Welcome to my monthly updates! I hope you can learn a little bit more about the work that I am doing while I study at Antioch University Seattle.
“Spring: A lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.”
– Unknown
Next Steps:
I never thought that having fewer classes would be more stressful.
Personal Life:
I’m sorry for not posting in quite a while but this past quarter drained everything out of me emotionally, mentally, and physically.
I wanted to start off by talking about how tough the Winter was on me. I started to notice that my depression was slowly creeping back up on me, and part of it was definitely due to the seasonal changes hitting me harder than they have in Texas and California.
I haven’t talked to a lot of people outside of my grad program about this, but I was living a good life in my apartment until mid-December. We have a belief that one of my neighbors has schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like symptoms from the use of drugs. We believe that she is at minimal on weed, but suspect the use of crack cocaine and fentanyl. Well, she started to become violent against my next-door neighbor, attempted to start fires, would set off the fire alarm at 4 AM, tried to break into his apartment, assaulted someone and broke their nose, and much, much more. I ended up buying cameras, a security system, and pepper spray.
I discovered that the laws in Seattle are not the greatest when it comes to getting someone evicted or arrested. For about four months, I was dealing with this violent situation and getting woken up at all times of the night with little hope. I began to struggle and I submitted a bad paper that the professor asked me to rewrite later on. Sadly, after four months of jumping through a bunch of legal loopholes, this lady is still in our building, and we are now heading to court. I was given the opportunity to move to a different apartment unit owned by the same company, so I am now living somewhere else, but still dealing with some of this trauma. Every time I hear a step, a drop, or a bang in the building, I catch myself feeling stressed.
Anyhow, I have begun taking different martial art classes at different dojos/studios to see what I want to join. I learned that I have no one to keep me accountable for going to the gym, so why not join some type of class that forces me to show up.
Antioch University Seattle:
Well, I survived the second quarter of my doctorate! Apart from the dissertation year, I hope I never have such a stressful quarter.
I thankfully passed all my classes and was even asked by one professor if I would be interested in publishing and presenting my findings regarding Latine mental health and prescriptions. So I might consider that in the near future, but back to working on all of my homework for class this week.
Special Projects:
Bran Diego Photos – I took some pretty cool pictures over the Winter break and got the chance to try out a lot of cool things! So go check it out.
BachStreetBoi – This project was fully delayed, but thankfully, I can start on it this quarter again! Just gotta finish doing my research proposal and I can get started!
AnxieTea Podcast – I released the second episode of the podcast! I invited Jacinta Tran to talk about imposter syndrome in grad school, so I hope you get the opportunity to go give it a listen. I am currently gearing up to record and release the next two episodes, so stay tuned.
Instructions Unclear – Delayed till post-grad.
The PsyDream Vlog – I am ready to start recording this quarter since I don’t have to deal with the stress in my apartment anymore.
Cycologist – I need to focus on finishing up my volunteer hours for school before I can try to balance a job/content creation for this youtube channel. So stay tuned in the Summer for this to release.
Thank you for your time, dedication, and service! You can always reach out to me @ bran.m.ramirez@gmail.com
-Brandon Ramirez