Firstly, I just wanted to share with you all that I passed my exam!! I’m officially a second year medical student!! Thank you so so much to all of you who reached out with love and support. It truly means so much and I’m so grateful. And so excited to finally enjoy summer!

Before moving on, I just wanted to quickly share what I usually wear to non-clinical finals/exams. The name of the game is definitely comfort in these instances because you don’t want anything to cause you to lose focus. I purchased this t-shirt from an online Islamic clothing store called 5ivepillars a few months ago and have worn it to every final ever since. Actually now that I think of it the only time I forgot to wear it was the musculoskeletal exam and I failed that one, so…

 
The text reads “BISMILLAH,” which translates to “In the name of God” and has this beautiful floral design. In Islam, we’re taught to say this phrase before any of our actions in order to gain support from God. It’s also really important to me because I recognize that none of the success in my life actually comes from me but rather what He has allowed for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have worked very hard to get where I am. But if He had a different plan for me, I believe that would be somewhere else at this moment. So I wear this on exam day mostly as a reminder to always remain humble and recognize that this could all be taken away so quickly and easily from me but also, and more importantly, to gain confidence because I know that whatever happens, it’ll be what He has planned for me. Even if I can’t always see it right away, I plan but He plans better.

I’m the type of person who stresses a lot the week before an exam but once it’s the morning of the exam, I’m usually perfectly okay because I accept that I have done whatever I can to be successful and the rest is up to Him. And after realizing that, test taking has honestly been so much less nerve wracking.

Back to the outfit, I paired this shirt with a camel oversized cardigan and pseudo-textured gray joggers. Joggers have definitely been one of my favorite recent fashion trends. I’m all about anything that allows me to walk around in almost-PJs and still look cute. For longer exams, these are great because they aren’t super fitted anywhere so there aren’t any problems sitting for long periods of time. You can move your legs around and even sit cross legged if you want!

I’ve been a huge fan of oversized cardigans and for some reason it’s always super cold wherever I’m taking exams so I always have something keep me warm. This cardigan works really well because it’s extremely loose fitting so it doesn’t restrain the range of motion of your arms.

For some reason the clocks in every exam room I’ve been in are always in strange places and I have to do some gymnastics to be able to see it so to avoid that tiny extra added stress, I just wear my watch. Most of the time I end up taking the watch off and just keeping it on the desk by me because I don’t like having a bunch of stuff on my hands/wrists when I’m taking an exam. There’s a little peek of the book my husband used to propose heh!

So for the rest of the summer I’ll be working on a couple research projects, finally taking full advantage of the blessings of Ramadan, spending much needed time with family and friends and hopefully doing some traveling if everything works out! Hope you’re all having a great week!

Also, I thought this went without saying but it probably doesn’t so if you have any posts that you’d like to see, please drop a line. I have a lot of posts in the work at the moment so it may already be on my list but please do share. And I love interacting with all of you so please leave a comment if you’re reading!