My Beautifully Chaotic Life
Hello! I’m Nicole. Some people call me Braccio (pronounced like Bra-chee-o). Couple facts: I was born and adopted from Colombia, raised in Staten Island, New York. I am a futuristic overachiever. I am an eternal optimist and extrovert. Let me first start by saying how grateful I am to my family and community for an incredible childhood, shaping me into the person I am today. I feel uniquely able to connect with anyone, blend in anywhere, and lead by example. But I’ve got a lot of work to do to sharpen my skills.
I’ve been “trying to get my shit together” for a few years now since I’m involved in what feels like TOO MANY activities and projects. I decided that blogging might be the best way to accomplish this daunting feat. I typically compartmentalize aspects of my life to keep things straight, oh left brain I love you, but concurrently my right brain likes to take over focused on ambitions and goals swirling around the abyss in my head. So, humor me while I rattle off the various things I’m working on — welcome to my world!
I became a pharmacist at age 24, graduated from the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Rutgers University in 2013 — so yes, you can call me doc technically. Big thanks to my parents for steering me in the right direction because applying to pharmacy school was the best decision of my adult life.
As cliché as it sounds, I’ve always known my purpose on this Earth is to help people. I now realize that helping people manage their health and medications was only the beginning. In my seven years as a pharmacy technician then full-time pharmacist, I stumbled upon the challenges that we all face in our twisted health care system. I saw patient after patient frustrated with health coverage and access issues, staff feeling overworked and under-appreciated and all the cynical, hopeless feelings that come along with it. I was determined (and still am) to affect change and improve health care for all.
Thus, my career in health policy began when I decided to move to Washington DC in May 2015. One fellowship and almost two years of policy consulting experience later, I landed my dream job at National Patient Advocate Foundation, a small advocacy non-profit focused on advancing person-centered care. I’ve been there for about a year and three months and could not be happier.
With countless people to meet and lessons to learn, I am energized by every passing day. Best of all, my work-life balance is FANTASTIC leaving plenty of room for personal growth and volunteer opportunities. I still to this day work per diem as a pharmacist in Staten Island, NY because I never want to forget how to be a pharmacist. I am a firm believer that we should all fulfill our civic duty, by doing something, doing more and doing better. Share your wealth of knowledge and make the world a better place #namaste. That brings me to my slew of extracurricular activities and passion for fitness and self-care.
As a typical type-A overachiever, I needed to get involved in something soon after moving to DC — plus coming from a clinical background I had much to learn about the policy wonk life. Therefore, I joined the Society of Health Policy Young Professionals in June 2015— a volunteer-led networking group focused on enhancing each other’s professional development in the field. I could feel my leadership skills flourish, helping to plan and execute educational panels featuring TOTAL BOSSES and building a community while serving as communications director. I met such wonderful people and will continue to stay involved — spoiler alert, I’ll be running for Chair in the summer!
Taking on a leadership role in the “Health Society” was intellectually fulfilling, yet I still felt something was missing. My former pharmacy school professor led a medical outreach non-profit, Waves of Health, so it was only a matter of time before I got involved.
I went on my first medical mission to the Dominican Republic in Spring 2016. Words cannot describe the spectrum of overwhelming emotions I felt. The culture was extraordinary with every volunteer deeply connected by love, understanding, ambition, and compassion — these people were MY PEOPLE. As a bonus, I FINALLY felt able to embrace my Latino heritage despite the imposter syndrome I’ve always struggled with as an adopted child in an American-Italian household. Waves gave me a new beginning and I am committed to the team and our mission for years to come.
Finally — my fitness goals, well-documented on Instagram. The single most important journey in my life. Family, friends, career, giving back — all of these are critical to my existence, but I have to say, they’re all driven by my ability to stay active and therefore happy and healthy. I was always a happy person and naturally skinny, but struggled with body confidence, peer-pressure to drink alcohol and party all the time. I lacked any motivation to improve my physical well-being.
Looking back, I was never athletic — my nickname growing up was chicken legs and Nikki-Nikki-Fall-Drop because I was so uncoordinated all the time. Fast forward to college and although the beginning was a blur, I remember jogging half a block and wheezing immediately at the ripe age of 21. My doctor prescribed me an inhaler in case it was exercise-induced asthma, but I quickly realized I was just pitifully out of shape. In 2012 I was inspired by my sorority sister (the lovely Dr. Anh Nguyen) and began doing high-intensity interval training and jogging.
By 2014 my partner and I started lifting and the rest was history. I will dedicate PLENTY of blog posts to health and fitness so won’t go into too much more detail now. In short, making a conscious decision to dedicate time and energy to my body, mind and soul has been the most rewarding and emotionally fulfilling experience I could ever have imagined. Through powerlifting, yoga, hiking, dancing and occasionally climbing — I feel stronger both physically and mentally — but most importantly created a lasting change in my mindset and the way I approach life.
My goal for this blog and in future endeavors is to spread the knowledge, motivation and inspiration to help others take control of their bodies and commit to a healthy, active lifestyle. Not only will this help to prevent chronic illness, but it will completely change your perspective about the world and your role in it. I stand ready to help others balance the many aspects of their lives — personally and professionally because if I can do it, so can you!
Stay tuned for blog posts on:
- Basic physical fitness and nutrition
- Powerlifting and yoga
- Wanderlust, travel and music
- Big picture health care issues and innovative solutions
- How to connect the dots and do more with limited resources
Looking forward to sharing my life adventures with you! I hope it helps you take the next step in health and happiness.
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
MAYA ANGELOU
