Monday, December 30, 2013

home for the holidays, mouth surgery style.



sometimes the transition from school to vacation can feel so weird. finals were a constant go go go - a constant what should I be drilling into my head right now? the steps in logistic regression? the repercussions of a dirty well in africa?

when we were finally freed, i remember waking up from my first long nap and feeling a bit uneasy. as i sat in bed with this feeling, trying to pinpoint it's origin, i realized it was because i had nothing specific to work for. i had no pressing deadline (well, except for that policy memo due january 7th, but I have yet to finish so that's neither here nor there), no impending exam, no more reasons to make the treck up to 168th. 

i've already touched on my thoughts on busyness, yet this time, i felt comfortable knowing that I had the next few weeks to do absolutely nothing but enjoy family time and the good weather that my southern home brings.  as well as the surgery i had today on my teeth, which kind of forces me to spend  my time ringing in the new year on the couch with the fam and a blender-spun concoction.

p.s. i only half apologize for so many pictures of my dog. 

"affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives"
- c.s. lewis

Friday, December 20, 2013

first semester of grad school: check.



{white elephants}


{lower manhattan exploring}


{a columbia campus snow day}

it's officially holiday time in the city.  despite the cheer that currently exists on this tiny island, the past few days  have been a final exam blur of 40-page study guides and 10 pm coffee runs.  the only time i made it down to see the lights and decor was on the weekend before my birthday, when J and i had to walk through times square and i almost shot myself in the face because tourists now make me queasy.  we went to butter in midtown, and after asking the waiter if there was actually butter in every dish (and him not getting it... at all), i rushed myself right back uptown and set up fort in my study cave they call my room.

on another note, our last weekend before exams (practically ages ago) was spent white-elephant giving and union square holiday market perusing.  the perfect way to welcome in the season.

excited for my 80 degrees hometown tomorrow and a month of no work :) - but will miss this life we've put together. 

"don't judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times i fell down and got back up again."
- nelson mandela 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

sounds good to me.


"all i really want to know is how other people are making it through life - where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside it."
- miranda july 

Saturday, November 30, 2013

thankful // a long weekend in New Hampshire.

turkey on Make A Gif

this thanksgiving, i traveled from new york to cambridge to nashua to spend a long weekend with northeast cousins.  and a restful long weekend it has been. since i've moved to new york, i haven't had the time to sit down and spend a few hours doing whatever i'd like. this thanksgiving, it was reading a book. baking a pie. home videos with cousins. flailing at pictionary. naps. 

i'm one in a million twenty-something's who has recently moved to the city, an island with 27,000 people in every square mile, with cronuts and shake shack and frozen hot chocolate the size of your face.  it's been a wild ride of an 18-course schedule (what, columbia?) and an apartment that is 45 minutes from the lower easy side (trust me, we've counted).  it hasn't exactly been the ride i expected, but when has life ever planned out exactly as planned? i still get weirdly interested in epi readings, i still cry my eyes out when laughing with the wonderful people around me, and i still can't help but giggle when i realize how much my perception of the city has changed. 

from my current read goodbye to all that: writers on loving and leaving new york: "the city's not the same and you're not the same and you'll never get that time back because time is a spiral, girl: a spiral. life is elsewhere now. live it." 

"good things happen gradually and over time. great things happen all at once."
- elisa albert 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

sounds good to me.


{hiking in western mass, summer 2013}

"keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too, can become great.  when you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition, it is important with whom you regularly associate.  hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives.  similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends."
- mark twain

Saturday, November 9, 2013

boston // in the fall.



a quick jaunt to my second favorite city to help the 2x2 project, an epi magazine here at columbia, cover the american public health association conference.  an eye opening experience, to say the least.  who would have thought that i would enjoy listening to a talk on arsenic exposure in young children? this public health school has changed me, it's safe to say.  the highlights of my weekend included: catching up with old bowdoin friends & northeast cousins, feeling a part of a community of people so passionate about public health, and the red and yellow leaves everywhere i turned.  the only downside may be that i'm even more confused about what direction in this field i want to take - but too many options has never been a bad thing, am i right? 

"when you have exhausted all your possibilities, remember this - you haven't."
- thomas edison

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