The Back Nine

Had Halfway Dinner last Tuesday. A well put on occassion at Girton actually where 2nd year undergraduate, 2nd year PhDs and 1st year MPhils come together for a formal dinner. It reminded me of Matriculation Dinner when everything felt so new and exciting. New people to meet. Lots of alcohol to plunge into and another lifting speech by the Mistress.

Results from my opening two Modules are back:

71% - Introduction to Genomics
61% - Genomic Sequencing Methods

The 61% was a painful one. Especially when seeing all your fellow students are consistently hitting 75%+. Feedback and comments were deserved but still very frustrating to read nonetheless. I felt as if I had written as good an essay as I've written previously but my grasp of the title meant '80% of the essay is irrelevant.' Onto the next assignment.

And onto happier days. As today, feeling a lot more relaxed and calm about my work and the future. Having spoken to a close friend (now an MPhil student) on whether failing to get into Cambridge as an undergraduate motivated him. His response was love of the subject motivated him.
That is what I need. Just to love my work again. Take it day by day and maybe, just maybe, I will love the journey I'm on. And just as it did with my friend, that will help build the person I want to become.

Comeback Kid

Halfway Dinner of my Masters Degree at Cambridge tomorrow. Just 4 Assignments and a 10,000 word Thesis await. Plans for life after Cambridge are underway.

Last week, submitted an application towards Healthcare Assistant work at a hospital nearby to where I live in South-West London. Quite keen on working and immersing myself in an NHS hospital. Experiences there will definitely help for future interviews in being able to reflect upon areas in which I have learnt and improved upon.

That also means PhD applications will wait. The goal very much remains Medical School. A PhD thereafter is a significant possibility, especially knowing my research will be within a specialty I plan to practise in.

Significant personal development also must take place. 

1. Not just having confidence in your own ability but exuding that confidence and placing that confidence in others to believe in you.

2. Communication skills. Thinking more simply. Not trying to be overly articulate.

3. Calmness under pressure. Never letting anything fluster you or your ability to perform.

Those three areas are the key qualities that I feel make a great clinician but also a great quarterback. Tom Brady won his fifth Super Bowl ring last night. A guy who rose to the top of his field from absolute obscurity, fuelled with opinions of his doubters. That is the story of the Comeback Kid.