Mediocrity

Mediocrity... Is something I don't understand...

Mediocrity, the way I see it, is not reaching your full potential as a person. Unfortunately I see a lot of it and it has nothing to do with not having the possibility.
If you do your best with what you're given you're not mediocre, if you put everything you have into a dream, a project, an idea than you've defeated mediocrity... But if you continually find excuses not to get out of something that you don't like, than you fulfill the stereotype... completely!

The dictionary defines a mediocre person as "not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability, size or degree" but to me it goes beyond that... There are so many people out there that live half way between where they were placed and where they could be.
They choose to achieve only a part of what they have the potential to do and sit there complaining of how they don't like the situation they are in, or even worse thinking they are better than those around them.

It's not what you have that brings you out of mediocrity - you can still be a very mediocre filthy rich person - but your value as a human being is completely wasted.

Too many people are happy to just sit in the middle, choosing to be a half-hearted professional, member of the family, worker, believer, atheist, performer, participant in this life...
I'd have a lot more respect for them if I'd see them putting everything they have and are into developing any of these sides as much as I may not agree with some of them.
What are you doing with your gifts? Are they making you a better person? What are you contributing to what is surrounding you?

Mediocrity is the easy way out of everything. A mediocre being absorbs what it can but without giving anything in return... I much more like those "glow-in-the-dark" stickers, they don't make it obvious that they are collecting light but when the darkness comes they shine through because they are able to utilise it when it's needed.

A better person will use the ability he/she has been gifted with to make something of them. These are row materials to be used and it takes work to transform them into something of value... if you dare you breach the wall of mediocrity, if you work for it, even if it's hard, you're the better one off, if you are not afraid of giving it your best shot, even if it looks impossible, than it doesn't matter if you make it or not, it's what spark you put back in the life that has been given to you that makes you shine as the person you are now choosing NOT to be...

Get up from your bottom, have the courage to take the steps it takes to better yourself in whatever field you need to, don't settle with 99% if you can get 100% because, even if 99% is an excellent achievement, if you have the potential of getting to 100% and you don't than you're still mediocre!

Ode to Starbucks

I'm sitting in Union Square which, for those of you who are not familiar with NYC, is a little bit like "everything-you-can-find-in-the-city-concentrated-in-just-a-few-square-meters" sort of place... Around the square you can find to name a few: a make-up shop, a whole food shop, a shoe shop, an acting academy, a pet shop, a few clothing shops and lots more,,, basically, if you never wanted to move anywhere once you got here this would be the place to place your tent in and just enjoy!
In the middle of the square there is a park, all around there are very often market stalls selling foods and all sorts of other things and then, of course, there are 3 Starbucks... And I mean, THREE!
I'm sitting in one of them and I thought, being in the land of USA, I had to write about such a staple!
I got to know Starbucks in Europe, funny enough... But it's only after I started to travel over to the US that I realised the mass phenomenon that this "coffee shop" chain represents... And I did have to put coffee shop in inverted commas because Starbucks is so much more than that!
Coffees are indeed sold but that's just the background of the full operation, what I would call the "bucks"... ah but the "Star" is something else!!!
The "Star" is the people meeting in here, to chat about happiness and disappointment over a warm drink, the people who come in to warm up in a freezing day and those who come in to escape the boiling heat of a mid-summer afternoon...

The Star is also the opportunity one has to use free Internet...
"Well, what's the big deal?" You may think... Many other places offer that as well...
Ah yes, but there is a Starbucks pretty much at every corner of every street... It's like a faithful friend you know you can rely on wherever you go. And that of course mean every little corner of the world... how convenient!

And then there's the food... The dozens of different sizes, flavours, colours, calories, shapes and funny name ones... Watching your line? If you get the reduced-fat-double-cinnamon- little-swirl you are only getting about 200 calories compared with the amazing chocolate-vanilla-envy-pound-cake that will bill you about 350 of them...
And it's all written down for you, so you don't blame them for getting fat... you know, like they do with McDonalds!!!

And if you go on the Starbuck's website you have the whole specification of every single ingredient, percentage, weight, and anything else you can think of for every single drink they offer.

I tried the Dark Cherry Mocha today for the first time... Maybe if I had gone to the website and realised the amount of calories and fat it carries I wouldn't have bought it but, after all, one must try everything in life and so I did!

I do understand the big fuss over the drink... it does things to you (like my friend Ben says!)
namely it warms your thoughts, it transports you into a cherry blossom garden, it embraces you with this sweet but not too potent fragrance and then the coffee aroma hits you and you realise that the little smile building up on your lips really is a gift of Starbucks...

Maybe I'm a bit biased in my opinion... There are many excellent coffee shops (much much better than any Starbucks!) with home baked goodies and not mass produced like here...But come on, let's be honest, at least the green round sign symbol of this big giant, always guarantees what you'll be getting and that's a place to relax, have a great chat with friends, offer you comfy seats, and maybe, just maybe, bring you somewhere else like it did with me...

Junior WHAT?!?

So here I am, back in glamorous NYC to attend an unexpected seminar at the now familiar Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The trip over has been a little adventurous... Starting with almost missing my connection flight in Paris because of delays due to snow (yes we got snow in Edinburgh at the end of March!) and my suitcase getting misplaced by the airline resulting in me having to frantically look late at night for something half professional (yet stylish!) to wear at the seminar today... Not like I'm complaining since Air France will be refunding the money spent!

This said I at least managed to arrive on time at the hospital this morning without getting lost at all (I'm getting good at this NYC living madness!) to register for the seminar and joined the line to get my name badge.

For those of you following my academic path, I am actually still a med-student and though I have been studying around medicine for a few years, I have only started at St Andrews in September and am 2 and a bit full years from getting any sort of a degree... basically I am nobody you should trust yet!

Apparently the American bunch doesn't think so as when I got handed my badge for the day my face almost dropped at the title "Junior Doctor - UK"

Junior WHAT?!?
Oh dear!!!

Taken completely by surprise I stood there wondering if it was the case to actually rectify the obvious mistake made... I so wish I was a junior doctor but well, I still have quite a way to go and certainly I don't deserve the title... though something at the back of my mind told me it would be really cool to walk around the hospital and have people looking at that badge and think "Wow, she's a doctor!" (like they would... ;-)) and what harm could it do since I'm not expected to talk to anybody or touch anything anyway today?!

So I decided to shut up and live in the illusion that for a day I actually knew a lot more than I do... Except it didn't last long... My incredibly honest conscience had the best of me and, 10 minutes and 4 curious people later, I headed to the registration desk to point out that I was not ALAS, a doctor yet!
The lady looked at me in complete bewilderment and said "Oh, but you are!"
"Erm, no..." I tried to explain "I wish I was but I am not..."
She gave me a big smile and kindly explained to me that a Junior Doctor here is actually a doctor in training, someone who has completed the first stage of training and passed their interview and been accepted into the program I'm following...

"Ah!" that was just about all I managed to say... So I found out that after all a "Junior doctor" here is the equivalent of what a "Baby doctor" would be in the UK
I always knew Americans have to do things bigger!!!

So I did spend the day proudly wearing my badge and for a few hours I felt a bit like Dr House, though he's an MD (but maybe here I'll be an MD next year and it will mean something completely different!!)