Astoria, the MCAT, and Tablets

Hi, everyone.

Today marks the end of another great week! Woo.

There was a medical school fair at Columbia today so I took a trip up there (it was my first time). The campus is absolutely gorgeous so I didn't mind neither the trip from Brooklyn nor the cold. A good number of medical schools that I'm interested in applying to were there so I was able to get some good information. And a ton of informational pamphlets too! haha

Speaking of med school stuff, on Wednesday, I got my score back for the MCAT that I took in January, and I was sooo relieved. Months of tension have finally come to an end. Now for the applications...

Earlier that same day, I found myself in Astoria again after more than a year. The last time that I was there I was visiting the Noguchi with my dad. My friend and I had tacos at this Mexican place, which were yummy. He's been going there for years, and he says that it's one of the best in the area. We then headed to Socrates Sculpture Park and tried to walk around without slipping on the ice and snow. haha. There were only a couple of other people there so it was quiet, and we just enjoyed the view of the river.

View from the last time that I was there (Dec 2013)

This past Sunday, my fellow co-editor-in-chief at The Macaulay Messenger and I held a meeting with our section editors. We ended up having the meeting at a Starbucks instead of the Macaulay building because unbeknownst to us, the building was closed that day. So we had to email everyone last minute to meet us at Starbucks. It was so cold that day too so it was not fun to run around in the biting wind but such is life. Always an adventure...

Both of us will be graduating by the end of the semester so we talked about how we will go about choosing next year's editor-in-chiefs. We also listened to any ideas that the section editors had about how to make the site better. I've loved running The Messenger this year because I'm learning what it means to run something with all of the perks and difficulties that comes with that responsibility. Something important that I've learned is that it is equally as important to be assertive as it is to listen to the opinions of others. That's what ultimately makes a great leader.

Something that I forgot to mention in my last post is that I recently bought a tablet for myself. Besides getting yourself a good laptop (Macaulay gives you one for free. Another reason to choose us for college! haha), getting a tablet is also a must. It doesn't have to be an expensive one. Just something that you know has proven to work well over time. I wish I had bought myself one earlier in college because it saves so much time, money, and space. I no longer have to rush to student computer labs to print PDFs. I can just download the file on the tablet, and read it whenever I have free time. Since I don't have a smartphone (Yes, I know. I'm probably one of the only millenials who doesn't. haha), I can use the tablet to quickly look things up like when an NYPL branch opens. Plus, it's great for the environment! So much paper was wasted on printing things out over the last 4 years. It's also a great way to save money on buying textbooks since there are ebook versions of many books these days.

Stay warm, everyone!

S.

For this last semester, I've decided that I'll share one cool/interesting/thought-provoking thing that I happen to run across during the week:

(This one is an oldie but a goodie!)

Oprah interviews Thich Nhat Hanh.