Your Impact is Bigger Than You

To think that I am nearing the end of my first rotation as a dietetic intern is, for lack of a better term, CRAZY! Starting this journey as a dietetic intern has been filled with so much anticipation of the unknown. What are rotations going to be like? What is my schedule going to look like? Where am I going to find the time to get my projects done? What is my preceptor going to be like? Questions like these ran through my mind constantly, everyday leading up to day one.

Here I am, heading into my last week with the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, and I am feeling on top of the world. I can let out a sigh of relief. Ahhhhhh, I CAN do this. Getting that first rotation under my belt has given me the confidence, strength, and motivation to keep moving forward. This rotation has shown me that I am capable of more than I ever thought possible. I am here for a reason.

From these past three weeks at SLCUSD, I learned an insurmountable amount of skills, lessons, and knowledge. But, the one thing that I think is the most important thing I learned is my impact. The impact that I have been able to make on these students' day-to-day lives, just as a dietetic intern, is bigger than I ever imagined. As a dietetic intern in any rotation, it is important to recognize and appreciate that, your impact is bigger than yourself.

Earlier, I mentioned that this first rotation has made me realize that I am here for a reason. That reason is my impact. At times during this program, it will be easy to lose your focus. Lose your sense of direction. Between crazy schedules, long nights working on projects, early morning commutes, jam-packed days, you may lose your sense of self and lose your why. Why am I here doing this?

The most important thing you can do as an intern is remember your impact. Every little thing you do during your rotations, is going to affect someone else. The smallest of tasks can change people’s lives. Whether it be patients in the hospital, students in the school district, mothers of the WIC program, men at the air force base, your work as a dietetic intern is bigger than yourself. That turkey sandwich that I wrap and make seems so miniscule in the grand scheme of work. But, that one turkey sandwich is lunch for a kiddo that may not have known where his next meal was coming from. That salad that I package is nourishment for a student who may not have access to fresh produce outside of school. As a dietetic intern, your impact is so powerful.

You are an integral part of the team.

San Luis Coastal Unified School District has an amazing food services team that works together to feed hundreds and hundreds of students. When I first started, the team instantly took me in as one of their own. It was like I had been working there for years! I was not just their dietetic intern that was going to leave in 4 weeks, I was part of the team. I was a part of the family.

“We are family now,” Kris Vander Weele looked at me and told me, as we stood in the checkout line of Smart & Final buying paper boats for hundreds of kids. They consider me one of them.

The staff at SLCUSD has fostered this warm and welcoming environment, where everyone is smiling, laughing, and exuding positivity. I quickly discovered why that is. It all leads back to impact. Everyday, these staff members work with a smile on their face (under the mask of course) and a pep in their step because they know the impact they are making by feeding every single child of the school district fresh, healthy, nutrient-rich meals. Looming on closing this chapter in my book of rotations, I have felt the impact that I have made as a dietetic intern that is a part of the team. That impact has fed my drive and fueled my fire. That impact drives the staff members of the SLCUSD every day.

When I come into the office and my preceptor, Erin Primer, tells me we have 1,000 pounds of watermelon to cut, which has become a running joke around the kitchen, I couldn’t be happier to do it. I know that by cutting watermelon all day, a kiddo is getting the ripest and freshest watermelon with their lunch, and that is more than enough for me.