August Recap 2016

     Hello! The month of August has been a busy one for me. Moving to the city, starting medical school, and getting into the groove of my new life has definitely put plenty on my plate. Sadly, the moments that I did have the opportunity to sneak away, I didn't happen to snap a pic (I promise I will try to be better about that next month!). So, I'll just update you on what's been going on thus far.

    The beginning of August marked the beginning of my med school career. It was crazy to be able to finally start and when classes started, they kept us pretty busy. I just had my first exam this Monday, so the week leading up to that was pretty hectic. The main challenge of Medical school thus far has been trying to figure out what works best for me, so that I can set up my routine. It's the beginning of week three, and I feel like I'm still trying to sort that out, but hopefully as we go on, I'll be able to figure it all out. 

     Eventful Moments

     Following orientation week and White Coat, I had the opportunity to catch up with my girls. One of the best parts of being back in the city is being closer to them, and although my time is more limited than it was before, it's so nice to know that I am able to see them when I have the chance. My first Saturday in the city we went out and explored Lakeview a bit and of course that had to include delicious drinks and yummy food. 

They are too adorable:)

     The following week was our first week of class and that was a little hectic. We still had quite a few orientation sessions, so the days seemed to drag on. Thankfully, Sunday dinner at Meg's recharged me for the following week. G and I brought our roommates and we had our own little potluck dinner. It was a great way to break away from studying for a bit and to also have everyone meet. My roommate Mallory and I also went out for a bit on Saturday. The part of the city that we live in is called Little Italy and they were having their Festa Italiana festival. We just walked around for a bit with one our friends from school and tried out some of the local Italian food. I stuck with the Italian theme and had gnocchi and cannoli, so you better believe I left pretty happy and full.

     This past week/weekend had been dedicated to school. I did attend some extracurricular meetings, but as the weekend approached, the studying got intense. Mallory and I pretty much lived in our school's study rooms for the weekend, but Sunday I broke away for a bit to have dinner with my family. I felt it was a nice way to remove some of the stress and get myself in a good mindset to take the exam.

     As I posted about the beginning of the month already, this post looks a bit sad. The majority of August I honestly just spent getting myself acclimated to being a medical student and those moments aren't necessarily the most exciting, but I will try to include as much as I can.

     As we move forward, I will be trying to update you guys as much as I can, but unfortunately, I do get busy and I don't always get the opportunity to blog. I will be trying my best, though! 

I hope you had a fabulous month and I will be talking to you soon!

~Genesis<3

     

Word for 2016!

     Happy New Year! So, I hope everyone had a marvelous time ringing in the new year! Something that caught my eye this weekend as I was lounging around trying to recover from several nights of serious sleep deprivation was the "word of the year" theme on people's Instagram posts.

     Last year, I didn't specifically designate a word for the year, but If I had to choose one, I would say that my word would have been "Dare". My theme for the year was to try to step out of my comfort zone and be more daring. I aimed to try new things and not be afraid of change, and I am very happy with how the year went.

     This year, I definitely wanted to choose something meaningful as my word. I know that 2016 is going to be a big year for me. So, I chose the word "Inspire" to be my word for this year. The tail end of this past year, I really wanted to commit to doing the things that I had always wanted to do. Blogging was at the top of that list and much of why I want to keep up a blog is to be able to share my journey through medical school. This year I hope to inspire others who might be interested in the medical school route and I want to offer as much advice as I possibly can. On a more personal note, I want to be able to keep myself inspired. I want to keep up with my creative plans and I think having the word inspire at the front of my mind might help with that. Also, I want to keep inspired as I begin my journey through medical school. A piece of advice that pretty much any med student has given me along the way is to prepare myself, as medical school can get insane. I want to remain inspired throughout my journey, but especially when it might be easy to forget why I am doing this in the first place. Hopefully, my word inspires you to pick a word to motivate your journey for this year, and I hope that it is an incredible year:)

~Genesis<3

My Goals for 2016!

     Wow, I honestly can't believe how fast 2015 has gone by. I still remember celebrating last New Year's eve with my besties and here we are again! One of my favorite parts of celebrating last year was the car ride back. Amidst our sleep deprived car conversation, I remember my best friend, Megan, asking me and our friend Chandler what our goals for the year were. I typically make my own resolutions each year, but to share them with my best friends made the moment feel special and allowed me to see what other people are hoping to get out of the new year. With that in mind, I want to share a couple of my goals for the year, and maybe when I look back at the end of 2016 I can see how many of them actually held true!

1.) Mind, Body, and Spirit Balance.
     Every year, I aim to get in shape or to be healthier. While that still holds for this year, I want to incorporate health for myself as a whole in addition to trying to make my body healthy. I think one of the most important things I've learned this year is how these three areas influence our overall person and this year I would like to continually do things every day to benefit each category.

2.) Strive To Be More Daring.
     I think this has been something that I have been pretty good at this year as I feel that I've definitely done more to step out of my own comfort zone. So, this year I want to continue working on that. I want to do things without being afraid of what other people think and just aim to live life to the fullest.

3.) Don't Settle for Less.
     This goal is aimed at both personal and external situations. Of course, I want to aim to be the best version of myself, but also to not settle for less in the people around me, particularly how others treat me. 

4.) Face Life With Positivity.
     This is another goal that I had made for myself last year that I have been doing pretty well with. I've noticed that being positive really makes a difference. Of course, I'm not going to say life is all peaches and cream every day, but when you try to look at life in a positive manner you can usually make the best of any situation. 

5.) Love More. 
     In high school, I was a leader for a retreat called Kairos. The talk that I had to give on the retreat was titled "Love in Action" and aimed to speak to how we can show our "love" to others in our everyday lives. I want to be able to do more of that myself this year and focus on doing more to make the world a better place. 

6.) Eliminate Clutter.
     Oh my, is this one necessary. I have so much stuff that I need to get rid of and I am hoping that this will be the year that I finally get rid of all the unnecessary junk that has been lurking around my living spaces.

7.) Dress Like a Big Girl.
          This goal has a lot to do with the goal above as I still have a lot of clothes from high school and my early college years. Now that I am a post-grad soon-to-be medical student, I hope to shift my wardrobe to better fit my medical student profile. I am hoping to get dressier items in my closet as those will be the pieces that I will be wearing under my white coat to go see patients:)


Well, these are my main goals for 2016. I do have smaller or more personal goals that I want to work on, but I thought that the ones above would be good to share. 2015 was a really great year for me, so I am hoping that 2016 will be just as amazing! I will be spending the last night of 2015 dancing the night away with some friends, and I hope you guys have just as much fun as I am planning on having! Have a great holiday, and I'll talk to you guys next year;)

~Genesis<3