Those People.

I read this incredibly powerful blog post today. It's about someone who has been hungry in her life. It's about someone who has used the services of a food pantry. It's about "those people".

Those people.

It makes me sad that those people have hit hard times are unable to feed themselves and their families. It makes me sad that those people are possibly even on their way to being homeless because paying for rent/mortgage, heat, electricity and water is sometimes an impossible feat. It bums me out that those people are often living in food deserts and the food they have access to is often not nutritious...which leads to other health issues such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and the list goes on. It bums me out that governmental assistance programs keep getting cut and so those people continue on being hungry. 

But mostly it bums me out that those people keep getting called those people by the rest of the people. 

Hunger is everywhere. It's not something to be ashamed of. You are not one of those people, you are a person. A person who is hungry. A person using their resources to no longer be hungry. I wish I could magically erase world hunger or even the stigma associated with it, but I alone cannot. Loyal blog readers, partner with me to end hunger? To end the stigma? 

Smörgåsbord

Admittedly, this will be a super random post. But that's what happens when I haven't blogged much in the recent past. Here we go...

• I recently found out that one of the conferences I'm presenting at in November is featuring Parker Palmer as its keynote speaker (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I'm about to nerd out real hard, please prepare yourself. For all of you science people that don't know who Parker Palmer is, let me direct you to this nice little bio. He is a rockstar. He's a writer about education, leadership and vocation predominantly. He is also a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), so that's pretty darn awesome. We read one of his books in undergrad for the Christian Ministry program I was in (we read "Let Your Life Speak"...if you're interested in reading it, I will absolutely let you borrow it!). It was all about finding your calling/vocation and doing that with your life because ultimately it makes your life more full and affects those around you in a positive way. Well anyway, Parker (Do you think he will become my bestie at this conference? Gosh, I hope!) is speaking at this conference because it's all about service learning and community education. I think he is talking about his recent book, but I honestly don't know. I don't really care. He's awesome. He could be reading out of the dictionary and I'd still probably think it was interesting. So, I'm a little star struck and it's making it hard for me to put together a cohesive blurb about Parker Palmer, but the moral of the story is that I'm excited.
• This week I went to "Book of Mormon" with some friends. It was INCREDIBLE! Offensive, hilarious, gorgeous music, great choreography! I really wish I were more talented in the areas of singing, dancing and acting cause I would absolutely LOVE to be in musicals! Biggest bummer of my life that I'm not...boo.
• I had a test this week! It's done now though. Thank goodness. Still plenty more tests for weeks to come. I'm so looking forward to Christmas break (when I still have assignments to work on, but at least I don't have a billion hours of studying on top of that!). Perhaps I will get a countdown going on my computer so it will inspire me to survive until then!
• This week was Spirit Day (a day dedicated to eradicating bullying especially against LGTB youth). In honor of Spirit Day, I present you with this incredibly done video about bullying. It's been floating around the intrawebs for a few months now, but it's still just as powerful now as it was in February. As someone who used to be bullied endlessly as a child, I'm so glad teachers are better now about combating bullying--whether it's about a child's orientation or about their overall nerdy and awkward nature, it's not okay. We really have to start teaching our kiddos not to bully because otherwise they don't grow out of it and they are bullies as adults too. Adult bullies are so very not cool.

• Continuing on with the videos... Here's this video about STI prevention. I think this might be the best parody of a Taylor Swift song ever.

• A final installation of the videos for today...a very impressive tap dance to the song "Cups"! I love tap so much! They did a reallllll good job with it too!

• Challenges update: I have been stretching at least 15 minutes per day every day this month. It's been a bit harder than I expected to fit it in each day, but it has been really helpful! I've missed two days I think because I was absolutely too exhausted to do anything other than collapse into my bed by the end of the day. But I always stretched extra long the following days. Next month (in just 12 days!) I will be giving up my phone for the most part and basically all of the internet, so I'm guessing that will be MUCH harder, but absolutely worth it! I'll likely be much more productive with the studying, at the very least! Don't worry, you will still be able to contact me via email, snail mail, smoke signals and owl post. I will also be updating my blog throughout the month. You can subscribe to get emails whenever I post (shameless plug much?) since I won't also be posting them on the facebooks.

That was just a teeny tiny snippet of my life as of late. Perhaps soon I will write about something directly medically related. Perhaps not. But I hope all is well with everyone!

Ice cream for breakfast....?

I have heard more lectures than I care to count on nutrition. I generally eat pretty healthily on a regular basis, but this morning I had cookie dough ice cream for breakfast.

Sometimes you just got to do what you've got to do to make it through test week! This is week 1 of 7 straight weeks of a test and/or research conferences. I'm sure it will go by quickly, but at this point I'm just looking forward to Thanksgiving break!

Look for something a bit more substantial up on the blog this weekend sometime...back to studying!

No one has ever accused me of being concise...

Yes, yes, yes. I know. I have been slacking on the blogging. My apologies. I was busy studying for a test and then last week I spent my time in a bunch of various meetings! Here is a (very) brief snapshot of what I've been up to!

1. MTV Staying Alive Foundation (SAF) grant writing. The do juSTIce program applied for a grant from MTV SAF last year and was awarded substantial monies to start our youth program at the Douglas County Youth Correctional Facility. Well, the re-grant was due on Monday, and so the past several weeks has been spent thinking of ideas to expand the programming for the next three years and writing the actual grant. I have the most awesomest team (yes, awesomest!) and they did the bulk of the work, but there was plenty of brainstorming happening in my peanut-sized noggin! 
2. Current news crying. Speaking of do juSTIce...today I read this article on NPR that made me cry. This is absolutely terrifying to me. We have SO much more work to do in the area of sex education...teenagers don't realize that by not saying "no," a person IS NOT saying yes. They also don't know that legally, drunk/high consent is not valid. Some of the students we educated just last week were surprised at the concept that "consent" is ONLY a resounding "YES" and not just the absence of a "no." And the worst part, is that it's not just teenagers that don't know this. It's my generation. It's adults. It's pre-teens. 1 in 6 American women and 1 in 33 American men are victims of sexual assault within their lifetime. Those stats are staggering. We need to start having a serious conversation about sexual assault in this country. 
3. Preceptor. I precepted last week (shadowed the doc I'm assigned to). I learned lots of applicable and interesting stuff! Some well checks, some run-of-the-mill sick checks, some embryological malformations, some cystic fibrosis. Interesting stuff! And plenty of talk about which flu vaccinations are covered by which insurance providers. [Here's my plug for getting your flu shot this year...DO IT!]
4. Wood Auction. The Lutheran Center at UNL had their annual "Wood Auction" fundraiser. Always nice to support campus ministry, see gorgeous art and eat delicious food! I wish I wasn't a poor med student so I could buy the gorgeous art!
5. LGTB certificate. I don't remember if I've written about this yet...I've been accepted to be in a program that is dedicated to learning more about LGTB medicine and healthcare disparities. We've been doing online discussion boards for a few weeks, but last week was our first class in person! It was great! I'm SO excited to learn more! 
6. Accreditation. UNMC College of Medicine is up for re-accreditation this year...so our MD degrees actually mean something. And I was part of the group of students that got to talk to the big, fancy committee! For the record, I was 1000% behind the idea that we should be re-accredited! :) I'm sure we will, since we are a rockstar school!

So I said this would be brief. I sort of lied. Not intentionally though. It's just been a busy week! We're smack dab in the middle of the thorax and abdomen section of anatomy...so I'm learning about hearts and guts. Let me know if you'd like me to check you for a heart murmur...I'm getting pretty good at identifying them!