Hitting the jackpot could mean a few different things.  One thing it could mean is winning a great deal of money.  This would be grand because it would help with the expense of rebuilding our home after hurricane Sandy.  Another thing it can mean is that someone became highly successful.  I am currently attending school for my masters in nutrition and dietetics to become a successful registered dietitian in the near future.  To be a registered dietitian and to know that I am helping people everyday would be the most rewarding job in the world!

My most memorable teacher is Professor Linda Hittleman from Nassau Community College.  I went to Nassau right out of high school because I was not sure what I wanted to go to college for.  I was thinking about majoring in business or accounting but after taking a nutrition class with her I changed my mind to majoring in nutrition.  She made learning nutrition fun and exciting.  Professor Hittleman told me that she would be there if I had any questions about the nutrition field and she was.  She also told me how many different things you can do with this major which made me even more interested in this field.  I wound up taking a second nutrition class with her and completed my associate’s degree in liberal arts from Nassau.  After that I applied to Queens College for the Dietetics program and I am still on the path to becoming a Registered Dietitian.

A book that I would love to write is Living Through Hurricane Sandy.  I would like to write this book because I don’t think people realize the amount of destruction it caused unless they are living through it.  It also makes me feel better to talk about what has happened.

Our part of the neighborhood was evacuated, but we wanted to stay behind to make sure that no one broke in.  Monday afternoon it was high tide and the tide never receded much.  Then around dinner time the tide started coming up again, so my parents and I were watching it to see if it was going to come in the house.  My dad received a phone call from a close family friend saying that their house was falling apart and they had to get out.  They wound up walking around the block in a wetsuit in waist high water and 90 mile per hour wind.  We were all sitting in the living room downstairs when we saw water coming through the floor.  Then water started coming into the house through the doors.  We moved upstairs to watch the news and lost power about 30 minutes later.  We heard my father’s truck shorting out and looked out the window to see that it was underwater.  We heard the wind and the house was shaking so much that the pictures on the walls were banging and the water in the toilette bowl was splashing around.  We saw transformers blowing and lighting up the sky.  As we were looking out the back door we saw boats floating down the canal going very fast crashing into other boats and almost hitting houses.  While we were upstairs we smelt gasoline so my father went downstairs to make sure everything was okay and had to walk through waist high water.   I must say that this was the most frightening experience of my life.

The next morning when we woke up the water receded, but the tide was still high.  When we went downstairs there was muck left on the floor, belongings from every room all over the house and everything smelt like oil.  We spent most of the day throwing out as much stuff as possible, moving furniture and ripping out rugs. The amount of stuff that we had to dispose of was unreal.  Later in the day I took a walk around the neighborhood to see the destruction and it brought tears to my eyes seeing the amount of damage this hurricane caused to the neighborhood I’ve known my whole life.

Something that I feel passionately about is health and nutrition.  I enjoy learning how certain foods and supplements interact with the human body.  I enjoy cooking and making healthy meals for friends and family.  I also like to share recipes that I find with the patients for the dietitian that I volunteer with.

Volunteering with a dietitian has taught me many valuable lessons that I can use later in my career.  I enjoy being able to help people to lose weight and feel better about themselves.  We try to make it easier for them to reach their health and wellness goals.  Weather it is making meal plans, recipe ideas, or giving them healthy shopping lists.

This is a passion of mine and it is something that we are surrounded by everyday.  That is when we are choosing our meals, listening to the news, or reading the paper there is always something about nutrition.  I also like that it is always changing and there is always more that you can learn.