Sorry for the lack of blogging, the last few weeks have been pretty hectic!
I was down in UCC yesterday for the open day, and I was sitting in the medicine lecture (omg if you were too…we could’ve been just like…SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER) and one thing they mentioned towards the end was that you need the ability to do more than JUST study to do medicine. Keep on your extra-curricular activities, keep doing stuff outside school was the general advice. I really couldn’t have heard it at a better time, since school + my extra curricular activities are really piling it on lately and I couldn’t stop thinking that all the stuff I had to do outside school meant that I was limiting how well I could do in the LC. It occured to me that if I hope to do medicine – the LC is just the beginning of a long slog of study. If I cannot balance study and some sort of life outside it, there’s no way I’m gonna live any sort of life outside my career – and I don’t wanna be that guy.
Although it’s a bit crazy at the moment, I feel like I’m balancing it well. 90% of the people I know going for very high points (550+) have pretty much shed all other aspects of their life and just study, study, study. I must say that’s admirable but I thought the medicine lecture in UCC was a good eye-opener…keep on your extra-curricular activities people! If you really love it, that is. It’ll possibly be useful in the future in an interview or something – a good example of how you can multitask. That said, there is limits, if your grades start slipping because of it, then it’s best to leave it. But if you can balance the study, extra-curricular activities and relaxation then you really are doing well, as long as you’re not stressing out about it.
That said, I plan to stop working after Christmas (working one shift per weekend atm – it’s grand) and cutting down on stuff outside school in general. But I think until Christmas just keeping on top of your tests, homework, etc is adequate.
I’ll end this on a cheesy but very true saying I read somewhere a while ago – you can’t find time, you can only make time.