Challenges

Conversation I had this morning with a friend - about my upcoming adventures:

"Here we go, you always with the 'need to do something new!"
I said "Don't you ever feel like that?"
Nope, "I just don't feel the desire to look for it. While you - gotta find something new!"
Me: "hmm, I dunno, things just sort of come up, I mean the running thing, it just happened, and then i became obsessed and I do feel the need to challenge myself. It's more about the challenge I guess, I am happiest when I am working towards some goal."

Goal #1 (complete): PhD!!! Everything I needed submitted last week, such a great feeling, no big moment of relief, but a weekend of feeling relaxed followed.

Goal #2 (upcoming): survive 200 mile relay race this week! My team, the Gimpy Kenyans, consists of 12 people (I know one); met a few of them last week, seemed very nice, most are Czech and Slovak, one girl I talked to turned out to speak Hungarian fluently (not that strange) but then, I looked her up on Facebook, and voila, we had 6 mutual friends (a little more strange), all fencers from St. John's University in Queens. Turns out she played tennis there, and knew a lot of people on the fencing team, small world! Even though I haven't been entirely excited about this relay thing - turning out to be a hassle, with figuring out transportation and gear and all the rest that is involved in an overnight running race with 11 other people... but now, I am getting sort of excited, it will be an adventure, something really new (me not being an outdoorsy person, it's a little scary, but I am sure good for me in the long run).

Goal #3 (in progress): med school applications! It has come up oh soo quickly! It's almost June, when the national med school application system opens, and I am determined to send it out the first (ok, maybe second) day it is available, so I've started filling out all the forms (it's all online and pretty straightforward) it's relatively time-consuming, but most of it is easy. And there is the dreaded essay or call it personal statement. No matter where you apply in the US, school or job, you gotta write some sort of essay, cover letter, or something similar. How do I convince a group of people on a committee that I would be a great doctor and that what I've done so far prepares me for med school and a career in medicine? In one page! And how do I stand out and seem just a little different from the thousands of other applicants? A little different, but not too crazy, not too arrogant and cocky, but just confident enough so that they will say "Now, that woman sounds like she would be a great doctor!" Someone who's currently in her first year in med school told me to "be a human being, be interesting but not preachy or weird... be different but not strange... show compassion and empathy". Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

Well, over the weekend, I came up with a couple of drafts, which I hated. Then, I went for a run - just as easy run as I hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days before - and had so much inspiration during that hour I was out in the park! I even decided to go further than I had planned because all these great ideas were coming to me, totally unforced, just flowing in, as if finally all the other crap that was taking up room in my brain just melted away and there was this free flow of inspiration. I didn't even notice the 5 miles go by, and wrote an entire essay in my head. I just wish I had a voice recorder running with me! Of course, as soon as I got home, I started writing it down, and even though it didn't come out exactly as nicely as it had in my head, it did turn into a decent first draft.

Goals #4-56325639 (upcoming and in progress): pack up my apartment, move to new apartment, become a bike-commuter (very excited!), have fun with my parents and enjoy every moment of commencement (real graduation ceremony, with ridiculous outfit)!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh :)