After the first few months as a first-year medical student, I keep asking myself: Why am I doing this to myself? Because as it turns out, my studies are anything but a cuddly tour.
Endless exams
As soon as I successfully completed the first chemistry exam, the next one is coming up. One thing I can say with certainty: Chemistry will no longer be my favorite subject in this life! (What, someone wants to volunteer to tutor me? Yes, yes, yes!
If you're surprised that your own exams aren't until much later and not during the semester: that's the way it is in medicine. Firstly, to torture the students a little more and secondly, to enable us students to complete our 90-day nursing internship during the semester break. Yay. Personally, I've always found holidays to be overrated anyway. After spending a total of 23 hours in the university library this weekend, I firmly believe that humans can live on air and black coffee alone. Although something different is taught in biochemistry...
No time for parties
I'm a freshman, so I'm supposed to be jumping from one party to the next and not spending my weekends in the library. There's something terribly wrong there. At least I'm not alone in my feet-soaking life, because I have fellow students better known as fellow sufferers. And complaining together is much nicer.
In the morning we complain that the night was so short, that there is a lecture every morning at eight o'clock, and during the lectures we complain that we are all hungry again. After lunch, people complain about how far behind we all are with the material, even though we all spend our afternoons and evenings trying not to let everything get completely out of hand.
Unique experiences
But somehow it's fun. Not the complaining, the studying. It is extremely tiring, time-consuming and demanding and at the same time incredibly beautiful.
In which course of study are you allowed to do the U1 (the very first examination that a person receives) in the first semester during an observation in the delivery room together with the treating doctor? I was allowed to feel the baby's fontanelle and carry out various reflex tests together with the doctor. Using an incredibly small stethoscope, I could hear the child's racing heartbeat.
And that's exactly why I'm doing this shit to myself. Why me and my fellow sufferers spend the night up in arms. Why we spend our weekends in the library laughing hysterically when others tell us about their courses where they attend three lectures a week. I'm glad that my studies aren't a cuddly tour.
Lina is 19 years old and started her medical studies in Münster in the winter semester of 2015/2016. She writes on our website once a month about her experiences as a first-year student. Lina isn't actually called Lina at all. Since she would rather remain unrecognized, she writes here under a pseudonym. You can find more stories from Lina's life in her blog.
Previous posts
October 26, 2015: Finally freshmen!
November 23, 2015: I'll be a model student - definitely!
