Just finished reading, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence” by Jens Ludwig and it was a very good read.

This also means that employer sponsored plans are going to increase. Maybe not by as much, but this will mean fewer young healthy people on insurers books and all the inevitable knock on impacts

Growing up, getting into undergrad seemed like the biggest hurdle as a first-gen student…now I’m gearing up to start medical school in a few weeks. I’m overflowing with gratitude for all the people who helped me get to where I am.

God is so good. All glory to the most high for carrying me.

Today I reviewed a paper for an academic journal. Please stop using “health literacy” as an excuse for why people don’t take up an intervention. It isn’t that they “don’t know better”, it’s that they have their reasons that are valid and it’s your job to figure out what those reasons are…

🌱 "During uncertain times, like the current moment, we can either retreat or move forward and plant seeds of change. This moment calls on us to plant seeds." 🌱 Honored to share my blog post in @idsainfo.bsky.social's #HealthEquity Series where I outline key practices and strategies...

I’m a proud product of public schools (k-12) & I made it through college because of Pell grants. What is happening under this administration is the true definition of structural violence.

Why am I not seeing Beyoncé right now?😭

It’s wrong that on-time rent payments don’t go on credit scores, yet apartments can deny people a lease based on that very credit score. Credit scores did not exist the way we know them today until 1989. Not only can we do better, we must.

My study buddy from the post-bacc program got her white coat today and I’m so damn proud. In the face of so much uncertainty ahead, it is exciting to see other advocates entering the field of medicine.

This is what the work is about. Every damn day.

Sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt. It’s not about that solution. It’s about being as fearless as one can—and behaving as beautifully as one can—under completely impossible circumstances. ~ Toni Morrison

I went on my 4th run this week & It’s getting a little easier to keep going each day.

Can’t wait to join this organization in the coming months. Gun violence is a major public health issue, particularly among young Black men, and I hope we see a solution in my lifetime.

Sitting down and alchemizing all my feelings into fuel for the work that lies ahead. They want us beaten down & hopeless & I refuse to succumb to the disease of apathy.

This level of chaos and cruelty is not sustainable. Something is gonna give. It literally has to.

The Big, Ugly, Amoral Bill has passed the House. Still, we hold onto hope. The predicted premature deaths, the families left hungry & uninsured; these are not a foregone conclusion. We can & must invest in strategies that are already working & find new ways to support one another/our communities...

If Penn paid PILOTS, there would be more funds available to support the needs of everyday Philadelphians.

I’m officially a Midwest diva 💃🏾

No why am I on this plane and they just announced they fixing something before takeoff…girl what?!

My Pop Pop made sure that before my flight I came to pick up more dress shirts from his closet. The pride in his eyes when he knew I’d wear his clothes to med school is the best gift that I’ll cherish forever.

"The only constant is change." — Heraclitus

God has been giving me so many signs that I’m where I’m meant to be. I’m giving this next chapter 1000% of myself in honor of the village that’s pushing me forward.

My mentor gave me advice today that changed my entire mood and nullified so many of my fears. She reminded me to remain kind even when the world is tryna make me be “hard” & “ready to fight.” I needed to hear it. Thankful for the people who hold me accountable & to a standard.

My mentor & I go see a live Jazz show together every few months and it’s genuinely become my favorite thing to do.

I’m reminding myself that the barriers I’ve faced, and have yet to face, do not have to make me smooth like a stone that’s been run down by circumstance.

Lately, everything I’ve “studied” since going to college in 2014 has been hitting closer and closer to home. Being Black, Queer, first-gen, etc has granted me a perspective I’ll never take for granted.

“For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."(Letters from a Birmingham Jail, 1963)

I’ve been overstimulated for six months

People will make you feel as small as they see themselves if you let them.

Phasing out NIH’s HIV clinical guidelines is flat-out immoral and unethical. These guidelines drive early diagnosis, ART initiation, and viral suppression—82% linked to care within 30 days, 69% virally suppressed by 6 months. Removing them puts millions of lives at risk. wapo.st/3FQovhf

"Every time I’ve been able to sit with someone who was in one of these jams, often a perpetrator of a shooting, there was inevitably always a systemic failure of some sort along the way. It could be at their school or... somewhere where they were supposed to get the help and it didn’t come."

Grateful for the village around me & to God for ordering my steps.

Reflecting on “freedom” today and the price that has already been paid by those who came before me. There is still a debt that this generation has to pay and prayerfully it happens before “the chickens [come] home to roost” again.

My writing feels so rusty 😭 I am about it to spend July getting that together fr

“I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.” ―George McGovern

I been standing in line at the dmv for over 2 hours now. And it’s still over a hundred people ahead of me

Elections have consequences and we're all going to pay the price for it.

Paragraphs from two different inquirer articles from today offer juxtaposition of how Pennsylvania laws are at times uniquely punitive, other times conspicuously absent. “Pennsylvania is one of only two states in the nation where a felony murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.” 1/2

It takes a ton of bravery to be seen. I truly respect people who are strong enough to be vulnerable and honest when it would easier to perform normalcy.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” -M.W

Now that it’s been a month since I saw the Cowboy Carter Tour, I can definitively say that it was the best show I’ve ever seen in my life. Only competition is RWT.

These last few days have just been filled to the brim with gratitude. I’m so grateful for every mountain that has led me to where I am now. Thank you, God 🙏🏾

Friendly reminder that you can advocate for immigrants in our country WITHOUT needing to reference how “useful” they are. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t contributed a damn thing. They’re HUMAN and don’t EVER deserve to be thrown away in a concentration camp for wanting to be Americans.

11 years of paying my bills myself and I still hate it. Send me a glucose guardian please 😭

Been reflecting a lot on history and my family lineage. We recently discovered that my 4th great grandfather fought in the civil war and it reminded me how long we have been in this fight for freedom and justice in this country.

Authoritarianism, plain and simple.

A “small” gift of a million dollars would solve all of my problems

Lead author: "More money has meant thousands of years of life lost to suicide and police violence for Black communities. Recent actions to expand the size and scope of law enforcement across the country are alarming." Rutgers study: