour talking about Cortázar in Spanish Lit, then run off to a cadaver lab, then turn around and spend a class singing some ChicoBuarque tune to work on my Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation.  Not a bad way to spend four years of college.

After graduating in May of 2013, I’ve spent the last year bouncing between a couple different jobs and countries. Now I’m on my way to nursing school. Classes start in about a month. I hope that this blog will be a platform to engage in the conversation about healthcare and it’s potential to improve the lives of individuals – in whatever the language that conversation may be.