Finding your path in life...

Oh where to begin. Hasn't everyone wondered at some point in their lives why someone the exact same age as you, with a life not too different from yours has known what career they want to go into (read: what the heck the want to do with the rest of their lives) since they were born!? Or at least it seems like they've had their whole life planned out from the get-go. Whereas you do not know WHAT you want to be when you're grown up...and being an adult that is legally allowed to drink, you don't know how much more GROWN you could be. Oh yes.

Why does it take some people longer than others? Do the people who take more time more likely to succeed? Or vice versa? Well, on the other hand we are all individuals and none of us have the same life experiences as the next person.

This brings me to the purpose and namesake of my blog. Being a TCK (Third Culture Kid) has greatly shaped who I am as a person. For those of you who don't know what a TCK is, it is basically anyone who spent a part of their childhood/formative years living in a country different from their birth place/primary nationality. For those curious; I spent 4 years in Cairo, Egypt (9 years-12 years of age) and 2 years in Frankfurt, Germany (15 years-17 years of age). My formative years were spent in Cairo and my maturing years were spent in Frankfurt. I changed significantly while abroad and I feel like this has added to my life experiences, which in turn affect my career choices & journey of life (not to sound cheesy or anything, haha).

Anyway, I have had my fair share of "career changes". Of course, when you're younger you want to be everything under the sun (or at least, I was like that). I'd see a Fireman and instantly want to be a Firefighter myself. Or I'd see a Policewoman helping out and I'd say I wanted to do the same. Although, funnily enough, I never wanted to be a Doctor no matter how many times I went to the Pediatrician/Grown-Up Doctor. Yet, this was the one single job that my parents were always saying was so perfect for me and how amazing I'd be at it (psst: I think its the potential $$ talking there, don't ya think? lol). Then I wanted to be a Forensic Scientist for the longest time starting in Middle School and continuing throughout 9th or 10th grade. I gave that up by the end of sophomore year when my dad told me it was really hard to break into that career; especially since we didn't know anyone in that field at all. Then junior & senior year of high school I had NO idea what I wanted. I barely thought of careers; my parents pushed Medical on me and I knew that wasn't something I wanted to do. Then I came to college and realized how crappy I was at biology and went into chemistry; thinking that was my best subject. I decided on Pharmacy as a career and felt pretty confident. Then I hit Organic Chemistry and things slowly started going down the tubes. I switched to Public Health and being a professional in that area. THIS is still my current favorite; but recently I have been flirting with PHYSICAL THERAPY. Turns out it is not that many years of school & the pre-requisties are many classes that I have already taken. I'm getting more and more excited about this the more I continue to read about it & research schools. Plus, I'll be hooded & have a Doctorate in only 2-3 years. Needless to say I'm PSYCHED.

While it HAS taken me basically all 4 years of my undergraduate career; I finally have a clearer image of what is out there in my future. I KNOW I can accomplish DPT and/or MPH & DrPH.

I guess the moral of this blog post is to not try to control everything; God has a plan all figured out, all we have to do is take the best set of steps that allows Him to reveal everything he has planned in a timely (most efficient) way. ;) Sorry this was such a HUGE post, but I think it's an interesting read, don't you? Haha. Feel free to disagree!!

Lucky I'm In Love With My Best Friend. True Story.

My favorite love song. #1. So simple, yet so romantic and wonderful. Makes me feel warm & fuzzy inside. Makes me LOVE deeper and stronger.

Lucky (Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat) --

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying
Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair
though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooooh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Saturday, again :)

Hi, all (whoever you all are!)

So it's Saturday again and I find myself wanting to blog. Or perhaps Saturday's are the only day I even GET to blog and reflect on what's gone on during the week. My week's are so busy and packed-full of my normal routine: 9-5 internship; gym; dinner; sleep. Ai-yo...I have harshly been introduced to the woes of real life after formal education. Thank God I have at least some time before this is my actual life haha. But anyways...on to brighter things!

Just realized it's actually been TWO weeks since I blogged. This is because last weekend we had family visiting from upstate New York. It was my mom's oldest sister & her family that came down. They were the third sibling of my mom's to immigrate to America. My mom sponsored her two younger brothers first, since they were the youngest and then she went in order by her older siblings. She wanted the younger ones to be able to take full advantage of this country while they still could. But anyhow, it was my aunt (Tai Maushi), my uncle (Silu Uncle), and my 3 cousins: Marilyn, Blossom & Vivian! It was so GREAT to have them here with us...it made me wish that everyone lived right around here, so that we could go visit and see each other whenever we felt like it. I wish it could still be like that between our family & Anil uncle's too. :'(

Oh goodness why does it seem like all I have to talk about is depressing things? Lol even when I tried to write about happy family visits, I always seem to end on a sad note. BUT NO...must. fight. the sadness.

MY COUSIN JUST GOT HER MEDICAL DEGREE!!!! Yes, I now officially have my very first cousin that I am SUUUUPER proud of :) Dr. Abha Anil Kadam, MD! Yay! I'm sure the next cousin that I'll be SUPER proud of is Veena :) She'll be Veena Kadam, PharmD in about 2 more years! Of course, I will be proud of all of my cousins no matter what they do; but you know it's different when they get professional degrees and stuff. Hopefully I will end up as such: Arina Kadam, PharmD, MPH, DrPH :) :) haha maybe that's a little bit too over-achiever of me, but alas I can dream big, can't I?

I am watching CID (sort of like an Indian version of CSI) on SonyTV (Indian TV Channel) right now, and I really want to know what happens in the end. So I'm gonna stop blogging right now haha :) Til next time!!!

Lazy Saturday

Oh how I love me a lazy Saturday.

Besides doing painstaking grad school research stuff, I've been reading!! Yes, reading for fun, that is :) RIght now I'm reading Juan de Recacoechea's novel entitled American Visa. Apparently it's his most famous novel or the best novel he's written or something like that. I haven't gotten that far, but what I have read is awesome so far. I just finished reading another novel, of my very most favorite genre in the whole world -- MYSTERY novels! It was a Victoria Thompson gaslight novel - the Gaslight series is a wonderful thing! Definitely has all the characteristics that I enjoy in mystery reads. The one I read was Murder on Lenox Hill. EXCELLENT read. I need to start building a library of my favorite Mystery novels. I can read them in one sitting. I don't know why I got into mysteries in the first place. I remember writing my very own mystery when I was in 3rd grade; I was in the writing club in elementary school that met after school.

My earliest recollection of my interest in mysteries is Scooby Doo, obviously. I was TOTALLY completely into that show. I used to watch it like it was a series; no lie! Me and my best friend Sonia used to literally CALL each other if one of us missed the show that had played that night. And of course this was in the 90s and these were all re-runs of the originals which had aired in the 70s. But yes, we used to then update each other on what happened and such. The best part is that we were SO serious. Hahaha. Looking back it's hilarious! Then I remember my mom getting me a TON of different books from the library, and one day she picked up an Encyclopedia Brown book for me from the children's section. That was the official starting point I think. I read every single one of the Encyclopedia Brown books, and sometimes used to even guess the outcomes correctly. It was just thrilling to my little 7 year old self. That time in 3rd grade when I wrote my own mystery was probably the first time that I realized I was actually good at writing and other people thought so too. Our writing club supervisor thought my story was so clever! Definitely boosted me for a few weeks haha :)

Okay that was definitely a walk down memory lane. I feel like most of my blog posts will be things along this line. I like looking back into retrospect and seeing how the things that I do now and my interests now were shaped by my past.

Going back to my book now. Saturday's are the best days of the week!

First Post!

So I have NO idea what I'll be blogging about here, but basically it'll be whatever's on my mind or what I've been thinking about recently. Nothing in specific, so it'll just be my opinions and interesting things that I see/hear! Looking forward to seeing what this blog will blossom into! It's only going up from here!

I will start officially posting tomorrow - since this is my first day and all, I want to keep it short & sweet :)