Jai Patel

NHS ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: Silver Spring, Md.
Major: Human Science

Where are you from?
I’m from Silver Spring, Md. It’s 30 minutes from here. It’s a suburb near the city … this is my first time actually living in a city; everything is close by, so I really like that. I don’t need to drive anywhere, getting in a taxi is like really exciting, it’s like, “Oh I’m a city boy, I take a taxi.” So that’s pretty fun.

Where are you more comfortable?
Well when I hear people say I’m going home, when they’re referring to their dorm, I’m kind of like, “uh…” I still think of Maryland as home but I don’t go home often even though I’m very close because I have stuff going on here. … So I would say I’m very comfortable here but, it’s just a semantics kind of thing; I don’t refer to my dorm as my home.

What do you do?
I am on a dance team, GU Jawani. It’s competitive so we travel around the nation competing. That’s pretty fun, but aside from that I’m in GUSIF, I am working in a cancer lab in Lombardi, just a lot of like scattered things. I mean I guess I’ll like go to a bioethics talk once in a while because I’m like half a member of that club. Also Georgetown university journal of health sciences, I’m an assistant director of editing for that so that’s pretty fun.

What do you do for “me time”?
I don’t get that much me time. I mean I go to the gym, I like that. But all these other activities are also hang out times. Even though I go to dance practice, its practice but it’s also me time. That’s not doing anything for my career or for academia.

Where and with whom do you feel most comfortable?
I have a large group of friends, but I think guys segregate their friends into circles, or at least, I do. People I study with hardcore, I won’t necessarily party with them … but I would say my dance team is very close — I do a lot of stuff with them. I always see them around. I’m always either studying with them, partying with them, dancing with them, stuff like that.

What are your plans after Georgetown?
Either medical school or some kind of career related to finance, after which I may do an MBA if I need to for career advancement but if not, just work my way through. I think I like D.C. more than New York; I’ve spent a considerable time in New York, but I think DC’s cleaner. It’s kinder, in a way.

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
Not really. I’ve technically missed a year and I like it so much that I don’t want to miss out on anything else so I’m constantly going. I just don’t want to miss out on anything, I’ve already missed a year that’s 25 percent that I’m never getting back from my college years. I went to a public school last year and it was good but you know, compared to this, it was like nothing. I know some kids that are just trying to do the bare minimum because you know, they got here freshman year and they’re like yeah, this is fine … but for me I’m paying tuition and I got here late and I love it and so I’m trying to make the most of it. My friend called me an opportunist, but opportunist has a bad connotation so I’m going to work on a better definition.

What’s your greatest fear?
I think it has to do with my career. Now that I’m making this finance switch everything depends on my junior and senior year because if you get into a good banking job that decides most of the rest of your career. So that’s my biggest fear. Not translating the opportunities that I have here into something good.

What would you change about yourself?
I would say maybe make have one focus and devote myself to just a few things so I have more time just to do anything else. The way it is now I leave my dorm in the morning around 7 a.m. and come back around midnight or 1 a.m. because I have practice late. So in that time span I don’t have much to do except I’ll go to the gym for an hour, but I’ll be in MSB after doing work. I’m always doing something, which is good, but you know the feeling of not doing anything when you’re like, “Oh my god, I’m so bored; I have nothing to do,” that feeling is like euphoria for me. So what I would want to change is putting myself into something that I love more instead of doing a lot of things.

What’s the biggest change you’ve consciously made in your life and why?
Putting myself into difficult situations. I’ve never danced before I think I’m a [bad] dancer but I still tried out for this team and I got in. I had the mindset that anyone can be good at something if they just work at it and so I do double the practice because I suck so if I want to compete and not be that scrub on stage I have to work extra hard as opposed to everyone else on the team. So I’ve been trying to put myself out there more. Doing stuff that I wouldn’t do … getting to know more people.

Interview by Hanaa Khadraoui