Author: Anum

rights are rights

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“The idea that some lives matter more than others is the root of all that is wrong with this world.”
– Dr. Paul Farmer

This past Sunday, I attended a training for the Prison Education Program at Cal Poly Pomona. The program is led by the amazing Dr. Renford Reese. After reading Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and learning about the realities of the prison system in this country, I knew I needed to find a way to help. PEP aims to reduce recidivism rates in prisons by providing inmates with guidance and resources to pursue their goals after leaving prison.

At the training we, of course, discussed the logistics of the program, safety precautions, etc. But my favorite part of the training was when Dr. Reese brought up this idea of umbuntu. Umbuntu is the South African philosophy of ‘humanness’ and is ‘the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.’ Many of the struggles people face daily are structural and money needs to be used to create infrastructure to combat these injustices, but as Dr. Reese said during our training ‘Words are free. And if we believe that words have the power to hurt people, we must also believe that words can heal.’ And that’s what PEP is all about – creating a sense of umbuntu and recognizing that if anyone in our community is hurting, we are all hurting and we must actually do something to help.

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a homier home

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So I know that I’ve been promising this post for ages, but it’s finally here! Because I’m such a homebody, it’s really important to me to create a home that I truly enjoy being in and actually feels like home. So below I’ve shared photos of the majority of the decor in our home. Everything pictured below is still a work in progress, I’m constantly adding and moving things but I thought it was finally time to share where we’re at now. I’ll add more details about each space below but just a few general tips:

  • Frames – Check out stores like Ross, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx to find cheaper photo frames. I personally haven’t gotten a chance to do this but also check out your local dollar store! If I see something I like, I usually just pick it up and worry about what I’m going to actually put in it afterwards.
  • Gifts – As you’ll see when I describe each photo below, a good number of things we have around our apartment were actually wedding gifts from friends. While we didn’t request anything like that, I think people just thought to give us gifts like this because they knew we were starting a new home together. If you have a birthday, graduation, etc coming up and someone asks what you’d like, you can ask them to give you a gift for your home that they think describes your personality. It’s so nice to have things around our house from people who mean so much to us.
  • Souvenirs – In the past year or so, hubby and I have been lucky enough to travel to a couple places around the country. We have a mug collection so we buy a mug from every city we’ve visited together. But I also really like buying ‘functional’ souvenirs for our home. You’ll see a calendar below that we picked up at the Chihuly Garden and Glass.
  • Thrift/Antique Shops – I’m a big believer in supporting small and local businesses so these shops are one of my favorites. I’ve picked up a few of the pieces around our home from a local antique shop.

As an amateur photographer, I really enjoy taking photos during our travels. I mostly photograph architecture but occasionally I get really great photos of hubby (left). I love printing these photos and putting them in various frames I’ve picked up while shopping. This is probably my favorite wall in our apartment. When studying gets to be too much (and feels like it’ll never end) I love having this reminder of all the fun places we’ve been to and that we’ll continue to do so. I still have to pick up a couple more frames to add shots from our trip to Northern California last week. The letters were used at my bridal shower and I painted the two letters a couple months ago (same paint that I used for the cork boards in a previous post!).
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grunge

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It’s been way too long since I did an outfit post so I thought I’d do one today! I had to be a little creative today because I have yet to do my laundry from the trip heh. I pulled out this old black maxi skirt that hasn’t gotten some love in a while. We were supposed to have six hours of lecture so I definitely tried to dress as comfortably as possible. The afternoon lectures got cancelled because the professor had a bee infestation… That sounds like the most stressful thing ever. 

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the realness

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So glad I got to look through my lens again this weekend. Here are some of the shots from my Nikon D90. I really don’t play with it as often as I should but I’m definitely making an effort to do so more often. I used to get so lost in my photography. I’d go on photo walks to a park or something and then end up completely lost because I kept following the ‘next’ thing I wanted to photograph and completely forgot to keep track of where I was going hah. Going to make a real effort to go on photo walks more often. Especially now that I upgraded the RAM on my laptop, uploading and editing photos is not nearly as frustrating so I have one fewer excuse!

The first couple photos are in San Francisco and the rest were all taken in Muir Woods. Still deciding which ones to print for our gallery (& I’m open to suggestions)!

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road trippin’

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Because I had the Thursday and Friday after finals off from school, we planned a last minute trip up to Northern California. My cousin, who’s more like an older brother, moved up there with his family a few months ago. We were supposed to make the trip a while back but I got sick so we didn’t make it up.

I really needed to get away from everything after the madness that was this block. I honestly wasn’t sure if I passed the block but I knew there wasn’t anything I could do over the next few days that would make any difference so we packed up some clothes, junk food, my DSLR, grabbed some coffee and made the drive up after I got out of clinic on Thursday.

It was absolutely the perfect long weekend full of long conversations with family and friends I don’t get to see nearly enough. Every morning was a lazy morning.  We drank delicious coffee and ate scrumptious food. We went on a hike in the woods and I bonded with my nephew. Hubby and I finally got to wear our matching t shirts I got for his birthday this past year.

Tomorrow I start another block of medical school and I’m feeling good about the rest of the year. Going on this trip was the perfect break from all things medicine and I’m ready to get back into things. So many exciting things coming up the next few months and I have a few series I want to start on Instagram so look out for that! The first years start anatomy this block so please stems some good vibes into the universe for them.

About to jump into the driver’s seat and finish off this 400 mile drive. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have an even lovelier week ahead!

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finals + life update

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The past week or so has been pretty hectic with my birthday, going to a talk by Paul Farmer and finals so I thought I’d just do a general update on all that. I’ve never been a big fan of making a big deal about my birthdays. I’ve just always felt like it’s more a day to celebrate my mom, because she’s the one who worked so hard all those years ago. But with the madness that is finals week in medical school, I wanted something to look forward to. At midnight, hubby gave me my presents and a wonderfully hilarious card. After class we went to this bakery/coffee house near campus. Other than the fact that it closes super early, it’s a really nice place to study during the week. It’s kind of hidden so doesn’t get too much traffic and they have big tables (and outlets!!).

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DIY: gettin’ corky 

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I’ve recently been more interested in DIY projects to make our home homier. We’ve been in this apartment for just over a year but I’m still constantly moving things around/adding things. I’ll be doing a post soon on home decor with photos of where we’re at now and tips on how to work on your home while on a budget.

Doing arts/crafts is such a great study break and I love envisioning projects and seeing how they turn out. It’s definitely nice to use the right side of my brain every so often because it’s pretty neglected and as our learning coach once said to me ‘you need an outlet for your creative side’ so here we are!

In college, I had cork boards above my bed with photos, concert tickets, movie stubs, event flyers, etc. but doing that in my ‘grown up’ apartment just felt a little immature so I wanted to do something to class it up. I had this matte teal acrylic paint leftover from a previous project and the cork boards from my college apartment so of course I started painting them during study breaks while I watched TV. Most of the furniture in our apartment is a dark chocolaty brown and I love how the teal looks against it. It compliments the brown really well and also makes the apartment brighter with a pop of color.

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Eid al-Adha

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It’s been kind of serious on the blog the past couple posts so I wanted to keep things light and share how I celebrated Eid al-Adha yesterday! Eid al-Adha is a major holiday celebrated around the world by Muslims. It’s a celebrations of Abraham’s and his son’s willingness to sacrifice in obedience to God and God’s ultimate mercy. If you have any questions about the holiday or Islam in general, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer your questions!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to skip classes but decided to dress up a bit since it was Eid after all! I paired this royal blue top with black pants and the Steve Madden booties I got over summer. I don’t wear this top very often but I loooove the color. I love the way it pops and it looks great in a lot of different combinations. I also like the almost peplum-like way it falls.

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

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step one plan

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In order to become a practicing physician, in addition to attending medical school, we also have to take national licensing exams (USMLEs or ‘boards’). The first of these exams is known colloquially as ‘step one’ and is supposed to be the most difficult of them all. At most U.S. medical schools, students take the exam after they finish their first two years of med school. Most schools have a 6-8 week period after classes end in the second year that are designated specifically for studying for the exam. Some students take it earlier in the period and use the rest of time for vacation and others take it right before third year begins so they have more time to study.

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, it takes me a reaaaaally long time to understand and memorize material so I have to be really careful about my study schedules and make sure I review throughout each block in addition to learning new material. So when it comes to studying for step one, I know that I need to start early. Below I’ve included the resources I’ll be using over the next few months during second year and before the designated step one studying period starts. This, of course, is just what I think will work best for me. Many students wait until January to even think about the boards or don’t even study until the designated studying period starts. But I think it’s important to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and create a plan that’ll work best for you.

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dots galore 

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One of my favorite things about second year so far is that we have much fewer hours of required classes and classes in general. It’s a lot more independent learning and since I do best studying on my own anyway (I’m a slow learner and have to repeat everything at least ten times before I retain it), it feels a bit more manageable. And now that hubby is no longer commuting and officially moved into our apartment, I love having slow mornings when I can just sip my coffee at home and we can catch up.

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