SAN FRANCISCO

I never thought in wildest dreams, I would ever get a chance to go to a research conference my first year of University. It was an amazing experience, just being in a room with so many experts of their field. It's not that they were just experts in their field, but they were all there because this was their passion, this was their life's work being presented. I used to believe that many mental disorders didn't truly exist because their diagnosis was symptom base, but then I remember a quote that was stated "Theories that diseases are caused by mental states and can be cured by will power, are always an index of how much is not understood about the physical terrain of a disease." After hearing that, I realized just how ignorant I have been, and how much I still need to learn. 

On the fun side: everyone should bike across San Francisco bridge because awesome experience despite falling :D.

On a separate note:

Over the past couple of days, I reflected back and realized that of all the people that I have worked with, there are only a few people who I can consider a true leader. Working with those people, I have realized three critical aspects they all share:

1) Humbleness: They always praise others for the work completed regardless of progress

2) Calmness and optimism: Despite the challenges, they always take it and move forward

3) Genuineness: They do what they do because of what they love, because that passion drives them forward, and it's never more clear unless you're working with them.

Third random fact:

I finally got a chance to catch up on sytycd this week. I watched like 3 hours in 2 days instead of working diligently. But I realized, I don't watch SYTYCD for the dance, sure dance is elegant and beautiful, but what I love are the stories of the dancers. People who come on stage and make it to Vegas are those with a genuine passion and it's inspiring to watch people achieve their dreams and especially people who have faced so many challenges to even get where they are today. It's taught me that no matter what has happened to me, other people have had it harder and if they can be on that stage performing, then I have no reason to even come close to giving up.

 

THANK YOU! YES YOU

Thanks to everyone for pre-celebrating my birthday with me, it truly meant a lot to me. I knew some people came all the way back from University and I really appreciated that.

It's funny that even after a year, some people I find I can talk to like we just saw each other yesterday. I realized that regardless of the distance, you can still be just as close. On the other other hand, the same can be said in vice versa but I'll focus on the positives :).

I guess the university life lessons post will have to wait.

RANDOM MUSINGS

Sarah and Niki have motivated me to get a blog. Ten more posts and Niki will give me access to her blog (*again apparently). I missed the first invitation :(

I'm so glad to be back in CANADA. I didn't realize how much I missed until it was the last couple of weeks before I came back. I guess knowing that I would be back for such a short duration made me treasure it that much more. Don't get me wrong, I love UPENN, I'm just glad to be back. I'll post the things that I learned from 1st semester university in my next post.