NaBloPoMo Day 17: One Seventh of the Way to Being a Doctor!

This has been the quickest year of my life. As of 6:30pm today I am officially done with my first year of university and I thought that deserves some acknowledgement! In reflection it has been a damn good year.

University was not what I expected at all and even though some things were harder than expected I have loved it. I've learnt so much cool stuff this year, about how humans arose from the first prokaryotic life forms, the way stars form, live and die, the horrors of the Algerian war, the wonder that is Carbon and its compounds, and I've come to appreciate even more the diversity of life in our world. It's been a great year spent at The University of Melbourne, I love the campus it really is the closest I'll ever get to Hogwarts, I've found where makes the best coffee and the best minty mochas, I'm quite proud of how thoroughly I've taken advantage of the free BBQ's.

Things were hard though. I'm sure it's no secret to anyone how hard I found making friends but really it was more than that. It wasn't just not having friends, it was not having a group, not having any familiar faces, the huge numbers of people, not having teachers who knew or cared about me that I felt I could go to. It was the complete culture shock coming from Preshil where we had 40 people in the year level and knew everyone in the school. Preshil prepared us for a lot of things, but the one thing we weren't prepared for was the sheer number of people in the world. But gradually it got easier. I made some really great friends which definitely helped things, I got over my bizarre shyness which developed at the start of the year and got better at talking to people in my tutes, so that soon familiar faces were popping up everywhere, I had people to say hi to around campus, people to smile at or sit with in lectures and people to have fun with in tutes.

After last year I really needed a time to destress and that was this year. I know I didn't try as hard as I could have, but I needed that. It's not like I didn't work, just for the first time in my life I let 'just getting by' be an option rather than needing to be the best. I'll only be disappointed if this results in me not getting into the subjects I need. Because after a whole year of being sidetracked and excited by so many facets of science. I'm right back where I started; being super excited and enthralled with Medicine. And one year of being average was enough for me, I'm excited to try super hard again next year and to shine bright like a diamond.*

Apart from actual uni, it has been a pretty fab year. Nights out with new and old friends including lots of dancing and often resulting in laughter at maccas. A lot of great tv, or as I prefer to call it 'appreciation of my favourite art medium'. Lots of working and saving money, because the best part of my year is still to come. Given I'll be bringing in the new year in Milan, I think it's safe to say this year has some more great things in store.

* this is just a joke. According to Anna it's my catchphrase.