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Thoughts and insights from medical students
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My first day at medical school: The wait is over
Some two years after making my decision to pursue a career in medicine, my 7am alarm bell this morning finally marked the beginning of Day 1 at medical school.
Being on a Graduate Entry course means that I have already done the whole "First Day" thing before. In fact I've already done it twice before, once for a BSc and once for an MSc, and this experience was a great help in many ways. I remember shedding a couple of tears the first time around as an eighteen year old, when my parents headed home after moving my belongings into university halls. This time I felt much more comfortable and was definitely a lot more excited than I was nervous. Nonetheless I know that the next four years are going to bring many challenges, both academically and emotionally. Since I got my offer one thing I've been thinking about a lot is will I be in a class full of 21 year olds?! I completed my MSc in 2005 and since then I've spent most of my career working with people about 20 years older than myself, so I knew that being a 29 year old first year was going to be quite a change! It turned out that I had nothing to worry about in that respect! Before the "proper" first day, when lectures began on the Wednesday, we had already had several events to meet the rest of the 2011 cohort and also the second years who are still around until they begin their clinical phase in February. So before Day 1, I already knew that we had a wide range of ages from 21 right up into the 40s and possible even beyond, and that I wouldn't have a problem getting on with people at either extreme. So how did it feel to actually start at medical school? In a word "awesome"! I walked to the school with my housemates and fellow first year medical students. As our school is part of the hospital building, this meant walking all the way along the main corridor of one of the country's largest and newest hospitals among potential future colleagues. For me this felt almost as inspiring and motivational as walking out on to Wembley Stadium or Centre Court at Wimbledon!! The events of the first day itself were not remarkable at all; several hours of induction talks about the course and school, with one lecture about basic cell structure stuck on at the end of the day. But this lack of excitment didn't matter at all because I was now officially a medical student! There is now so much that I'm looking forward to over the next few months; my first GP visit in a couple of weeks, learning techniques in the Clinical Skills rooms, anatomy classes, and the list goes on and on... It was probably the biggest decision I've ever made to give up my job and start over in a new city, far from all of my friends and family. So far I've never been more sure that making this decision was the right thing to do!
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If you were in a Scottish University, you'd be starting with a bunch of 17 year olds!
Best of luck. Don't work *too* hard.