Hi. I am Anny. I am the writer of this blog. I kind of graduated from my old one. 

They tell me that I’m a public health professional now, but I’m not sure if I believe them. It feels like the more I learn, the less I know. Just like in my previous blog from my student days, I’ll start with a list of things about myself (most of the former points are repeated):

1. After a lifetime of moving around, I’ve decided that out of all the places on this planet, Melbourne (Australia) feels the most like my hometown. I love the idea of being a world citizen working with international issues. But often, spectacularly rugged coastlines from my home state, like one pictured, remind me where my heart is.
2. I have been working as a general practitioner (or family health physician, or primary health doctor, whatever your preferred term may be) in Sydney, before I started my MPH 2 years ago. I’ve also done all kinds of random things in my life, both before and during the MPH. I guess you might get to gradually find out about those. Or if you can’t wait, just go and hunt around the old blog.
3. I finished the Europubhealth programme in July 2019. This blog is about my life in public health after the Masters degree. To read about what the Masters was like for me, please go to my old blog. Have I made it sufficiently clear yet that the two blogs are linked?
4. I like maps. I also like counting things. I want to continue field epidemiology.
5. Other non-career-related things that I like include music and muesli/granola bars.
6. I also like being creative. But to say that implies trying too hard and putting in too much effort. I think the lie that we often tell ourselves is that it should be effortless to be creative. That creative people should be blessed by moments of inspiration. But it actually needs hard work to realise creative ideas. And I love that process. Most of the time. Sometimes I can’t be bothered blogging.
7. I try to be as honest as I can with my feelings in this blog. At times I do experience difficulties with mental health. I’m going to attempt to write about it rather than to hide it away behind artificial excitement about life. I feel that as a health professional and a public health professional, it’s important to show some leadership in terms of discussing these issues in public.
8. I like justified formatting.

Disclaimers and ground rules:

• All opinions here are my own. I am pretty keen on the idea of academic integrity, and this spills over into my blogs.
• I will not publish identifiable pictures of other people without their (verbal) permission.
• I will also not name the people mentioned in this blog without their permission. If you would like to appear in my blog as a character, feel free to contact me with your preferred alias. 🙂
• All photos featured in the blog have been taken by my own cold little hands (size 6.5 surgical gloves, chilblains and cracks in winter), unless I have attributed them to somebody else.