This is a picture from a wasted Wednesday a couple years ago back at
pelham. Ah those were the good old days. Haado gay wooooo!
Philadelphia really is an interesting city full of culture and art.
Take this picture on the building wall for example. It is so
masterfully done and the art is really just a wonder to behold. Where
in la or pv or anywhere else have you seen things like this? I can
only think of the graffiti on the freeway walls and the one exception
is that picture of the marathon runners somewhere but I can't remember
where.
Anyway, if this was just one mural in the entire city, it wouldn't be
that impressive. But this is just one of tons or murals and street
artwork that literally covers the city. I know the perception of
Philly is that it is a more ghetto or dirtier town than la, but it
really does have its beauty.
I think this is just the perfect example of the metaphor that I live
by most of my life. Like you all know I am quite an optimistic
person, so I'm gonna lay a little bit of my thought process on you now.
Let's say two people are standing in this exact spot from where the
picture is taken. However, one of the people is always pessimistic,
looking at things as the worst possible way. This person would look
down and see a street that is dirty, filled with trash, and have too
many cars cramming up the streets. Now the other person, who is also
standing in the same spot, is the optimist. He looks up and sees a
realm or possibility, imagination, and creativity sparked by the
gorgeous mural, the beautiful trees and the sun filled sky.
What's the idea here? Two different people can be in the same exact
spot, or place in their lives or whatever you want to call it.
However, even being in the same spot, your outlook on life can have a
dramatic effect on how happy or appreciative you are to be where you
are.
That being said, I've studied more in this past week than a combined
quarters worth of undergrad work, but I'm happy where I am. Cheers
everyone!
For those of you avid fans of the tv show scrubs, you may recognize
that quote as one of the first lines jd says in the very first
episode titled "my first day". Hence the title of this post and the
picture of my new, ahem, scrubs, that I will be wearing tomorrow for
my first day of gross anatomy. Now, granted he was referring to his
first day of residency which is insanely different, but let's not ruin
a good moment with the particulars.
Anyway, I just was thinking about how my time here has been, and will
continue to be, a lot of firsts. It's the first time I've ever been on
the east coast for more than a week. It's the first time I've ever had
to leave everything and everybody I know to live in a new place. And I
guess it will be the first time I make a first step into what will be
my career for the rest of my life.
Foe those of you wondering, I absolutely adore philly. The orientation
week was a blast, and my future classmates are all intelligent,
driven, and for a lack of a better word, nice people. The transition
has been much easier than I thought it would be and there are so many
interesting things here in such a largely different culture it almost
boggles the mind.
There are entire walls of buildings that are covered in hand painted
murals, decorated with art supplies in a way and scale that I didn't
think was possible(I'll put a picture of one on my next post.). The
layout of the city is tremendously easy to navigate, especially for
someone as directionally challenged as me. The public transportation
here is easy too, the subway essentially gets me almost anywhere I
need to go.
All in all, this is probably the smallest "big city" I've ever been
in, but that's not a bad thing. Hopefully it'll be okay to keep me
occupied for the next four years even though I'll be studying a lot.
I miss all y'all a lot and I hope everything is going as well in la as
it was when I was there to enjoy it.
Jon
This is my new student id! Look how spiffy the holographic things are
