Helloes, to the Habibis
Alors.
This "blog" (or whatever you want to call it) is entirely dedicated to my opinion. So if you continue reading this, you will probably notice that my brain doesn't really know how to turn off.
I spend a ridiculous amount of time getting interested in things that technically have no link whatsoever to my career-in-the-making. I am a full-time undergrad studen set on studying medicine… but there is nothing more deplorable to me than a doctor with zero cultural capital.
And so I collect a bit of knowledge from everything: magazines (Monocle, Rest of World, 1Granary, Vestoj, Cereal…), anything written by Nora Ephron (my literary queen), random podcasts, Enquête exclusive documentaries, Arte YouTube videos...
Bref, it provides me with a good break from the apical and basal domains of epithelial cells.
I will skip the details, but my bottom line is that undergrad pre-med students need to get their heads of cells and see the world as a WHOLE, not just as proteins and lipids. See the social aspect: how people think and what they like. Discover different niches. Detach themselves a bit from the quite toxic, dare I say, scientific community. It gives their brains a break, and it just makes life a lot more interesting.
I have my notebooks; I take them everywhere. I used to get the Legami ones from Fnac, but I recently upgraded to a Moleskine for the first time (very Gazelle de Waller).
I never leave without one. If you say stuff in class like "branching out from that" or even "that concludes my presentation, thank you," I’M WRITING THAT DOWN. If I go to a restaurant and the menu says "smoked trout rillettes," I'm also writing that down. So, in less than a year, I fell down the rabbit hole of the design behind IKEA’s winding paths, consumerism, CAN Ibiza, the disappearance of newsstands on Toronto sidewalks, hotel concierges (Mr. Gustave, my icon), organic toilet paper, Hermès Horizons...
Basically, I'll use all of this in my posts. I have long been thinking about how hard it is to think alone sometimes, so I am seeking a community of like-minded people. Not in an elitist way, but in the spirit of Bourdieu’s cultural capital. I want to have this community where everyone is curious. And together, we will enrich our cultural capital.
Obviously, this should to be a two-way street. I will enable the comment section under every single post because my goal is to exchange knowledge. I want to learn from my readers just as much as I share what’s in my notebooks. Tell me what I missed, challenge my assumptions... give me new info, idk.
I know this sounds all over the place. I'll get better at writing, don't worry lol.
So consider this an "evolving" guide on how to get the cultural capital of a Gazelle de Waller.
Read along. Or don't, habibi.
