A day in the life of a Northwestern bioethics student
Hi, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kongpheng Lee and I am 16 years old. I am going to be a junior this year at North High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am currently in a Bioethics seminar at Northwestern University that lasts 2 weeks. I’ll tell you a little more about my typical day and favorite moment.
My favorite moment was the first day I got to Northwestern. I met new people and was a little nervous. I, my roommate and some friends were on our way to the beach but apparently we needed a gym membership to go but we decided to go to the rocks by the water. When we got close to the water, there were huge rocks that had paintings on them. So we made our way down the rocks and I sat down on a rock away from the others and just stared out at the water. Lake Michigan is just huge and all you could see was nothing but water. It seemed as if you were by an ocean that went on forever. On the right side was downtown Chicago and it was just amazing to see all this on the first day.
A typical day at Northwestern is waking up at 6:30am in the morning to either shower or to catch up on the day’s reading. What usually happens is that I take a shower so I don’t smell during the day due to the previous day of activities. I and my roommate wake up at the same time to get ready for the day.
My roommates name is Adam Crittenden. Adam is from Michigan and I am glad that he’s my roommate because his mom took me to get a pillow and blanket and invited me to get some tea with them. Adam is similar to me because he knows how to act when it is necessary and he is going to be a senior this year. Also he is pretty cool and an interesting person.
Anyways, between 7:30am to 8:00am is when I and my roommate walk to Sergeant Cafeteria to get some breakfast. There’s usually scrambled or boiled eggs, French toast, pancakes, hash browns, fresh fruit, yogurt, oat meal, tatertots, and lastly cereal. After breakfast I and Adam head back to our dorms and relax for a bit until 8:30am. That’s when we start heading out to our class.
Class starts at 9am until 12am and it is a 15 minute walk from our dorm to class. I will be honest, I personally cannot sit in a class for 3 hours straight but we get a break at about 10:20am. The class discussions consist of what is the right or wrong decisions in medical situations. When the discussions don’t grab my attention I usually grow tired and try to stay awake but the interesting things usually keep me awake. It’s not that I sleep in class but I get to a certain point where my eyes grow heavy. That’s not the only bad part but it feels about 50 degrees with wind chill in the classroom even though outside is in the mid 70’s with low humidity.
Another fun fact about me is that I am anemic, which means that some things get to me quickly such as the heat or when I eat spicy food I easily sweat. Okay back on track, after class is lunch at Flex Cafeteria that takes about 10 minutes to get to if traffic isn’t too bad. The food isn’t the greatest or the worst but is still satisfying. After lunch I usually get back to my dorm at about 12:30pm. From then until 9pm you can do anything you want. I normally sit in my dorm until about 1pm then my roommate Adam gets back and me and some other friends go to the beach or play some basketball at the gym or we’re just hanging out in the lobby.
At 5:30pm me, Adam and friends walk to Flex Cafeteria for dinner. Once we’re done with dinner we might just relax in our dorms or in the lobby. I usually stay in my dorm to read the articles about the next day’s discussion. At 10pm, everybody has to be in the lobby to check in, receive mail, or to hear announcements. After we get dismissed from check in, everybody goes back to their dorms. When I get back to my dorm I brush my teeth and get ready for bed but for others, the night is still young and it does get quite loud on my floor. It’s probably about 11pm when I fall asleep and that’s my typical day.