Surviving and Thriving: Lessons from my First Year of Pharmacy - TASLIMA R ULLAH
If I’m being completely honest with you I wasn’t too keen about studying Pharmacy, my dad had encouraged me to apply and I just nodded my head and applied. I thought, at least it’ll take less time to be a pharmacist than to become a doctor.
It was quite evident that I hadn’t done ANY research about my degree because turns out after you graduate you’re not a pharmacist. You have to finish your four year degree, do your foundation training year, pass the GPhC exam and only THEN you are a qualified pharmacist. So actually it takes the same amount of time to become a qualified pharmacist and a junior doctor.
The Dreaded First Day
When I first stepped into that huge lecture hall on the first day I had mixed feelings and two thoughts lingered in my head:
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Is Pharmacy right for me?
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Will I be able to make friends?
That was all until I saw the three girls from that one random fresher’s group chat: one quiet and peculiar, one a little too loud and one that I didn’t really know that well. I ended up sitting next to them and going out to get pizza for lunch. Looking back, those three girls really made my first day enjoyable. I don’t quite remember what we talked about but I do remember talking so much that the lecturer had to remind us that we weren’t in school anymore. Weirdly enough, two years later and I still sit and eat my lunch with those three girls.
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Is Pharmacy right for me?
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Will I be able to make friends?
Balancing Act: Academics vs. Social Life
I really thoroughly enjoyed my first year experience, I said yes to everything (with limits) that came my way, spent wayyyy too much money (all of my student loans) and ate lots of amazing food.
I do wish I had paid a little more attention to my labs in first year because in second year labs just get a little more challenging and harder to understand. Instead I spent most of first year trying to finish my lab, get the results and leg it out of that room ASAP. They say bad habits die hard, so it was really difficult for me to change that habit in second year and again the lab aspect of the course was what I struggled with the most.
Although I don’t regret having fun in first year, because if you want to have fun first year is the year to go a bit crazy. I think it would’ve been wiser to focus a little more on the academic side of university. I think it can be easy to believe that A-levels will be the biggest challenge to your academic life and after that you can chill, but that really isn’t the case when you study Pharmacy. So even though in first year you are allowed to prioritise social life and fun, don’t let that mean that you’ll slack off and go full force for final exams because that won’t be great for your mental and physical health (trust me).
Did I ever find out if Pharmacy is right for me?
For the most part I’m excited to wake up and go to uni (with the exception of some 9am days). Oh yeah and controversial but I do turn up to most of my lectures, even though all of them are recorded. I feel like even if I don’t necessarily understand or pay attention to every lecture, some of it goes into my head and that does make it a little easier to revise later on (plus I loveeee commuting into London and I feel like if I don’t go to uni I’m not really taking advantage of the full university experience). But there hasn’t been a specific moment where I’ve realised I made the right decision but I enjoy learning the content and I made it to third year - so that's something.
Maybe, I’ll have a crazy epiphany on the day I graduate but I’ll keep you guys updated.