Jam of the Week: I love my life by Demarco

This song is on repeat this week. Even though i'm studying for the boards and having my life slowly consumed by it, I'm still thankful for the life I have. I love my life! You should love yours too:-)

Officially a 4th year

I'm a 4th year!! Woo hoo!!! 4th year brings a bag of mixed feelings. On the one end, I'm almost officially done with medical school which means I'm almost a doctor!! On the flip side, I'm almost officially a doctor :-/ .

You see, it's exciting because the end of 4th year will make me the very thing that I've always wanted to be since I was a child;  a physician. Even though this journey has made me question my decision to pursue this field, this doesn't negate the fact that this was my dream and  that at this time next year, I would have fulfilled that dream with His help. It will be the very thing that propels me into the next major phase of my life. On the other hand, it's hard to think of little old me bearing the responsibility that becoming a physician brings. People are going to be asking ME to make decisions about THEIR lives & health. Ahhhhhh!!! Crrrrazy! I often wonder if i'm truly ready for that. But I have no doubt that as God has brought me this far, He will continue to keep me and make me a great physician for my patients.

The other things that 4th year seems to bring is more stress and anxiety. Having to schedule away electives, being under scrutiny while doing subinternships, deciding where I want to do residency, filling out applications,traveling for  interviews, and the big one next year: the Match: the very thing that will tell me where I will be spending the next few years of my life. It's a lot. I'm just trusting God to work it out this year. There's so much to do. Keep me in your prayers!!

 

4th year, let's go!!

 

Best wishes on your endeavors in this next year!

 

~B

Documenting your hair journey

As I sit here with conditioner on my head, I figure that I might as well take this time to type something up.

When people decide to embark on their "healthy hair," "long hair," "transition to natural hair" or whatever journey they decide to take with their hair, often times they neglect to actually document the journey. As with any journey in life, a hair journey can be repleat with ups and downs, surprises, enlightenment, times of frustration, and things in between.  Sometimes you will feel that your hair isn't growing or has gotten thinner. Other times you may think that a certain relaxer left your hair more underprocessed than another, or that one product left your hair shinier than another. Whatever the situation, these things can be effectively declared by documenting.

Now what do I mean by documenting?

1) Write!! Start a blog. Have a designated journal (online or hardcopy). Start a word or powerpoint document to show milestones. You figure out what you prefer to do. But have some sort of written documentation of big things in your journey. Examples of things that I think are important to note include:

• Changes in your haircare routine (styling, overall regimen, product use)
• Products that your hair did or didn't respond well to
• New tools or products
• Setbacks (ie: breakage, heat damage, over or underprocessing of a relaxer, thinning, etc)
• Growth changes/milestones

 

2) Take pictures!! Pictures are worth a thousand words. There are times when you will feel that your hair isn't growing or that it appears different or a style looked better on you, etc. Pictures help you to actually see your journey and remind you of how far you've come. It can help you to prove that you've had a setback or that your hair has grown more than you thought. A useful tip is to use the setting on your camera that allows the dates to be posted on the pictures. This ensures that you always know at what part of your journey you were in when the picture was taken. Just make sure you set the right date on the camera. Alternatively, you can upload the pictures to your hardrive by date. Another tip, you can link your powerpoint journal or blog and pictures together to have everything in one place.

3) Record!! Maybe you're the type of person who doesn't want to write or type or take pictures. Make video clips of yourself doing things to your hair or measuring your hair or what have you, just so you have as a reference. And if you decide that you want to share your journey with the world, there is always youtube or facebook.

 

No matter how you choose to do it, just do it. It doesn't matter where you are in your hair care journey. It's never to late to start seeing how your goals are being fulfilled.

 

Twists 5 months into my journey

 

Good luck on the journey!

 

B