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WHY I LOVE
medicine and allied subjects
Joanna Livesey is studying medicine at the University of Birmingham.
Here’s why she loves it.
I have a fickle relationship with my course.
Ask me at 18:00, finishing up an eight-hour day of lectures, still hungover, facing an evening of seminar prep and anatomy cramming with only questionable freezer leftovers to see me through, and my response might not be UCAS’ next homepage strapline. Throw in an encounter with my flatmate, who rolled out of bed at 14:00, skipped his only lecture and still won’t wash up his pots, and I’d be this close to throwing the stinky tea towel (£2.50 per laundry wash?! I’d rather wait until end of term…) in altogether.
Why? Because it’s ace! The human body is incredible – so robust, yet so delicate, full of order but bursting with exceptions, dizzyingly complex, fundamentally simple, ever-changing, always surprising, ingenious, taken for granted, incomprehensible, universal, and downright beautiful. Medicine is fascinating, and I love it.
University living is great too, the huge freedom and independence it brings is daunting but wonderful. The opportunities are also incredible: so many societies and chances to get involved in something new. I’ve started playing hockey! I’m rubbish but its great fun, I’ve made some great friends and have had some truly memorable socials.
I’ve also loved the academic challenge – a whole new subject and way of learning. Those spoon-fed days of past papers, homework checks, parents’ evenings and constant feedback are a thing of the past, and it’s really stretched me. But it’s a good stretch, one that teaches you something, improves you, matures you, and shows you something new.
"Medicine is fascinating, and I love it."
I recently went to a theme park, and whilst queueing I found myself pondering how very similar first year had been to the crazy rollercoasters all around me. There’s the immense build-up with so much time to wonder and contemplate what’s in store, contemplations often falsely fed and warped by the superficial uni is always fun all the time impressions that stream through social media.
Along the way, there’ll be phenomenal highs and plummeting lows, unexpected twists, and bends you never saw coming, ups, downs, and round-and-rounds faster than you can say ‘freshers’. Points where you feel so scared you might vomit and just want to go crying home to mum. But when it’s finally finished, and always far too soon, there’s that gorgeous sense of victory: hair skew-whiff, voice disappeared, a dizzy stagger to the exit – yet smiling, a true conqueror who’s made it through and is ready for round two.
