2 years later!

How strange that exactly two years to the day, since my last post here, I decide to log on and revive this blog.

I finished my Undergraduate coming out with a first class honours, and am currently completing a Masters in a professional area which is not directly related to health or medicine. I thought I could make a decent career out of it.

But once I gave up on the idea of following through with completing my goal of sitting GAMSAT, which had been a personal goal for a very long time, I felt sort of dead, like I had let myself down. Then when I had the idea that I could finally study for the GAMSAT again, now that my course is winding down, I felt a YAY break out on the inside me! :)

I want to sit in this coming March. I must be crazy...

Free GAMSAT tests

Just found these! :)


http://prepgenie.ie/gamsat/free-quiz/

x

Begin again!

So my plans of studying chemistry, physics and maths while doing my undergrad degree did not work out!

I have just finished my final year and am absolutely exhausted.

But I have to start studying again now!

Good thing I love learning! Lol. :D

Bon Giourno?

Well I am suffering from a serious case of procrastination and apathy. I just can't seem to get anything done at the moment. I think it's because I'm such a goal oriented person. I always like to plan what is going to happen and where I'm heading.

I've been slowly coming to terms with how unlikely it is of doing medicine over here. The fees are just so high. It puts so much pressure on you to do well in the course and even afterwards. I read about one woman who graduated and works as a doctor but feels suicidal because of the pressure of debt from her student loans. I don't want that kind of debt haning over my head.

Also another reason is I don't want to have to get my mother as a guarantor on the loan. It's too much to ask of her. Especially as she has helped so much in my education up to now.

Soooo Irelands out, UK would be great I know that there are more grants etc available for students, but the fees are still high. Around £9,000.

Now I'm thinking of trying Italy where fees range from around 650-6500. That's the scary option of moving completely abroad.

I'm a shy person and I struggle with depression and fibromyalgia so the prospect of moving away from all my support systems to a country I've never been to and don't speak the native language is a pretty intimidating one!

I also have to take an entrance exam which requires knowledge of science subjects. Not great for me.

This all probably means I'll need to take another year out after this degree I'm doing to get ready for it all. I know I can't be impatient about something so important but I feel like I've been waiting forever to do this. It's just horrible.

I probably need to stop worrying and planning so much for the future and just enjoy the present a bit more but I actually don't know how to do that. I am always thinking ahead. Always!

Well better head off and try get something done either work or meditation or something! :P

:)

Costly Courses and GAMSAT Prep!

I've been away from this blog for a while now. I'm struggling to find a way to get enough money together to pay for my college so it's not exactly encouraging me to come here and blog about the future when it's hard to see how I'm going to get there.

I am trying to remain hopeful and positive though. I WILL find a way through this undergrad and then onto the next stage. This next stage poses even bigger financial challenges though!

So lately when I get a spare few minutes, I have been looking into cheaper ways to study medicine as a post-grad. My first choice has always been to stay in Dublin and study at my old uni, UCD. However, the fees there are around 14,000 euro a year. Students are granted a loan to complete the course and then have to pay it back. But of course it takes a huge amount of careful consideration to sign on to a loan of that magnitude!

Honestly it scares the heck out of me! That's more money than I currently make in a year! :/

My next choice would be to look at studying in England. I've been there several times especially to London which is where I would love to study so it's not too intimidating a prospect. Also from looking at the cost of post-grad medicine over there it works out to be about 4,000 euro cheaper a year!

A couple of weeks ago I came across an article in a newspaper about studying across Europe. I started investigating how much it would cost to do medicine through English in different countries. The answer? A lot less!!!

Post-grad medicine in general seems roughly around the same figure as Ireland or the UK with the cheapest I have found in Poland for 10,000 euro a year. For the traditional full lenght course, fees start from around 1,000 euro a year upwards.

These courses are all taught through English and welcome European students to apply. However my guess is that you really would want to pick up the native language pretty quicky if you are treating patents etc.

But it's definately something to think about. I'm hearing about more and more people who are going abroad and getting their medical degrees before coming back here to work so ithis is a very real option for anyone wanting to pursue a career in medicine.

If anyone is interested in having a look at what programmes are offered around Europe (and at what cost) check out: http://www.eunicas.ie/

I love to let my mind wander and think of the future, about studying medince and becoming a doctor. But let's face it dreams don't just materialise overnight. It takes a lot of effort and hard work. So while it's important to have a clear vision of where you want to be in the future, I know I have to keep focused and chipping away at the work I'm doing now.

My GAMSAT preperation is seriously lacking. I've been letting the prospect overwhelm me and discourage me when I need to just give it a go. I started reading a bit on organic chemistry which I think I will really enjoy actually. Because it just feels more relevant than reading about electron orbitals etc. But the basics are essential so gotta get those down before jumping into the fun stuff!

For anyone needing to improve your sciences I really recommend paying a visit to the Khan Academy website. They offer FREE lessons on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Maths as well as other non-GAMSAT related courses such as Art History (although let's face if with the GAMSAT anything could be relevant!)

Here's the link should you be interested:http://www.khanacademy.org/

Anyway that's about it for now. Have to go work on a journal article I'm writing. Has to be ready for publication by the end of the month. My oh my!

:)

Dustin Hoffman admission- a victory for women?

Afternoon!

I'm typing this blog entry in my back garden at the moment. The birds are chirping in the trees, the sun is shining and a gentle breeze caresses my hot skin oft and anon. It's truly idyllic here. Feels like I'm on holiday.

So everybody is talking about that Dustin Hoffman video. The one where he gets teary eyed about the way he has automatically avoided unattractive women in the past. He apparently had a revelation about his attitude towards women while filming the movie Tootsie in which he was made over to look like a woman.

But while I think it's great that he is highlighting just how much society focuses on a certain standard of female beauty, I couldn't help but feel rather unmoved by the interview.

I particularly had a difficulty with him saying that he had been "brainwashed" by society. While I admit that society does have a huge role to play in how we think about beauty and what women should look like, I felt that word was somewhat shifting the blame.

He mentions that he would never have even talked to a woman that was not considered conventionally attractive, which I find just unfathomable.

That seems like more of a personal distortion to me, rather than something society has fostered in him.

Women are subjected to the same barrage of images of perfectly toned, and hairless men and yet I don't feel dismissive of men that don't fit that image. I have met, talked to and loved men who do not fit that mold at all, and yet to me they were wildly attractive.

I'm glad that Dustin Hoffman has come to that personal revelation, and I think it must take courage to admit what he has, but I'm not sure it's something that women should be championing all over social media.

Seems to me that they are celebrating a battle which should not have had to be won in the first place.

Victory for Dustin Hoffman personally? Absolutely!

But surely as women, we need more!

Rather than celebrating not being judged and treated according to our level of beauty, we should expect not to be.

Sun and Secrets

Morning!

Good lord it is hot here at the moment! 30 degrees. I'm definately not made for that kind of temperature. I was working in a hot kitchen for 5 days straight and now I've got a few days off I'm trying to recover from it! I do like the brightness of the sun though and I make sure to sit out and get my vitamin D for the day! :)

When I was working for those five days I actually got up early and studied chemistry before work. Now that I'm off I have to work extra hard not to be lazy. I need to study more.

I have been thinking about the year off after I finish my undergrad, and I reallyyy don't want to.

I am tempted to take my GAMSAT in March. I had previously discounted that as an option because it's in the middle of my final academic year. But I really want to just get started on my career.

So I'm considering that as an option at this stage.

I'm not going to tell anyone (except you) because I know no one will be supportive of the idea. I hate that I don't have that support in my life at the moment but well what can ya do?!

I'm off to make an iced americano before I melt!

:)