Uberty

I'm at a wierd place in life. My body is changing. It yearns for lofts, and steamer trunks, tables made from salvaged wood, and color schemes. It demands better coffee and clothes that exist outside of the category of "hoodie". I fear I might be going through Urbanuberty, puberty's lesser-known cousin.

Looking at some pictures today:

 I came across this textured wallpaper

as well as these invisible bookshelves

and this...whatever its called. Vanity tray? Club bathroom imitation?

All three seem easily doable. The bookshelves are from a Norwegian (autocorrect is having a fucking field day with that word) company, but it doesn't look like it would be hard to weld something similar. The textured wallpaper is the only thing that can't be scrounged together from spare parts of goodwill.

Anyways. (and yes, I use anyways as often as Kurt Vonnegut "so it goes".

a) I am out of food. I need to go grocery shopping.

b) I noticed that I can have a very tough time getting started some mornings if I don't talk to someone. Its very odd. All it takes is a 3 minute conversation and I'm good to go.

c) I've had trouble with waking up early in the morning for the last week. Yes, pretty much the entire week. Probably because of stress. A friend suggested that instead of sticking to strict schedules, I should just start working when I feel like it. Its been somewhat helpful, if not in sleep, at least in motivating me. I started getting work done for the first time in 3 days. Then again, it might have something to do with the fact that I took 2 days off.

This actually reminded me of a conversation I had with another student. It seems to me that among Caribbean med school students, I've come across a few groups of students that applied. The following two were the more interesting. 

One group was impatient. I don't mean to say that they suffered from a personality trait; rather, due to various life circumstances, going through the traditional route to a North American med school was not feasible. Truth be told, many people can go through 6 years of studying and waiting just for their application to hold any potential.

Notable examples:

• One student was a fully licensed doctor that wanted to specialize in a new field after practicing for +20 years. His university credits were no longer valid, and thus he would need to go through an additional 4 years of undergraduate college/university just to apply to a US med school. 
• One student had applied for 2 years in a row, and while getting an interview to a US med school, her MCAT scores were about to expire and she wanted to move on with her life instead of being stuck in limbo.
• Several students had families, and were unwilling to have them spend years waiting while the application inched forward

A second group just had problems. Bright students, but with factors beyond their control. For some, that meant financial issues or difficulty accessing a loan for a US medical school. For others, it meant psychiatric or social issues that prevented them from excelling all the time. A history of anxiety/ depression/ ADHD/ bipolar disorder/etc...  likely affected their performance in undergrad and kept them from having a competitive application for a US med school. Regardless of whether the issue was under control or not, the rest of their life was derailed by something beyond their control. Ross has a hit-or-miss in terms of addressing some of these issues. They do have staff dedicated to helping students with certain issues, as well as counselling services, but they are limited in high quality staff.

So maybe I don't function well with only 1 day off per week. I'm just inefficient like that. Oh well. 

I'm sure there are other groups, such as those that were pushed into the field by their parents, but I haven't directly observed this phenomena at Ross.

So it goes. Uh. I mean, 

Anyways...

Interesting read, in case you want to keep procrastinating.