20 Things I've Learnt at 20 Years

Hey guys,

I turned 20 on the 16th of March alhamdulillah (have I dragged out my birthday for long enough yet?). As you can tell by the title of this post, I am going to be imparting some knowledge I have gained from all my 20 years of life. I enjoy these types of videos on YouTube, so I thought it would be fun to do my own but blog-style.

1. Hard work translates to success a lot of the time. But, I have learnt that sometimes you can put in lots of effort and not reach the goal you set and that is OKAY. Perhaps, that thing was not meant for you or it is meant for you but not yet. Your life is a journey, try and enjoy the ride.

2. That leads me on to the second thing I've learnt. Patience is a very important attribute to have in life. 

3. Don't stress the small stuff. At the end of the day, if it won't matter in the long term, is it really worth your tears? No, thought so. I've learnt to leave things in the hands of Allah, God. I do what I can and hope for the best.

4. If you love or like someone, tell them. I'm thinking, parents, grandparents, friends, siblings etc. To be honest, I am still working on this.

5. Do not be scared to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. It is hard, of course. But, you would be surprised how much more fun and rewarding your life would be that way.

6. Stop being such a homebody and just go out and have fun. Especially if you are ever feeling down, a dose of banter with friends will help at least a little. Obviously don't overstep your own boundaries but socialising can do a lot more for you than Netflix or your bed. That is coming from introvert so.... Or maybe I'm not an extrovert. That could be another thing I've learnt.

7. Don't 'beg it' with anything or anyone. Not everyone will like you and that is okay. i/e never force friendships, relationships, ponytails... If you do, you're bound to get a headache.

8. Do not let anyone make you feel like crap. I can be meek sometimes, but when it comes to my mental well-being, only I'm allowed to make it worse. But that leads me to my next point.

9. Practice self love consistently until it becomes second nature. It is important to be nice to yourself and the body you were given.

10. For the love of God, go to bed on time.

11. Always wear what makes you feel the most comfortable and good.

12.  Twitter is very addictive. I have learnt that, from time to time, I need to stage an intervention for myself and log out/ delete the app.

13. Same as above but about Instagram.

14. Learn how to do your own thing, even if it means having no one there with you. If it is what you are passionate about, that should be enough.

15. There is rice at home.

16. What you think is a lot of money before the age of like 18, is really not that much money at all.

17. As demonstrated by the mess that is Brexit, avoid leaving things to the last minute. Let's be honest, I'm going to need a miracle to completely get rid of my procrastination tendencies but all you can do is try your best. Repeat after me: "Procrastination IS A SIN!".

18. Self reflection is very important. I have my course to thank for this. (You didn't think I was going to make a blog post without referring to the fact that I'm a medical student did you?) A huge part of being a medical student and future doctor is being able to reflect effectively on your personal growth, scenarios you find yourself in and your interactions with others.

19. It seems like the more outgoing you are, the more likely you are to do well in life.

20. You are not running out of time, or behind. Not everyone can be a billionaire by the age of 20 nor do they need to be. Stop comparing yourself to celebrities.

Week In My Life: 2nd Year Med Student

Hello lovelies, welcome to another blog post from me, Aisha. It's been a while.

This is detailing what I get up to in a week as a second year medical student. It's basically a secret diary on the internet- so not so secret... But, I hope you enjoy. I put pictures of the outfits I wore too.

I just want to start off by saying I am a MuSlAmIc Muslim and I pray 5 times a day this isn't mentioned later in the blogpost and read the Quran most mornings- also not mentioned later on.
Okay, bye.

Monday:

Woke up: 7am

Breakfast: 8:30am

I thought I had a lecture at 9 and was ready for 9am but that was not the case so I had an hour to spare. So, I should do some work, catch up on work right? Nah, I decided to take an outfit pic. Keep reading to see it.

I then had 3 lectures back to back from 10am to 1pm. I found that tiring as we haven't had that in a while and we usually have breaks between the lectures. They were on screening and surveillance, metabolism of alcohol and liver disease and failure. For a bit of context, we're currently doing the gastrointestinal system/block. 

I got a Greggs three cheese pizza with a friend - yumm. 

At 2 - had a debrief session and this is where we talked about our 2nd week at hospital and reflected on it. We also did a patient-doctor practice with history taking focused on Urogenital and Neurosensory systems.

At 4, we finished that and went to last lecture of the day. 

Relaxed till about 6.  

I then planned out my evening. 

- cook and eat dinner 

- prep for CAHR tomorrow
- lecture notes 

- do this blogpost 

- make a poster for an event my society is hosting 

I need to go to bed early becauseeeee your girl is tired. Hopefully be done with everything by 10:30.
Hey, it's me from Tuesday: I went to bed at 11.

OOTD: 'Casual But Cute'

Tuesday:

Woke up at 7:15

Ate 8:30- ish

Had CAHR ( Critical Analysis ....don't know what the H and R stand for to be honest) from 10-12. The main focus was analysing a case control study about Colo-rectal cancer screening as a small group and presenting our thoughts to the rest of the group (30 people).
It was a cold room. Quite boring at times.
But, I did learn some things about screening (Wilson-Jungner) and how to check how reliable studies are in translating to real life situations.

At 12 - lecture. Not bad. But long. Title was Inflamatory Bowel Disease.

At 1 - escaped from this lecture. Shh. But the slides were up so I will go through it on my own. Had lunch- some pasta.

Got a choc muffin from Lidl. I'm oBsEsSeD. OMG.

At 2:30- had a driving lesson till about 4. I'm an... interesting driver. Only just restarted from not having driven for nearly 2 years- so let's go easy on me okay? cool.

Got home at like 4:30.

Did some lecture notes from then till about 6.

I found out that my team made it to the final of a  medical ethics debate competition. It'll be taking place in March and I'm pretty excited. I'm proud of us for making it!

Ran through a PowerPoint presentation with my friend- for first year teaching. Took us about 2 hours because we were relearning the things on the slide.

From 8 to 10 - literally did nothing and just chilled - jammed to some great toonz. Had dinner- frozen pizza and chicken nuggets- basicallyyyyyy New Year's Resolution is out of the window.

Taking 10 minutes to write this blogpost.


OOTD: This one is called 'Let Go Of The Festive Season Aisha'

 



Wednesday:

Woke up 7-ish again

Went down to do laundry.
Had shower
Put clothes in dryer
Had breakfast

Did some quick prep for HARC & took outfit pics.

At 10 went to HARC. HARC stands for Human Anatomy Resource Centre- where we learn anatomy using prosections of people who donated their body to science- pretty amazing.

At 12 - went to lib for half an hour

Got pizza slice from Greggs again. yum.

Went to lecture at 1 - about intestinal failure

Came home and chilled

Had lunch.

I did lecture notes- watched YouTube videos to help.
I've been procastinating RS2*.

I quickly ran through the PowerPoint again with my flatmate and then did more lecture notes.

Watched 3 episodes of Hollyoaks - I went from bashing the acting one year to getting hooked this year lol.

OOTD: This one is called ' Teddy Bear But It Was Raining So I Had To Change Coats'

Thursday

Woke up at: nearly 8 due to having a  late night :/

Had CBL* at 10 - 12.
*CBL stands for Case Based Learning and it's a group session (there's like 7 of us) and we answer questions based on patient cases/ case studies linked to the system we are studying. (E.g. Mr X has so and so symptoms. On examination, xyz... What is his condition? Answer some questions about his condition.)

Radiology lecture at 12-1

1-3 was in the library catching up on some notes. Printed off some papers for my RS2* in hopes that it will be easier to read the papers.




3-5 made rice. read the papers - success

5-8 prep for and presenting the endocrine system to 5 groups of first year students.

Just chilling till its bed time :D

OOTD: 'Monochrome Moods' 



Friday:

Woke up, ate at normal times.

At 10-12 Clinical Skills. Here, we learn how to do clinical examinations and procedures. This session was about thyroid gland examination and lymph nodes examination.

At 12- there was a picture quiz. I won. Only kidding.

Went to the library to do work/ notes/ read and annotate my articles for RS2.

Went home at 3

Went to my RS2 meeting at 5

TGIF!! Just chilling and watching lots of youtube. Doing today's blogpost.


OOTD: 'Med Student Chic'  



Wearing scrubs because we have to for clinical skills.



*
RS = Research and scholarship. 2000 words reviewing medical literature based on a specific topic. My topic is the use of PET-CT for Follicular Lymphoma prognostication.