More (Audio)Book Reviews

I must say that I am kicking ass at my reading goal this year, though I will be honest some of it has felt a tiny bit like cheating because well...audiobooks. My office does not have parking directly below or around it, so our designated work parking is about 0.5 miles away. This means I have about a 25 minute walk (round trip) every day during which to listen to something and in order to not spend that time with my head buried in my phone, I will sometimes fill it up by listening to a book. And I am of the opinion that listening to books still counts as reading them.
Somehow I managed to get all the way through high school and college without ever having to pick up this book, but I took a public health class this summer for which one fo the final paper topics dealt with this book. Having never read it and feeling a little ambitious, I told myself it would be unfair to select another paper topic without first giving this book a go, so I downloaded an audiobook. As pretty much expected, it turned out to be an interesting read (with a healthy dose of incredibly depressing and totally horrifying on the side). For those who've never read it, The Jungle is about a Lithuanian family who emigrates to the the Stockyards of Chicago in the early 1900s and slowly learns first hand about the horrors of the meatpacking industry of the time, while struggling to make ends meet. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending which was basically a 10-page political plug, but it made sense in the context of the book. Sinclair had actually written the book as a way to highlight the plight of workers in the meat industry and advocate for better rights for those workers, but the uproar around the book's release centered almost solely on the egregious practices of the meat industry and led to some of the first food inspection laws with real teeth behind them. Overall, I would recommend this book, but maybe...pick something fun to do after you read it.
Admittedly, I am somewhat picky about narrators in audiobooks, but I LOVE listening to comedians narrate their own books and this book was no exception. Offerman has excellent delivery and descriptions in this autobiographical tale of his life, experiences, and career. It was a light and easy listen with some really good lessons incorporated throughout the book. There were a couple parts where the writing was a little heavy handed for me, but ignoring those, the book was wonderful! I would recommend this book.
Basically as soon as I had finished Paddle Your Own Canoe I went through the end-of-book withdrawals that every reader experiences upon completing a good book. You know, the ones that kind of feel like you just got broken up with? Well, naturally, I did what any good book lover does and jumped right into the next book by the same author so I could listen to Nick Offerman, my new friend, tell me about Gumption. The concept for this second book of Offerman's was pretty unique to me. Instead of writing about himself, he chose to highlight the concept of gumption, what it means, and who he has found to have exemplified the trait. As such, I got to learn about a variety of incredibly interesting people from James Madison and Teddy Roosevelt to Yoko Ono and Carol Burnett, all while laughing heartily. I thought it was a great concept for a book and Offerman had incredible delivery. I would highly recommend this book.

Summer Shakes

One of my goals for the year has been to improve the quality of my food intake. I have made it several months being really good about hitting a decent caloric deficit every day, but since noticing an annoying plateau in my fitness goals, I thought I probably needed to step it up a little in the macros department (and the strength training department). Right this minute I am at Newport beach in California, so my current shakes have been a little more of the sugary ice-cream variety, but over the past few weeks, I've been trying an assortment of protein shakes and smoothies to improve my fruit/veggie/protein intake and give myself a good energy boost in the morning and before my high intensity workouts (which are usually on my lunch break). I thought I'd take a minute and share some of my favorites with you!
This shake is a staple. The ingredients are by far the easiest [banana, protein powder (I use vanilla), peanut butter, and some low fat milk] and it's one of the most delicious shakes I've tried. It's extremely high in calories (usually around 600-700 with two bananas), so I try to save this one for days I know I'm going to be doing a much more intense workout (or dancing for 3 hours).
This berry-packed shake is light and refreshing (and if I don't finish the whole thing in the morning, I sometimes add a little gin or vodka to it in the evening for a light fruity cocktail). I'm sure there are a million ways to make this, but I generally prefer a combination of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, a plum, and maybe a banana if the berries/plum combo turns out to be a little more tart than I'd hoped. Adding a scoop of protein powder and some milk to this shake usually caps it out around 400-450 calories, making a good breakfast substitute on a low-intensity exercise day.
I am absolutely a minimalist, and I am rather obstinate about not buying things I plan to only use once or twice, so looking for a green smoothie mix was a challenge. Many recipes had their complicated assortment of ingredients by which to mask the taste of a bunch of bitter vegetables, and I just didn't feel like investing in Goji berries, chia seeds, coconut flakes, or whatever else. Knowing that banana is basically the all-masking smoothie flavor, I decided to go for a simple kale, spinach, and banana recipe for my green smoothie and topped it off with some milk, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder.

Do you have any shake recipes you really like? How are you getting your protein for the day in?

Rueda de Casino!

This week, I found a new favorite quote about dance. I am reading/listening to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and there is a line at the beginning about attendees of a wedding:

"Some do not dance anything at all, but simply hold each other's hands and allow the undisciplined joy of motion to express itself with their feet."   The undisciplined joy of motion...I can't think of a better way to express how I feel about dance, though I lack the eloquence of Sinclair (and boy is he eloquent in this book) in my expression. I have been quoting this to myself all day, while thinking about salsa class tomorrow and looking forward to it more than usual.


I mentioned a while ago about taking a salsa class as a means of completing part of a New Year's resolution. Well, here's that post I promised I was going to make about my salsa class. The style I'm dancing is called Rueda de Casino. The video above is actually some of my instructors and classmates dancing this style! Maybe one day if they get me on video, I will post that, but don't hold your breath, guys.  It's a group dance that started in the streets of Cuba and is danced in a circle or rueda, where moves are called out and partners are constantly switching. In Cuba, the moves would differ a lot even between different areas of the same city because people would make up their own and then groups jealousy guarded their own moves in their communities. The history of this dance and the flexibility and variety of moves is one of the things I have loved most about learning it! I've talked about dance as a passion of mine on this blog before; one that, in different phases of my life, hasn't been maintained as regularly or thoroughly as I really need in order to to feel fulfilled. Taking this class has been slowly filling that gap, teaching me to be confident in movement again and helping me feel that undisciplined joy of motion, and I am so happy and thankful to have dance to look forward to every week again!

Resolution Evaluation

Last year, I set goals in a much more concrete way than I have in years past. This year, I want to start the habit of evaluating these goals and continue to set realistic ones for next year. Beware, this post might be long.

1. Improve finances: Save 20% of income each month. Learn about investing and start a portfolio with a small amount of money. Look into Roth IRAs.
Evaluation: 60% complete. I did open an IRA and am maxing my contribution. I started putting some money into an investment account and have been reading up on investing, but haven't actually hit the "Go" button on it, so to speak. And lastly...pretty sure I failed miserably at saving 20% of my income...whoops. I blame sushi.

2. Improve skin: Less picking/nervous face-touching. Find a dermatologist. Get into the habit of moisturizing daily. Wash your damn make-up off every night.  
Evaluation: 60% complete. Gotten a little better about picking. Am moisturizing pretty close to daily (and using a moisturizer with SPF 15!) and pretty sure I've almost always washed my make up off ALL YEAR (disregard that I maybe wore make up like 20 times all year). Did not find a dermatologist, but I'm not sure I want to anymore.

3. Get healthier. Develop a routine (even for weekends). Buy at least one vegetable you don't usually eat per grocery trip and figure out a delicious recipe to prepare it. Take at least one dance class this year.
Evaluation: 80% complete. I know for a fact that I did more regular exercise this year than in years prior and it feels great, even if I haven't really seen a change in my body yet. I ate way more variety of vegetables this year than I can remember eating since I stopped living with my parents, but I was not nearly as good as I hope to be on cooking at home and not eating out as much. Again, I blame sushi. Also, I am taking a salsa class! I'll post more on that another time. 
 
4. Make two new non-work friends.
Evaluation: 50% complete. I met a lot of new non-work people through various meet-ups and salsa class this year, some of whom I've started to see more regularly, but I don't know if I would categorize them as friends just yet. 
 
5. Volunteer locally.
Evaluation: 10% Complete. I looked into a few things, probably not as thoroughly as I could have, but didn't find anything that was really what I was looking for and/or fit with my schedule which currently involves almost never being available on weekends.
And now for the new/continuing resolutions:
1. Improve finances. Press play on investing. Since saving 20% didn't work for me last year, I'm rolling it over, but adding in a weekly calendar task to check how I'm doing in case I need to adjust. Just in case I'm totally sucking at this goal like last year, I also added a calendar reminder for 6 months in to switch to the "just immediately put the 20% in your savings account on the second paycheck of each month and don't ever withdraw it" method.
2. Get healthier. Do 30 min of exercise at least 4 days a week. Track calories (I did this for about 2 months of last year and probably saw more body change and habit change during those two months than any other time). Meal plan and prep at least two weeks a month. Research and implement ways to decrease stressed out skin-picking. Keep on dancing!
3. Get educated. I have some skills I think could use a little brushing up. I have a little money saved, so I am planning on taking a couple of classes this upcoming year.
4. Read more. Last year, I read very little for pleasure, which is sad, because reading brings me A LOT of pleasure. I read 13 books in total, which doesn't sound so bad until you find out that 10 of those books were a Series of Unfortunate Events re-read. I have a few on my iPad and got a couple for Christmas, so I have a nice little list to start off with. I am hopeful that if I just plan a little reading time every day, I should have no problem reaching this goal.

What are your resolutions?

The Benefits of Introspection

Somehow, another month is on its way out, and I am almost a year into living in the Midwest.

There's something so...homespun and small-town charming about it all that I can't quite wrap my head around. I've never lived in a place like this before, and I don't know if I will stay here, but I can't deny it has captured my narrow little mind and shown me all sorts of new things I will never forget.

I've never before had the urge to garden or plant, but now I'm growing three little herbs in a pot (baby steps) and it's truly a challenge not to be proud of myself (though I specifically picked ones I knew would basically live no matter what I did) that they're thriving. The fireflies are coming out slowly now, and I've been enchanted by them too. If there weren't so many darn mosquitoes-that-apparently-don't-give-a-shit-how-much-bug-spray-I've-doused-myself-in, I would just sit outside and watch them all evening.

On the other not-pleasant-at-all hand, N and I recently encountered a person laying at the side of a road near his house recently. He was mostly covered by the tall grass and shrubs, and we only noticed because his leg was about a quarter of the way into the very small road. We looked at each other in a moment of panic, clearly both thinking "Uh shit is he dead? Should we go check? Should we call someone? What do we do?!!!" We did go check, and thank goodness it appeared that he was breathing normally and just asleep. We figured he wasn't hurting anyone so we should just leave him alone and he had disappeared within an hour or so.
A while back N linked me to this seminal post on procrastination by Tim Urban and naturally, as I was putting off writing an SOP (oh my god, so. boring.), I read the whole post and every subsequent procrastination post linked to it. To my slight surprise, I discovered something very important. I fall into the "Successtinator" category where I happen to have a job that makes me feel fulfilled because I have many deadlines that require me to get things done and doing a bunch of menial tasks gives me the false impression of having achieved things, but in reality, my house just periodically gets VERY clean, and that is not an achievement to be proud of in the long run.

Procrastinators like me spend very little time in what Urban calls Quadrant Two: Important but not Urgent. He describes this as the quadrant of true fulfillment through activities undertaken for personal improvement (i.e. hobbies that are true rather than a quick way to ignore other things) and Successtinators spend a bunch of time doing other stuff and telling themselves they're doing really well while putting off the stuff in this section. This blog was started as something of a true hobby for personal fulfillment. I was Quadrant Two-ing hard for a little while, and then all of a sudden my interest waned and suddenly I was not blogging because it made me feel fulfilled, but because I hated to break the commitment I had made. It is nice (albeit a bit eerie) to have someone explain perfectly down to the T the way your procrastinator brain works, and I am excited to take this new awareness and turn it into action...I hope.
I am nearing the end of my first week of what I'm calling my food-discipline, caloric-deficit (FDCD) diet. This is pretty basic and just means I've planned all my meals around creating a certain amount of caloric deficit, while also accounting for the fact that I need to eat like 6 times a day to stave off hunger. To be on the safe side (because Jesus, it is hard to estimate calories), I have underestimated my basal metabolic rate, and overestimated the amount of calories things contain when I can't count them exactly. I have factored in exercise for about 2-3 days a week (though I have been reasonably disciplined as of late and am averaging about 4 days/week of moderate exercise the last couple months). We shall see how long this lasts. Hopefully, if nothing else, I will be exhaustively aware of how much crap I normally put in my body. All this being said, discipline sucks and I desperately want to go back to the land of not giving a fuck. Eyes on the prize, Mugdha...
Lastly, I was thrilled to rise today to the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage. Think what you might, but you cannot deny that love has truly won today. And if you haven't read the end of Justice Kennedy's description of the ruling, you truly should. What a time to be alive!

Happy weekend, all!

Getting Around to Goals

This new year felt different than years past. Maybe it was because I went right back to work the next day, but I barely had the time or desire to be introspective. The resolutions seemed unnecessary, because it didn't feel like anything had changed. Also, I don't think I made any resolutions at the beginning of last year, so I didn't have anything to measure up to. I learned a while back about SMART Goals, but always thought the method seemed a bit gimmicky. However, as someone who makes lists more often than she makes meals and firmly believes list-making is the key to getting shit done, I thought I'd give it a try. I won't post all the gory details I went into in the three hours it took me to hash these out, but here are my 2015 goals.
1. Improve finances. Save 20% of income each month. Learn about investing and start a portfolio with a small amount of money. Look into Roth IRAs.
2. Improve skin. I've been blessed with the dreaded combination oily/dry acne-prone skin (yeah...still...) and have never really managed to get it under control probably because I have been a lazy bum my whole life about getting into good skin habits. Goals: Less picking/nervous face-touching. Find a dermatologist. Get into the habit of moisturizing daily. Wash your damn make-up off every night.
3. Get healthier. I know that doing even just a tiny bit each day leaves me feeling less stressed out. Develop a routine (even for weekends). Buy at least one vegetable you don't usually eat per grocery trip and figure out a delicious recipe to prepare it. Take at least one dance class this year (see #1 to save up for it).
4. Make two new non-work friends. This sounds so sad, but I have no idea where or how to meet people in a new place.
5. Volunteer locally. I always have and it feels weird not to be volunteering in the community. Also, it's pretty likely this would help with #4.

Also, I am looking for your best resources on achieving these goals, so if you have apps, spreadsheets, advice/finance/skin blogs, peer-reviewed favorites or anything else that are your go-to on these subjects, then please do pass them along! Goodness knows I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Finance

I can't remember if I've ever panicked about this on the blog, but the last several months, I have been feeling increasingly worried about not having learned or knowing anything about finance (personal or otherwise) and investing. Learning about investing is somewhat useless at this point in time as I don't actually have much time and/or money to do it properly, but I decided to rectify the other part (and gain some marketable job skills in the process) by taking a course in the financing of healthcare organizations. It's an introductory course, so a lot of the class focuses on basic accounting principles and analysis, which is nice as those can be applicable to my personal finances as well. But oh man, for someone whose complete understanding of finance came from a semester-long Economics class (macro and micro and a weird giant project that as far as I know had only the smallest bit to do with actual economics) in high school, it's intense and hard work.

Relevant xkcd.
However, I love it. At the beginning of the semester one of my friends said, "There's something very satisfying about balanced books. You'll see," and I didn't believe her at the time. I never thought I'd say this, but I really enjoyed learning to produce the different kinds of financial statements. Loans and bonds, however, are just are boring as I'd anticipated.

I'm excited to be learning a new skill, though! Especially in a sort of self-propagated way! I mean, I know nobody in their right mind is going to hire me as an accountant based on my new-found skills, but it's rewarding enough that now I can see something previously unfamiliar presented and at least have a vague idea of what's going on (and know that I have that vague idea because I took the initiative to try and learn the thing). Are there new skills/crafts/trades that you've picked up? How'd you go about learning them?

Starting 2013

To start off the new year, I went skiing! Skiing is my favorite winter activity and every year I beg my family and friends to go and sometimes they acquiesce. This was my first in nearly 3 years and it was sunny and warm and beautiful, and I could not imagine a better way to begin 2013.

I keep looking at this serene picture, though, and being reminded of horizons and the awesome (but also stressful) things I have coming up this year. These aren't resolutions, per se, but in 2013, I'm going to:

• Become EMT Certified
• Complete 8 weeks of public health fieldwork
• Begin my Masters thesis
• Take the MCAT again
• Apply to medical school

If I keep the horizon in perspective (read: when it's 1 am and I want to go to bed instead of finishing that one last reading), I could be setting up for a truly amazing year, and that is good motivation.

Keeping Sharp

A side-effect of having graduated, I think, is that I seem to spend less time forcibly stimulating my mind. I mean not just absorbing, but really working through new material and understanding it. I have certainly learned a lot in the past few months, but I don't think very much of it has the same quality of information stored as when, say, I spent a week diagramming and memorizing how respiration works in excruciating detail for a physiology class.

I know that basically everyone experiences this, and none so much as those involved in academia, but I am really a bit unsure what to do about it and I'm already a little worried about what veering away from "hard science" for a little bit to do my Masters might do to me. I just want the quality of my brain to remain unhindered as I move through my adult prime. I've been watching a lot of TED talks, reading more, and trolling through Khan Academy videos on random subjects just to keep fresh, but somehow even that doesn't seem quite enough. Don't get me wrong, I could be trying harder, seeing as I also sometimes decide to watch 12 episodes of Community back-to-back and call it a day, but still. How do you guys keep your minds keen?

Epiphany

A while ago, I made this post about a step forward that I had taken in what I'm going to call my ongoing body image issue-reconciliation project. Last night I had another major epiphany that I want to share, because the realization made me incredibly happy and thankful.

Not sure how many of you are aware because blogger tends to be a very different world, but on Tumblr, there are a lot of blogs centered around "thinspiration" and dieting (some of which are downright scary) and a LOT of people who are very open with how they feel about their bodies, positive or negative. I was following a few tamer "thinspo" blogs, but lately, and I'm not sure when this happened exactly...I’ve hit a point where I don’t feel like I can relate to thinspo or people wanting to hardcore diet/cleanse anymore. I understand and empathize and I’m still not happy with my weight/figure/habits, but I no longer feel like I need to abuse myself to change what needs changing. I don't feel desperate. God, it feels so good to even just say that. And everyday, I’m finding things to like about my body and how good it feels when it’s healthy and happy.

I really hope the feeling this realization has kindled will keep up and motivate me to stay healthy. Take that middle-school insecurity! Strike two!

Never An Absolution

Top: Forever 21; Skirt: Macy's; Cardigan: Charlotte Russe

Pardon the strange lighting and other faults of these pictures, they were taken with haste. Also, sorry to my darling friend in advance who was not ready yet, but I put her picture on the internet anyway. This is the first of my two outfits during CGIU! The dress code for the weekend was the dreaded "semi-formal." To me semi-formal encompasses everything from cocktail dresses, fancier cocktail dresses (homecoming dresses), business-casual-casual, and business-casual-business. Sorry if those distinctions make no sense to you (I may have invented them), but you can see why I was worried about outfits! I think I did alright though because at no point did I feel over- or under-dressed. Small victories. Hooray!

A Little Pick-Me-Up

"Try not to become a man of success but a man of value."
-Albert Einstein

“Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.”
–Niccolo Machiavelli

“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
–A.A. Milne

"I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life."
-Madeleine Albright
I have been feeling very motivated lately, not without reason. However, this month is looking like it's going to be extremely busy and pretty tough. So this is for all of us out there who need that last little bit of inspiration to push us over the top to great things. Go forth and conquer, friends, because as a great man once said, "YOLO."

Snippets of DC!

White House at Night!

The Group!

Legit graffiti! I was so impressed by this!

View from our hotel!
Since I won't be able to do regular full posts for a few days, I'm hoping I'll be able to do little picture updates of my weekend! Enjoy! Also, if any of you guys have been around Foggy Bottom or George Washington University before and have any recommendations, let me know!

Repurposing: Finals Week

Memes are always appropriate ways to express things
It is finals week at my university! Though I am graduated, I have spent the weekend taking full advantage of my friends' finals week mentalities to get a bunch of work I've been putting off for my summer maternal/child health project done! And I'm pretty excited to say that after 35 hours spent studying (with Loni), I a) have consumed a revolting amount of junk food and b) learned way more than I wanted about childbirth complications. I love feeling accomplished!

On Giving Back

I want to talk about why I think it is important to give back to your community. I've been lovingly called a lot of things for the amount of time I spend "doing things to help people," but I truly believe in the positive reinforcement of the human spirit by sharing in health and accomplishment as a community.


"It's easy to forget how fortunate I am." I repeat this to myself sometimes when I'm feeling particularly ungraceful and shallow, and try to remember the many ways in which it rings true, but a few people have told me that they give back because of this reason. On occasion, I feel this too, but I believe that ultimately, this pseudo-survivor's guilt isn't a good reason to give back.

I give back because I really believe people can be good. Sometimes, when you least expect it, people show incredible resourcefulness, kindness, gratitude, intelligence, and creativity. The only thing is that all of us (yes, all of us) sometimes need a little push or a little support to get to a point where those things shine through. So, it's not really about the "less fortunate" in terms of health or wealth, but helping people from all fortunes find and express the best in themselves and be recognized for that by coming together and learning about each other. It's because of this mutual benefit that I think it's so important to give back in our lives, regardless of our fortunes.

I Could....Live on the East Coast

Well, I'm back in one piece!

...So, this happened. (not my picture)
Well, mostly one piece. The day before I left, I could feel my you-have-a-massive-sinus-cold-coming-on senses tingling.....and I was right. I spent a good deal of the trip drugged to delirium, but it still ended up being pretty good. I stayed with a lovely grad student from the program in her cute-as-pie east-coast-y house and she was so helpful about Chapel Hill life and the program and everything, it was unbelievable. The first night, it snowed!! Everyone was super quick to assure me that that was rare (because I'm a wimpy west-coaster), totally not realizing that I was on the verge of happy tears because it'd been so long since I'd seen snow fall*. And, we made a killer lasagna one night and drank wine with some friends and it was basically completely perfect.

The interview went pretty well too, I thought. I didn't say anything too stupid during it, as far as I know. And my interviewer related completely to my dilemma about wanting to do research and clinical work, and gave me some really good advice. Seriously, the sense of community and helping each other out in this program is incredible. I really hope I get in.

Then I was in Baltimore at Hopkins for a day and got a lot of good advice there too! It was really crazy and hectic, but I really like the east coast! Keeping my fingers crossed!


*That being said, one time I had to chip ice off my windshield and that has got to be the worst way to start the day....ever.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, as you read this, I am cruising at approximately 32,000 ft from one coast to the other for my interview.


I don't think I'll have much time to blog or even take pictures while I'm there, but from my research, it's gorgeous. Just gonna cross my fingers, make an 11:11 wish, and hope for the best! See you all back Wednesday!

Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma'am

Over winter break, I did an incredibly thrilling thing, you guys. In theory, I don't agree with it, but it felt so badass that I even went again a second time and I still want to go more.

I went shooting.
Maybe some of you guys won't think this is an epic, monumental event in one's life, but I thought it was. Until this moment, I had never shot anything more dangerous than an Airsoft gun. I guess those things are painful short-range, but as far as I know, they don't normally have the capacity to kill anyone, so...not as crazy (or cool).


Please excuse the quality of this picture.


Two things that playing first-person shooter games with your brother and his friends all your life doesn't prepare you for:

1. Recoil. I kept flinching every time it did this and then sort of ducking as the shells flew back over my head. And I was shooting a handgun.
2. Unloaded magazines. Loading bullets into that damn thing was hard. Seriously, if for whatever reason I ever needed to be armed, I would probably end up dead because I couldn't get bullets into the cartridge fast enough. In her defense, my friend, M, was much better at this than I was.

We discovered that M was a pretty good upper body shot and I was a pretty good stomach shot, so together, we could probably take out a person, if the need ever arose. We might have become a little gun fever-y and started dreaming about being old-fashioned belles that learn to hunt from their daddies and get down and dirty without a hair out of place, a la Annie Oakley. All in all, definitely a fun little trip!

Disclaimer: I do not believe in using guns to kill people. Don't hurt me.

Somber Life Updates

As you all know, I took the MCAT a couple months ago. Sadly, I didn't do quite as well as I wanted, so I'm probably going to take it again next year. But, I'm not particularly upset, because since after about a week after signing up for it, I made some changes to my life plans.

Originally, I'd intended to do an MD/MPH joint program (assuming I got accepted, of course), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was not a fan of the set up, where you do the first two years of med school, then your masters, then your last two. I think I'd like my med school knowledge to be fresh for rotations. So, I decided to do an MPH first, which unfortunately means I get to take the GRE this summer. Woo!...not. Why am I telling you this? Because I feel like I whined, vented, and just generally blabbed to you all about the MCAT so much that I'm now obligated to update you on how it went and what's happening next, haha. But I'm really excited for Public Health, because ultimately, that's what I want to go into, and do with my life (yeah yeah, I'm a bleeding heart, deal).

In other sad news, I won't be going to Europe or India this summer. This is particularly depressing, because in addition to gallivanting, I was really looking forward to attending the London premiere of Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, but I guess it will be just as fun to dress up and go here, so I'm trying not to be too beat up about it. Plus, this gives me more time to practice guitar.



Instead, I'm just going to watch this new trailer and the other ones a million times over and over to make myself feel better about life. Okay.

Inspiration

Is it weird to say that I suddenly seem to have too much inspiration? I've been meaning to blog, but I haven't because I don't want to unload the 20-page inspired-Mugdha soliloquy on you guys. This conference, Julia Albain's book I mentioned here, TED talks, and some people have made me turn into a big sappy bubble of happy, inspired, thankful, kind, and excited. So, this is still longer than I planned, but you all are aware of my rambling.
When I was in India this summer, I kept a journal. It was to document everything that we experienced, but also personal; my take on the things I saw and experienced. The pages were small-ish, but I filled over 50 of them with my thoughts, and didn’t even manage to cover the whole trip. I re-discovered a passion for writing in those moments that has often gotten lost during business as usual.
On a whim, with a bunch of friends, I decided to take gospel choir freshman year of college. As someone with little musical training, it was surprisingly easy, not uncomfortable, and really fun. One night, we were all sitting around our common room and suddenly we were having a completely impromptu gospel concert and people were coming in from across the hall to listen. Just a bunch of us girls having fun. Same with impromptu dance parties and teaching each other to awkwardly ballroom. I re-discovered a passion for singing and dancing that my recent Glee obsession has brought to the forefront once again.
I have a friend who is into philosophy/psychology, but has taken a serious interest in biology. Oddly, he considers my biology major to mean that I am his resident expert on the subject, and often, when we hang out, we end up talking about science the entire time. He listens and asks relevant questions and presses my knowledge and I get really excited and worked up when I can actually explain some amazing process or the gist of my research to him. Every time this happens, I realize a passion for science and innovation that hours and hours of lab work sometimes squelch out of me.
And lastly, working with people, helping them feel better, live better. Every Luminaria ceremony that has brought me to tears, the smiles of leprosy patients after I wrapped a particularly nasty wound successfully (even though they looked terrified the whole time I was doing it), the gratitude and relief in the eyes of mothers when we could tell them their baby didn’t have malaria, and recently, the inspiring and thought-provoking commitments made by not just celebrities like Clinton, Mandy Moore, and Sean Penn, but by refugees and over 1000 students at this weekend’s conference. They have reaffirmed my passion for helping people, lifting their spirits, and making them happy in all the ways I can.

The point of this whole thing being that even though I’m not sure where my life is going right now, and that scares the crap out of me, because I used to know exactly, I feel inspired. I am realizing the things I am passionate about and I want to pursue them. So this is my lesson: When you feel inspiration, go for it. Make hard decisions. Re-evaluate, reconnect, and ground yourself. Let it course through you and guide you to the greatest things you will ever accomplish. Over and out.