E-Mentoring

So I've had two practicals this week, one of which was involved IR Spec and the other, a Proteins and Enzymes Urease practical. Thankfully both have been carried out decently (courtesy of an awesome lab partner!) and I've still got loads of time to hand them in. But I would like to hand the chemistry one in soon before deadline next Wednesday (love submitting assignments early!) just to get it out of the way and concentrate on more pressing matters approaching. I'm referring to my Alpha-galactosidase poster, preparing for my Oral presentation, an SAQ exam approaching in a few weeks time and studying what I've calculated to be roughly 40 lecture handouts of last semester on top of this semester's material and counting. And I think it's just under 90 days before the supplementary exam period begins? I'm just taking it one day at a time I suppose, because when the going gets tough, it's about priorities!  

E-mentoring has also started again this year! I've briefly discussed this in an earlier post because I carried out this duty in my first year at university, too. But on top of my part-time job I'm an E-mentor with my university. Twice a week over the course of about eleven months I'm mentoring seven A-Level students and offering guidance and support alongside their applications to university. It's great because the hours are so flexible and work around my unforgiving timetable and I feel it's a sweet little bit of extra money coming in. It means I don't really have to dip into the wages for my "real" part-time job and save it up later. But all in all, it's off to a good start. I've said my introductions and gotten to know them all (seven very enthusiastic girls who want to study biological/medical courses, woop!) and they're so lovely. I'm excited to also meet them all when they come down to my university next month so it should be good. 

Apart from that, I don't think there's anything else to really cover. I'm on the hunt for a backpack? My current bag really isn't living up to carrying textbooks or anything apart from a couple of notebooks. Superdry have a pretty range at the moment so I might just pick something up from there. 

And what's on the agenda tomorrow? Well, you guessed it. A 9 o'lock lecture, followed by a four hour free and another lecture. I'll probably E-mentor in that gap, and my friends want to get some Mexican food at our university restaurant so I'll tag along. Should be good! :)

How's your week been?
Lots of love,

Card Games at Volunteering

So for just over a year now, I've been volunteering every Saturday on the wards at my local children's hospital. I might have briefly mentioned somewhere in my blog that I'm a volunteer, however I haven't yet reflected in depth about my experiences and I think it's important for myself to look back on it. In doing so, I hope maybe a few others will find this useful, too.

The process of organizing a volunteering placement can be quite laborious and difficult to organize. And maybe when you do start you might not learn something immediately from your first day. At the same time the organizing involved, making the phones calls, researching and finding the time to apply is a transferable skill in itself. Organizing mine took the best part of three months, from the application form, to CRB checks, occupational health forms and inductions - but stick to it, it can be worth it! 

I originally begun my volunteering placement way back in January 2014 and myself admitted I probably wouldn't stick to it for any more than six months. This was also the minimum period of time they also requested for me to volunteer. My plan was to probably change and find a new placement elsewhere at a different hospital/clinical setting and continue this cycle, stacking up almost a "portfolio of experiences". Later on however, I began to realize the importance of sticking to something for more than the minimum and instead of seeing it at "ticking a box", I began to enjoy and learn from my experiences more than anticipated and decided to do something important: commit! 

Yesterday was a Saturday, so that meant in the early morning, I was volunteering. Later on in the day however, I'd also have a shift at work from 3pm - 8pm. I'd taken the previous four weeks off work as paid holiday and used my weekends to get back into studying since Semester two of university started. Quite simply, I wasn't looking forward to returning back to work! I figured I'd be extra tired having just finished volunteering.. My swipe card to access the ward had also stopped working so it wasn't the best start to the day, having to wait five mins until a cleaner would swoop by and open it for me. But something lovely happened..

I usually start off my volunteering with like a mini "ward round", and generally just greeting all the new patients, letting them know of my presence if they need anything. I've had requests from simple cups of tea, milkshakes or a simple chat, to one patient's parent asking if I could sort out a new wheelchair for their daughter. Obviously I have my limitations! I also ask the nurses if they need any help with errands, from things like making the beds, putting laundry away, ordering the afternoon lunches/suppers and etc. Nothing spectacular here!

But yesterday I met a very sweet patient. She was all by herself as her parents weren't with her. She also looked awfully bored (Jeremy Kyle on the TV screen, so *yawn*) so I thought I'd say hello. We spent the best part of an hour playing cards, from Go Fish! to Snap (I don't know many card games, forgive me!) and simply just talked. Talked about school, what she wanted to do when she grew up (a nurse) and she asked questions about me, too. We didn't at once discuss why she was in hospital, and I think that was the most important thing. She looked like any other happy, smiley girl despite the cannula attached to her arm or the doctors at her bedside. And I think that's why it's crucial for volunteers and their contribution in hospitals, they can bring with them a sense of normality to an experience which might not be considered normal. I was sad when my shift was over and my time with her had to come to an end, but we left on good terms (in the form of a hug!). I felt happy that I'd possibly have made a small tiny difference to her stay.

Anywhoo, I went about my day with an extra spring in my step :) My work shift later on was better than I anticipated, simply because of my feelings on volunteering in the morning! Moral of the story, volunteering is definitely worth it if you're thinking about it, and more often what you take away from it is much more than you expected from the outset!

Lots of love, x 

New Sketch!

I've been neglecting sketching for awhile.. especially with university taking over I don't really allow myself time to do much else. 

But! This is one I finished last month, and I've decided to share it with you all. I hope you like it! It took absolutely forever to start it off and it was dragging on for days just sitting in my book until I figured I put an end to this madness and finally complete it..

If there's one extra curricular activity I can say I've pursued since forever, it has to be sketching. When I was younger I would always finish off the stack of pristine A4 paper at dad's reading desk until he resorted to ripping up old bills and useless papers into quarters and piling it in the corner for me to use. I don't care if it's not a very social thing or it doesn't involve teamwork, and maybe football or climbing mountains isn't my calling. But so what? It still teaches me the importance of a meticulous eye, attention to detail (I'm still as blind as a bat by the way) and patience. 

Here it is! 

If anyone has any requests/ideas, or even comments - greatly welcome!
Lots of love.

0.8%

Hi all!

When is a 2:1 not a 2:1? When it's 0.8% away from 70%!

Just a short and sweet update for you all. I got my exam result back! 69.2%! So close to first class! But I'm so happy with it! That module only had two forms of assessment, this exam which I achieved 69.2% worth 66.6% and a Data Handling Test worth 33.3% which I achieved 85.0% in. So overall that works out to be a nice 74% average. I think I jinxed my streak of 70's by mentioning it.. But it's out of the way now, so bye bye Molecular Biology & Applications. 

So what's new? Well, first of all I paid a visit to my local Waterstones around last week and figured it was time I really start doing my research into medical schools. It's been in the back of my mind since university began in September 2013 but it's getting to the point where I need to have a complete overhaul in my attitudes and really invest some time into it (but more importantly myself). So after a year long wait of ummming and aahhhhing I picked up a little book, and it's called "So you want to be a doctor?" by Harveer Dev.

Flipping through the contents list it's an incredibly comprehensive little guide for wannabe medics, from making that first decision of wanting to be a doctor, to getting a life and convincing admissions that you don't have a Vitamin D deficiency from sitting in the library all day, to GEM and even more non traditional routes of getting into medical school. Reviewers off Amazon.com also seem to agree so I think that's also reassuring and will help to start me off on the right footing. Let's hope it's the best £16.99 I've spent. 

Lots of love.