CHARITIES OFFICERS

Earlier on in my blog, I mentioned that I got the opportunity to choreograph the dances in the MedSoc panto - Aladdin. Well the event was a huge success!

Source

In order to respect confidentiality, I have blurred everyone's faces. It's not because we're an ugly bunch...

I have even more good news! At the annual winter ball, myself and my friend (R) got elected to become the successive charities officers on the exec of the medical society. This means that we get to organise the panto next year (Lion King is on the cards!) and many other events in order to raise money for charity. We're both very excited for the year ahead of us!

A VISIT FROM MY BEST FRIEND

It's been 10 years since I've known her. She taught me how to street dance and gave me lots of great memories. 

Moving away to university has showed me who my true friends are. Throughout high school, I had a great set of friends and at the time I thought I'd be friends with them for what seemed like forever. Leaving my home town and starting a new life half way across the country, started to show the cracks in the relationships that I used to have with people. 

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul" - Choreographing routines with B was like being separated from the world and forming a bubble of our own. I guess this connection is what has kept our friendship strong for all these years. 

ALADDIN

Last year, I talked about being a part of MedSoc's annual panto (Jack and the Beanstalk) and this year I'm excited to be a part of Aladdin.

Source

I choreographed a couple of the dances last year and this time round I've been given the opportunity to choreograph all of the dances. Which is very exciting as I can sneakily add in some Bollywood numbers!

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on how things are getting on

MASQUERADE BALL

She hides everything you wish to see,

her emotions, her sorrows and her identity.

But as flutters across the dance floor,

you catch nothing but her eye which gives away her true beauty

Masquerade balls have always fascinated me. The mystery and the elegance is enough to capture the minds of all individuals that are graced to be a part of it.

MedSoc recently organised a ball in order to welcome the freshers. It was a night filled with elegant dresses, dashing suits and good food.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

I know you're all dying to know why I haven't been blogging much this month. Trust me I have good reasons; which will all be revealed in good time. 

Time. Something which I wish I had more of. 24 hours seems like a reasonable amount for one to do all the things that they wish to do (excluding valuable amounts of hours of sleep of course!) As a medical student, one of the things that I've learned to appreciate is time.

Especially now that I'm on campus 2 days a week, hospital 2 days a week and GP/community placement once a week. That leaves just 2 days for you to have "me" time. Even then, those days have to be used to catch up on PBL objectives. Which leaves little/no room for being around things and people I love. 

Do I regret any of it? Of course not! I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. So it would be silly for me to turn around and say that this path that I have chosen was a mistake. 

Anyway, this was meant to be a very short post so I'm going to leave it here. Hopefully, I'll be able to fill you in with what I've been getting up to over the past week or so.

PROCRASTINATION

"Let me just clean my room before I start to work."

"I'm going to make some food before I open a textbook."

"I think I'll quickly update my blog before I do some work."

The list of things that you think of completing before doing work is endless. I see myself as the queen of procrastination. I will literally do anything I can to put off sitting down in front of the 1303 paged Kumar and Clarke's Clinical Medicine book.

What's worse about procrastination is the amount of self-loathing that comes with it when you think about the time that you've wasted carrying out pointless tasks that could have waited for another day. To say that someone has never procrastinated in their life would be a lie. It's a psychological behaviour that affects everyone at some point in their life, be it in a small or big way.

So why is learning how to get over procrastination important? Well if we think about it, putting off a stressful situation can ultimately lead to more stress. You become washed with a sense of helplessness and weakness. However, if you overcome this phenomenon; piece of mind and a feeling of purpose will be what accompanies you as you go through your daily life.

Here are a few ways in which I'm going to overcome this useless trait, hopefully it may help some of you too:

• Being aware of the sinking feeling you get in your stomach when you realise you've wasted your time 
• Actually realising that you're doing something unnecessary which can be done at a later day
• Identifying the real reasons for your delay (lack of knowledge, time consuming)
• Overcome these reasons in order to begin the task
• Praise yourself at regular intervals in order to keep you motivated.

I hope I've helped and now I'm going to stop procrastinating by blogging and do some work before I get grilled at the hospital!

Image from Tumblr

FREEDOM...FREE"DOOM"

Today marks the first day of university for the first year medical students. I cannot believe how quick the past year has gone. I can still remember the strange mix of emotions that I went through leading up to getting the keys to my new home for the year. 

Being independent is something all teenagers look forward to. Making decisions, making mistakes, learning from them and turning into an individual that makes a mark during the limited time that we have on this planet. Deciding to go to university is not a light decision for a young person to make. You are choosing to leave home and go out into the world by yourself. As appealing as that may sound to the adventurous young minds out there, it's a lot more daunting than you may think.

However, after you take the initial baby steps into becoming a self-governing conscious mind; you begin to appreciate everything that was handed to you as a child. You start to see the world in a new light and the thoughts that cross your mind become more and more carefully articulated. 

To all those who are starting university this year:

Live your life and enjoy everything that you set your mind to do. Treasure each and every moment and don't let the stresses of education get to you.

NEW HAVEN

After a tiring couple of days, I am finally settled in my new home. Summer has flown by and it's strange that I'm already back in university for my second year of medical school. 

This quick post is just to show you what I've done with my room. 

As you can see, I've tried to make the decor as cultured as possible so I feel like I'm seeing the world as I look around my room and one day I will see the world for all its charm and artistry.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Along this journey that I'm going to share with you, I want to try and inspire as many of you as possible to achieve great things. I want to get more people excited about medicine just as much as I am. A lot of people think that I chose this career path because of various stereotypical reasons. 

"Are you sure this is what YOU want to do or is it something your parents are enforcing upon you?"

"It's funny how most Indians go down the medical or engineering path, I didn't take you for someone that would conform to that tradition."

It would be a lie if I said that I knew exactly why I wanted to do medicine when I first decided to go through with the treacherous process of applying. Even when my cousin was helping me with a mock interview, she asked me the most difficult question that all prospective students are bound to come across at some point in their life:

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Erm..err.. I was lost for words. I had no idea how to answer that question. In general, this question is answered quite poorly during interviews.

• I like science and I like people - quite simply the most generic answer and in my opinion isn't a good enough reason to do medicine.
• There wasn't an eye-opening experience in a hospital which influenced me to pursue this career
• I want to help people - why not do nursing or charity work?
• I haven't always wanted to do medicine - this field sparked my interest instantaneously and out of the blue - so what made you pick this field?

I don't know. A gut feeling maybe? I think the answer to this golden question only came to life as I advanced through my first year at university. It's hard for me to explain into words how I felt as I worked through the normal anatomy and physiology of each and every system of the human body. At a cellular level, the processes that enable us to carry on with our periodic habits and routine blew my mind. What's astonishing about the medical pathway that a medical student undertakes is quite brilliant. Essentially, you start off by learning how your body works, this makes the literature you read very personal and makes you appreciate the great mechanisms of one's physical form. Using this knowledge, you can then begin to decipher why something has gone wrong with an individual. As a patient comes to you with multiple symptoms, you piece together fragmented bits of information and build up the jigsaw puzzle and bring them out of a vulnerable position. I guess this among many other factors is what makes me happy about my chosen path in life. I'm sure my reasons will change often but I hope that my passion is fired up more and more each year

Previously on my blog, I've mentioned my cousin who studies medicine at King's College. Recently, she's assisted in setting up a course which helps you with medical/dentistry interviews. They've launched a new site - MedInterview. I definitely recommend it as I personally know two people that are among the tutors. They do have a high success rate and even though the amount you have to spend in order to take part in the course seems like a lot, it's totally worth it!

HOSPITAL PLACEMENT

Early patient contact is a key component a medical student has to undertake in order to become a brilliant physician.

Tomorrow I will be starting my hospital placement which will take place two days a week. As a year 2 student who's still stumbling her way through living away from home and just finishing first year, this is both an exciting and nerve-wracking experience.

One of the many great things about my medical school is the fact that they put you on placement and set you tasks as soon as you begin year 2. Some may say that it's too early and that students are not yet prepared for patient contact, but I strongly believe that this is the best way to improve your communication and clinical skills.

I won't be disclosing too much of my experience at the hospital due to confidentiality reasons; but I will try to give an overview in order for you to get the general feel of what life in the hospital is like.

START OF SECOND YEAR

The day has come for me to return to the North; where the weather forces you to stay inside and do work. I can't believe I'm at the second stage of my degree. I have heard quite a few horror stories about the year that lies ahead of me:

A higher pile up of work, long days following up on case studies at the hospital, a dissertation, the wait until mid July for exams to finish, barely any free time, inability to have a decent social life etc...

As strange as this may sound, I wouldn't trade the position I'm in for anything else in the world. Even though at times the levels of stress that I put myself under take me to the brink of insanity, I thrive in situations when put under pressure.

Anyway, over the summer I've been posting a lot. Every other day to be precise! Don't ask me how my brain came up with the content to write because I honestly haven't got a clue. Wait, maybe I've finally got to grips with the whole blogging thing and can class myself as a blogger now. It's infuriating that I decided to mess around with the HTML of my previous blog to lose all the content from first year; I've definitely learnt from my mistake and will never even go near a HTML code ever again.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone that reads my blog. I've received some sweet and kind feedback from the posts and I really am grateful. Secondly, I'm going to try sticking to blogging on a more regular basis. However I don't know how long that will last. Hopefully I can squeeze in half an hour every other day to fill you all in with what I've been getting up to.

MEMORIES OF A FRESHER

Alex put together a collection of the best memories of our past year at medical school and it's the most adorable thing you'll ever see.

It's amazing how close some of us have become over the past few months. Knowing people who share the same love of medicine, is something which can't be explained adequately in words.

Memories like these are so precious and what makes it even more special is that these experiences will stay with us (even if it is in the back of conscious mind). Only to resurface when you sit in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in blankets, surrounded by your children and grandchildren and relive them as though they happened just the day before...

AN END OF AN ERA

Today I am moving out of the flat that I have been living in for the past year.

It felt so strange when I was packing all my things away. I've made so many memories over the past year and it seems surreal that my first year as a medical student is over.

I know that university isn't something that suits everyone; but I can honestly say that this past year has been one of the best years of my life.

I have met an array of amazing characters, crossed off a number of things off my bucket list and learnt how to become a unique independent individual. But most importantly, I have gained a great appreciation for the human body. Learning about each and every complex mechanism that arises in the body has made me more than happy to have chosen this career path.

EXTRAV

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