i am your friend. a soul for you soul. a place for your life. home. know this. sun or water. here or away. we are a lighthouse. we leave. and we stay. —nayyirah waheed
All Stories
Goat Rock Beach
“I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible; to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk…
Getting Lost at Armstrong Redwoods
“The question then is how to get lost. Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction, and somewhere in the terra incognita in between lies a life of discovery.” – Rebecca Solnit This friendship. This group of four. More than most of my friendships,…
Bolinas Ridge Trail at Point Reyes
if you are softer than before they came. you have been loved. – nayyirah waheed With our move across the country coming up, we are trying to make the most of every day. Point Reyes has been one of our favorite places to return to over the years. Back in March we headed out to…
Napa Valley Birthday Celebration
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes; for those who love with heart and soul there is no separation.” – Rumi By far the hardest part about moving is leaving our friends. Leslye left us to travel and rock climb around the world (seriously, she is the coolest). But the weekend before she…
Pinnacles
Last June, July, and August, I submitted applications to about 25 medical schools. I wrote at least 60 pages of essays describing why medicine, my past experiences, and my future goals. I traveled around the country for 11 interviews and by the end I was pretty exhausted. Finally, in February, I returned to our little studio in Oakland,…
2016 Review
Greetings from Detroit, Michigan! I am super lucky to be here celebrating the holidays with Matt’s family. The past week has been full of restful sleep, yummy food, good conversations, and adventures around the state. Yesterday we went to Point Pelee in Canada for the final sunset of 2016. It was really cold and windy and…
Pacific Northwest
“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit…
Mount Alava
This weekend we finally made it to the National Park of American Samoa! During orientation we visited the visitor’s center for the National Park which is located downtown. After living next to Acadia National Park (on an island off the coast of Maine) for years, I was super excited to visit the only National Park…
American Samoa
I am determined to post an update for y’all before I hit the two month mark of my time here and before my computer dies forever. Heat and humidity really do terrible things to electronics. For those who don’t know, I am in American Samoa (also spelled Amerika Samoa) for 6 months teaching high school science….
Napa Valley
Last June I visited Napa Valley with three dear friends to celebrate finishing spring semester. We moved from vineyard to vineyard, tasting wine, frolicking among the grape vines, playing bocce ball, and enjoying the sunny weather and each other. We refueled at Oxbow Public Market with yummy tacos and cupcakes before heading home. I miss these ladies so much and am so…
MCAT 2015 Tips
At the risk of sounding crazy, I loved the new MCAT. The new MCAT forced me to synthesize everything and apply it to the human body which gave it all a purpose (including physics!). As a post-bac non-traditional student, I took all the relevant courses in a short period of time so the material was still fresh.
Pre-med Post-Bacc Re-cap
Me, on the last morning of classes! Post-bac re-cap conveniently rhymes. Remember that time in August when I posted three times in 10 days? That was during my second week of MCAT prep before I had my omg I need to learn everything in the world in the next four weeks moment. This year was hard. I am…
Kentucky Summer 2014
My grandparents home in KY is one of my favorite places in the whole world. Even without my grandmother, Kentucky still feels more “home” to me than where I actually grew up in New York. I miss it pretty much all the time. A few articles have popped up on my newsfeed about Kentucky, starting with the inflammatory “What’s the…
Matt’s Family Visits California Spring 2014
Last spring Matt’s family (and soon to be mine, eee!) drove out from Michigan to visit us. Although I came down with a brutal cold passed on to me by our previous visitor (ahem, MB — I still love you), I tagged along and they put up with my sneezing and unstoppable runny nose and…
Meg and Sam Visit California
It was my dear friend Meg’s birthday a few days ago and what a perfect reason to go back and look at old pictures. These photos are from her visit out to California in the spring of 2014. As usual, California was stunning. Add two best friends and you get magic.
Dutel Wedding
No time for words. It was the best weekend ever. *Matt got most of the photos of the ceremony because I was in it :). I didn’t want him disrupting anyone by standing up to take photos (while i was so sad to not be able to take photos myself), so I asked him to sit in the back……
Dutel Wedding: the Garba and night before the wedding
Two weekends ago, two of my closest friends got married & I think I can fairly say it was one of the best weekends of my entire life. My heart burst a million times and my face hurt from smiling and I was reminded that life is so, so much bigger than every day regular…
Isle Royale: The Island
So, after hiking 7.1 miles from Rock Harbor (where the ferry dropped us off) to Daisy Farms (I know I said 6 miles in my last post but then I looked it up and one of the maps says it is 7.1 while the other says it is less so… I’m going with the bigger number), Matt made a…
Isle Royale: Getting there
I started writing this post with an overview of the summer but changed my mind. Maybe someday I’ll write about taking Gen Chem 1 and 2 (oh, how exciting!) but for now I just want to share photos from the backpacking trip Matt and I went on before I get too busy with Orgo, Physics and Bio….
You: Unplugged
In early April, I received an invitation from my friend River for a weekend unplugged. A few weeks later we got a ride with two friends out to her farm in Lake County, California. Upon arrival, I learned more about how River had planned the event as art—Social Practice Art. Social Practice art is participatory artwork that…