This is a post about shoes.

Everyone is talking about Christmas time and finals, which are (both) quickly approaching. I would like to take a minute here and talk about shoes. Because I love shoes. Shoes are really great. They're practical (when you choose the right pairs) but also can be extremely stylish. So here's a post about shoes.

When I lived at home (in suburbia), shoes mattered slightly less to me. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a shoe person. And I've always been a big fan of comfortable shoes. Being a nearly flat-footed person, I don't normally like heels since they hurt and stretch the arches of my feet. On a day-to-day basis I wear flats, or boots in the winter. 

But when I moved to the city, I became acutely aware of how important shoes were to me and to my (poor) feet. You walk a lot in the city. You need comfortable shoes. For example, I had owned a pair of rain boots for years in the suburbs. When I moved to the city, I wore them so much that they broke in only a couple of months. I used to own only one pair of tall boots. In the course of one winter, I wore the heels down so much because I needed to wear tall boots often to keep my legs warm.

You have a couple of options: take really good care of your shoes (conditioner and polish for leather, and lots of trips to shoemakers), try not to wear them out a lot (which means owning a lot of different shoes), or keep buying cheap, throw-away shoes. So here's my advice: get lots of comfortable, well-made shoes. This doesn't mean they have to look like your grandmother's shoes (see also: Easy Spirit). There's tons of comfy and stylish shoes out there. Here's a list of all the best/most versatile/comfiest shoes I own:

Combat boots: 

Dolce Vita

A pair I thrifted in the West Village for $20 that have lasted surprisingly well (I got the heels replaced once)

Riding boots:

Nickels

BDG (They no longer sell those at Urban Outfitters, but they're my favorite boots, I wear them nearly every day; they zip up the back!)

Rain/snow boots: 

Hunter (I don't currently have these but I'm getting them for the holidays as a present; don't gawk at the price tag, my friend has them and they're SO worth it)

Bean Boots (These are the warmest boots ever and they keep your feet so dry; don't be afraid to jump in some puddles or snow piles)

Sneakers: 

Converse (These have held up for years at every intense GA standing-room only concert I've been to, including multiple Warped Tours, so they're pretty reliable)

Keds (Great summer shoes, lightweight and comfortable; make sure you get the right socks to go with them though, because they're cut low in the front)

Plimsoll sneakers (I wore these every day for a week of intensive walking in Montreal; beautiful and cheap)

Flats: I own almost an unlimited number of flats and I will not mention them all here (especially because a lot of them are old and hard to find online) so here's some of the highlights 

Sperry

Jessica Simpson (Basic black flats can never be wrong)

Dr. Scholl's Foldable Flats (For those nights when you just want to take off those heels; it even comes with a case so they're easy to carry around with you)

Slippers:

Happy Feet (I got these as a Secret Santa gift and they are the greatest, most comfortable, most obnoxious slippers ever created; I love them and I always get compliments on them)

And don't forget shower shoes. I use Old Navy flip flops (they're like $2.50). 

Invest the money in shoes. Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

P.S. If you find shoes you really love but you're worried they might not give you enough support, try shoe inserts by Dr. Scholl's. They make products for nearly every type of foot pain (seriously). They'll work miracles for those really cute heels.

Rainy Night Thoughts

Hi, everyone!

It's a rainy Friday night, and I'm currently sitting in my room. It's peaceful here. I can hear the sound of the raindrops outside and the sound of my mom washing the dishes in the kitchen. I'm also listening to the "Electronic Study: Ambient" playlist on Songza. I don't always like to have music on when I'm working, but once in awhile it's nice to have something in the background.

There's a Hunter biology professor who loves to play opera music in his office. When you walk into his office, it's as if you're entering a separate realm. It's always dimly lit, and the music is almost always playing in the background. All of his stuff is also super organized. If I'm ever important enough to have an office, I'll definitely be sure to create such a peaceful work environment for myself. I also love the fact that biology is not his only love. He also has this great passion for opera music, which you wouldn't expect in a scientist. I love seeing that kind of stuff. It makes me hopeful that I'll still be able to hold on to my hobbies/passions even when I have some kind of intense career.

On Wednesday, a Kaplan instructor visited Hunter to talk about the pathway to medical school and the medical career. It was a super informative hour. There are so many steps that need to be taken to become a doctor, and it's great to know about them early on to avoid stress later. One of the biggest things we talked about was taking the MCAT, which is every pre-med student's worst nightmare. I think a lot of people tie their self-worth into that exam, which is not what it should be about. As the instructor explained, every exam in a pre-med student's life is a test of endurance and focus. He called the exam-taking process a sport, which is actually a great way of looking at. It's not necessarily about being intelligent. It's about being able to do well on tests, and the only way you learn how to do that is by practicing and learning certain test-taking skills. Hearing that actually made me feel a lot better about taking the MCAT.

There was also something else he said that really got to me. At the end of his talk, he asked us the question: "How do you think it would feel to know the answer to every medical question that you've ever wondered about?" As future doctors, we will carry a vast amount of knowledge, which is simultaneously a gift and a burden. It is a gift because we will have the ability to help so many people with that knowledge. But it is also a great burden because of the expectations and tremendous responsibility that are involved. I don't think that it's a stretch to say that good doctors are almost superhuman.

Finals week is rapidly approaching….We will be victorious! <3

S.

Quote of the Week

“We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line. There is science in what we do, yes, but also habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing. The gap between what we know and what we aim for persists. And this gap complicates everything we do.”

~ Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Picmas Part One!

So there's this thing that vloggers do called Vlogmas, which is basically where they make a video every day in December leading up to Christmas. Anyone who will know me, will know I hate Christmas before my birthday (December 17th, hehe), but since I do take a lot of pictures, I thought I'd do this just for something cute. I'll be taking pictures everyday, and then every five days posting the past five days' worth in one go. They may be pretty random, but that's OK, it's just for fun and a way so that you can see what I'm up to this December.

traveling from derby to manchester by train; saw my cousins

walking around manchester; did a bit of shopping & eating

this was the plane from birmingham to dublin; then went back to jfk

wasn't feeling all too great but did get to study a bit for poli-sci

had lunch with my dad at potbelly on park avenue; yummy yummy