{"id":15879,"date":"2013-01-29T09:55:09","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T14:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=15879"},"modified":"2014-09-09T09:53:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T13:53:21","slug":"creative-expressions-of-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/29\/creative-expressions-of-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"creative expressions of soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1G4isv_Fylg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve heard it all before. First day of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04\" target=\"_blank\">lecture<\/a>, a thousand or so young budding life science students walk into Convocation Hall. Inside, a professor awaits ready to distribute\u00a0knowledge about pikas, DNA polymerases, and cis and trans double bonds. Needless to say, you\u2019re excited. University will be a breeze and soon you\u2019ll be Dr. Awesomesauce. Then wham, bam, the professor starts off the lecture with a shocker. He asks everybody \u201chow many of you plan to go to medical school?\u201d Every person in the lecture hall raises their hand and the competition begins\u2026\r\n\r\nBefore you ask, yes I want to be <a href=\"http:\/\/25.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_ls0286w9Ib1r34ucio1_500.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Awesomesauce<\/a> and go to medical school. I want to have the demeanor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lL4L4Uv5rf0\" target=\"_blank\">JD and Turk<\/a> and the sweaters of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecosbysweaterproject.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Huxtable<\/a>. I want to use my position as a doctor to push for social change and work towards a world where all people have access to good health care regardless of their ability to pay. My inspirations are the good people at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UcpEn1X-YN4\" target=\"_blank\">UMMA Community Clinic<\/a> is South Los Angeles, where they treat everybody regardless of whether they have insurance or not (we take our national healthcare for granted in Canada). I know it will take <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r_fQzShBJEQ\" target=\"_blank\">hard work<\/a> and truthfully it is a challenge, but <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/08\/its-a-new-dawn-its-a-new-day\/\" target=\"_blank\">inshallah<\/a> (god willing) I\u2019ll make it.\r\n\r\nI resist the label pre-med though. I am not a premed. My name is Abdullah and I study Cell and Molecular Biology, Psychology and American Studies. I am the product of humble people who were swept from their villages in Sri Lanka to the ivory towers of the Midwestern United States. I like eating cake, and American football. I read <a href=\"http:\/\/25.media.tumblr.com\/b344fba889f8f1b015cf3029cf98a7d8\/tumblr_mgziffv2d21r8j2ceo1_500.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Les Miserables<\/a> this summer. I love the butterscotch toffee coffee at Diabolos and my playlist juxtaposes groups like Mumford and Sons with artists like Tupac and Taylor Swift. And worringly, I find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=T4cdfRohhcg\" target=\"_blank\">One Direction <\/a>increasingly catchy. I want to be a doctor, but I refuse to be defined by my future career.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgzxo77F2I1rwumzyo1_500.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15886\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgzxo77F2I1rwumzyo1_500.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"495\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgzxo77F2I1rwumzyo1_500.gif 495w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgzxo77F2I1rwumzyo1_500-300x222.gif 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgzxo77F2I1rwumzyo1_500-404x300.gif 404w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\nI remember before I joined <a href=\"http:\/\/thevarsity.ca\" target=\"_blank\">the Varsity<\/a> on campus, I was involved with a small campus health advocacy group. It was nice, but while I am interested in medicine, the group wasn\u2019t for me. After that , I went out and pursued my other interests.\u00a0I realized that I was very passionate about student issues and improving the university where I study, so I ran for a student union and became an executive on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.assu.ca\" target=\"_blank\">ASSU<\/a>. As a Muslim on campus,\u00a0 I joined the Muslim Students Association and became social media director for their magazine.\u00a0Joining the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uoftmsa.com\" target=\"_blank\">MSA<\/a> has exposed me to a lot of different people and has made me feel a deeper connection to my faith. And this week, I decided to try something new. As mentioned two weeks ago, I decided to help out at a soup kitchen on campus (at St. Basil's church) once a month.\r\n\r\nIt was a new experience and I\u2019m glad I spent my Tuesday morning making sandwiches for people with a bunch of U of T students I would not have met had I decided to sleep in that morning. It was a relaxed atmosphere with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HEGwWG4Kalg\" target=\"_blank\">Pink music<\/a>\u00a0playing in the background (yes, you read that right). Surprisingly there were are a lot of grad students there and I overheard their many tales about grad school \u2013 which left me both intrigued and trembling. It was an enjoyable experience and apparently if I come back three times, I get a Pink song assigned to me. I wonder which one that will be \u2026\r\n\r\nTo all my life scis in the struggle, I say go pursue your interests on campus. If you are involved in a health based group and you enjoy it, then power to you. But don\u2019t feel the need to have to get involved with a health group because that\u2019s what you think you need to get into medical school. No! You\u2019re all beautiful people and you shouldn\u2019t have to stifle your interests for an application. If you\u2019re into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=esgfG3BoAPc\" target=\"_blank\">spoken word poetry<\/a>, if you\u2019re into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.multifaith.utoronto.ca\" target=\"_blank\">meditation<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/24.media.tumblr.com\/5c438f597bf38c6efee11b2aa82dd523\/tumblr_mh8n8r1H4i1r19wqeo1_500.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">card games<\/a>, go out and pursue that! I guarantee that this campus will have an outlet for the creative expressions of your soul.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgwx34ARoC1riblnco1_500.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15884\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgwx34ARoC1riblnco1_500.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgwx34ARoC1riblnco1_500.gif 500w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgwx34ARoC1riblnco1_500-300x160.gif 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><em>If you would like to volunteer at the Out of the Cold soup kitchen: it runs every Tuesday from 9 AM - 2 PM. Go to the kitchen in the basement of St. Basil's Church (located at SMC) and say you're there to volunteer. No registration necessary and after three visits, you get a PINK song.<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nWe\u2019ve heard it all before. First day of lecture, a thousand or so young budding life science students walk into Convocation Hall. Inside, a professor awaits ready to distribute\u00a0knowledge about pikas, DNA polymerases, and cis and trans double bonds. Needless&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/29\/creative-expressions-of-soul\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;creative expressions of soul&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/29\/creative-expressions-of-soul\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;creative expressions of soul&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7204,7206,62,65,1,69,66,67],"tags":[9639,9643,2195,9642,9640,601,9638,9314,9641],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15879"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15919,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15879\/revisions\/15919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}