Catching Up: Post-Boards

Thank you. So much. 

What started out as a random bunch of people studying together became so much more. Thank you for being my source of strength, my inspiration, my lifeline for joy and sanity the past few months. The daily grind didn't feel as bad knowing I'd step into the school/plasti/lib/hallways and see you there pouring everything you got into this - it made me want it even more. :) 

I'm scared. I'm so scared - not because I don't believe but because I believe so much. Haha and sometimes God's plan is not necessarily what we had originally planned for ourselves. But I can honestly say now that regardless of results and the chaos that will ensue in a few days time, it already feels like I gained so much in the process of becoming because of all of you. I can't tell you enough how proud I am of each one of you as a witness of how well you fought for this - not just in how well you studied, but in how well you've handled yourself, go beyond your personal let-downs, take care of each other and our beloved PUGAD, and never lost that spirituality or centeredness to why we do what we do. In the hours between 7AM-12MN (for most days at least), I saw what being #one2015 was really about with you - and no exam can take that away from us. :)

If any doubt crosses your mind in the next couple of days, let me be the first to tell you now that you've done what you could and it's time to let Go(d) do His. :) I'll pray for peace and strength for all of us. I'll pray that fear and doubt won't cover the moments leading up to this, and that numbers, percentages or even licenses won't define the doctors we've become and hinder the doctors we dare to dream to be. :) 

I'm going to miss the daily grind. I'm going to miss all of you. Haha The end of the boards season means going back to our individual realities, realizing that the world did not stop spinning without us and that we have so much to catch up on - in taking care of ourselves, in being an Ate, being a daughter, in our relationships, in current affairs, in books (or movies), and whatever else we were into before all this. So before you get busy in the catching up, I just really wanna be able to congratulate you doc - you did amazing! :)

Mad Hatter's Dance

On our last day of class, we had our SemEnder celebration
a big party held to end the sem right. :)
AMDG (ASMPH's dance org) presents their first performance on that night.
This year was no different, we prepared a few weeks before, for an uber cute (if I do say so myself)
Alice-in-Wonderland Dance Story

Our el torero (presidente) Jay-Mag Magsino as the Mad Hatter and our EVP Catrina Yang as Alice

Two of the most talented people I love. <3

Our past-president, Clang Manuel, doing what she's good at, as the Red Queen.

>

It's amazing working with these people
-- not only can they perform to the umpth level,
they excel in academics too,
I would entrust my life in their hands anytime. :)

Practice Video -- two nights before the event 
(thats two nights before FINAL exam, this is what we were doing!)
Untitled from Nicole Flor on Vimeo.

During the event itself. :)
AMDG Madhatter Dance Performance from Nicole Flor on Vimeo.


ASMPH's Doctor Dancers

XOXO,
Joanie

No Misery while I Study

You can tell from my lack of update that life has been a little hectic these days,
Med school just got a little more real... and you know what's cool? I'm loving it!
don't get me wrong, I'm dying and my eyebags are HUGE, but I'm actually starting to fall for it. <3
This has been what I've been waiting for since college -- that I start to feel that I am where I'm supposed to be.

With that said, it might be nice to have a short explanation.
YL6 in ASMPH means long exams EVERY monday -- yes, EVERY monday.
As if mondays weren't my hatest days as it is.
and to think that's an average of 12 transes (our notes) of about 9 pages each
-- that doesnt include reading the books yet
(not that I actually read the books, ugh, gotta change that mindset, 20k worth of books are NOT just for decoration).

So with all this studying and stress, I always try to incorporate little luxuries to remain bubbly, happy and not-zombie-like,
(coz face it, I love them, I don't want to look like them)
Here's my current study lovers -- yes, there is a way to put business and pleasure together! <3
You just have to know how to play with the meaning of the words BUSINESS and PLEASURE.


I just love my highlighters in ALL these colors -- even if I only use two. And when you refill, it's amuhzingly cool! :))
(even if the refill costs about 2 pesos less than buying new ones -- its the experience that makes it worth it! ;p)

DIET?! ofcourse not! your brain needs all the glucose it can get! Just choose your comfort food wisely.
Not to mention, food makes studying much like a love affair,
prolly-shouldn't-do-it-but-you-do-it-anyways coz you deserve the yummy fuzzy feeling. <3

Stay smiling loves! <3 What are we all doing this for, if we're miserable going through it.

XOXO,
Joanie

Run For Juan

Last Sunday, I got up at 4AM, showered, put on my rubber shoes and my newly broken-into fitness attire, packed my bag – towel, water bottle, extra shirts, slippers, revel bar - had breakfast, and was ready to leave by 5AM,
when I noticed it was raining cats and dogs out there!

I was so excited to Run for Juan that I forgot I was afraid of thunder, I forgot I hated waking up early and that my ride had texted me a semi-drunken-text only an hour before to say that he’d just gotten home and to wake him up.

So no more run.
Thunder.
Covers. Back to Sleep.

Beep! I received a call from another friend (who had just woken up and was usually completely against the idea of running) that she was on the way and she’d pass by for me. By this time my feet was snuggled under the covers and I had closed my eyes already, but surprised and intrigued by my friends enthusiasm, I got up and repeated everything I did at 4AM.

So we braved the rain, the cold (we both wore shorts giving off the vibe that we had intended to run), and the mud, and the modern labyrinth that is UP Diliman.

For what you might ask?

Life's Personal Trainers, part 2

Second part of a two-part blog entry
(yes two parts, because I poured my heart and soul into this and had a little too much to say
and because it was a journey most people would've wanted to take but usually aren't able to, so I wanted to share my on-going journey.)


I started with walking an hour every day – since I really had no physical activity to begin with, translating to the absence of endurance. It was my exercise and contemplation time. A lot of the world’s problems we’re somehow ‘thought about’ during those one-hour me-times. Slowly, I started to jog, then run. It was exhilarating but a little depressing because the increase in physical activity did not translate to a skinnier me. I had to remind myself constantly of my main goal. I'd text my family whenever I ran “hi mum/dad/jan, just got home from a jog. Gonna study now. Love you!” “Good morning, about to go for a walk. Have a great day!” and whatever I could think of, to show them that I was committing to it, that it wasn’t just a phase.

More than that, I realized I was surrounded with people who inspired me. My then housemate who was superwoman – athlete, party-girl plus batch top 10 - and she slowly trained me to run, forcing me to push myself and catch up with her pace; my then barkada who were fit to the tee in mind and body, disciplined (one wakes up at 5 in the morning to have his daily dose of chlorinated pool water then goes to school, the other able to steal a few hours of gym time even after an intense 10-hour school day), crazy water-drinkers, and simply made me want to strive better – in my academic, emotional and physical life; my mentor who in her own way knew the right words to say during our fleeting mentoring sessions.

Later on, I joined a contest in school “Biggest Loser ASMPH”, where contestants were made to compete with each other for the most weight loss (by percentage). Being a very competitive person, I was further motivated to continue my routine.

So I continued.

It’s been five months, I’ve lost about 18lbs, stopped eating junk food, stopped drinking coke (gasp!!!), know how to cook vegetables in the most appetizing way (atleast to me), joined a fitness club, play sports, continue to run and I am relatively pleased with how I look.

More importantly, its been five months, and my sister has started to force me to exercise with her, my father went back to the gym (he used to be very active, playing basketball, soccer, bowling, from what I remember when I was younger he was great at all sports) and he called me last monday to assure me “I’ll take care of your mother, I’ll make sure she’ll exercise and eat better.” My mother has joined a gym as well, more than that, she’s hired a personal trainer, increased her fluid (water) intake, stopped eating meat and has decided to buy a weighing scale.

Health is seen as a scientific issue that focuses on the details – insulin, blood glucose levels, genetics, etc.
But health is more importantly a social issue, how healthy you are and your health seeking behavior, will affect the people around you, people who care about you, people who love you. In my on-going journey, these people are the ones that inspire me to be better, to strive for health.

As future health professionals, health being a social concept can be two-fold. It is both our greatest limitation because the social environment - that we often do not have control over - is usually the cause of the disease (directly and indirectly) and thus promoting a cycle of disease, hindering our general health development; but it is also our secret weapon to identifying the right who's to partner with in creating sustainable positive health changes in our individual patients and for the public's health.

Ultimately, my journey isn't over just yet. I'm not simply running after numbers and calories-lost, im striving for health
- my health and those of the people i care about,
and maybe just maybe, in the not-so-distant future, my patients and the general public.

Life's Personal Trainers, part 1

A two-part blog entry
(yes two parts, because I poured my heart and soul into this and had a little too much to say
and because it was a journey most people would've wanted to take but usually aren't able to, so I wanted to share my on-going journey.)


A little early this year, I had started this whole “must-get-fit!” mantra. I’ve always meant to take it seriously, but after high school, healthy eating habits, self-control and exercise take the backseat to studies, philosophizing, studies, theologizing, studies, socializing and even more studies – it just didn't seem to be as important as other priorities.

When I entered med school, the priority list piled up even further, and the fitness goal was pushed further back to the trunk (car analogies, hihi). It wasn’t until during the endocrine module, when we discussed diabetes mellitus in detail, that health, in my life, was suddenly put into perspective.

My mother had been diagnosed with diabetes and has been (or atleast appeared to be) okay with it. Her reaction to her disease was basically surrendering to it; she felt she was past trying to do anything about it (her weight, her health and her unhealthy lifestyle), besides she had her insulin and enough meds to mask any symptoms or manifestations of the disease. I always thought, since it made her happy to live her lifestyle and because she is my mother (and therefore ALWAYS right and all-knowing), I didn’t think I could do anything about it.

Studying in the ASMPH however, I was bombarded with the idea of family systems, holistic therapy, and the broader perspective of health complemented with highly scientific clinical training and further details on the disease – specifically diabetes (as it was the cause of the most common diseases for almost every module).

Suddenly, I was empowered to do something about MY health. No, not JUST to become SCHMEXY, as most of my batch mates might think, but to somehow try to inspire my family to do the same.

Being the poster child for an unhealthy med student – I spent all my time in front of the computer, studying her trans, eating junk food, drinking caffeine (oodles and oooodles of coke!), and lazy as a bum, the change was not the least bit comfortable or easy. What kept me motivated was the idea that if I could show my family that it can be done – a real lifestyle change – they would be inspired to join me.

And so began my journey.

Hungry in Class

I'm hungry. *classmate talks to me
I'm hungry. *teacher discusses
I'm hungry *classmate says something funny, whole class laughs. Huh? What happened?!
I'm hungry. *teacher continues to discuss
I'm hungry *classmate makes fun of me during class presentation Hahahahaha
I'm hungry. *whole world goes on
I'm hungry.

This was my situation during class last friday. I learned absolutely nothing, recall absolutely nothing, and remember nothing, except that I was hungry.
Oh wait, no, I remember some other things…
My tummy hurt.
My head was throbbing.
I was fantasizing dinner – sambokojin or some kind of buffet to celebrate my sis bday.
Regretting not having had lunch.

And that's one day. One missed meal. One wasted class.
Imagine 10 months (an average school year). 900 missed meals. An entire school year wasted.
Multiply that with 4000 kids of only 4 public elementary schools.
You get the big picture that the Blue Plate for better Learning feeding program wants to address.


I had started to question my involvement in the program (being a part of the core team that conceptualized the blue platito program, ASMPH’s 1.6 M fund-raising contribution to the larger initiative). My time as a YL6 student is precious – if im not studying or blogging, I should be catching up on sleep (and the occasional meal), so I had to asses my commitments properly. I had three things that bothered me:

1. I couldn’t actually reconcile nation building with the idea of a one-meal-per-day feeding program.
My experience last Friday basically concretized this for me. A seemingly insignificant issue, but how are we all supposed to learn, to develop without nutrition. And as they say, the youth is our future, so we need to maximize their capabilities.

2. All these lessons on sustainability; yet we undertake a feeding program – a 6M worth task (all 4 Ateneo graduate schools).
Ricky’s inspired post basically answered this issue. His beautiful point was that despite the seemingly small contribution and shady sustainability of the program, it is still our concrete single drop. Plans for sustainability and nation building cannot remain in the classroom or in theories or in the minds of the nation’s intellectuals, they have to be translated to action.

3. Its hard enough to get support for extracurricular projects – how much more one that involves GIVING UP money.
You have to believe in people; when they see the value of something, the concrete manifestation of what they had just given up – they are ultimately altruistic. My Case in point: this freshie who gave up her shoe fund – absolutely adorable - as her pledge for blue platito. People WANT to make a difference. Give them an avenue to.

I am proud to be a part of this project. If not for our nation and for the kids, as I’ve explained; then for myself, to be part of something that actually wants to build and is building a nation.

Support Blue Platito! Support Blue Plate for Better Learning!