Hi I’m Kyi Lae Shune Kyaw, I’m a second-year medical student who has spent semester one studying remotely from Myanmar. Alongside my studies, I also co-run social media pages in hopes of promoting health awareness in the community.
I’ve been back home for almost 8 months now and if you asked me a year ago if I thought this scenario was even a possibility, I would have said, “definitely not.” Since starting university last year, I didn’t expect to spend more than 2 or 3 months back at home again for at least the next 10 years. So some would say that being back is a blessing, which it really is in some ways, but there are definitely a few downsides to staying abroad.
Different time zones = late night studying
It feels surreal studying all the way from Myanmar where the time is 6.5 hours ahead of Edinburgh. This means my ICP tutorials end at 10:30pm and if I want to attend events like the AIM tutorials, I stay up until 3am. So, as someone who is most productive during the 9-5 time frame, it is quite difficult to stay motivated when I wake up at 11am and half my day is gone by the time I am at the desk.
To return to Edinburgh or not
When I was weighing out the pros and cons of returning to Edinburgh, multiple factors were taken into consideration. From mid-August to mid-September, I booked, changed, and cancelled several flights. Knowing I would miss out on anatomy demos and that I would not be able to meet up my friends worried me most. There were other factors too; these included the risk of traveling for 40+ hours across 3 different countries during the second wave and the local travel restrictions.
So after going back and forth between the two options numerous times and exhausting all possible arguments for each side, I made the decision to stay, which meant I had to come to terms with missing out; this took a large amount of self-convincing. I told myself (and still do so now) that I would be able catch up when I returned and that making the most out of the online resources and social media would be more than enough for the time being.
More time with my family
Having said this, I’ve learned over the past couple of months that it isn’t all that bad to be studying from home. It really is a blessing to be back home with the entire family especially because my siblings have also been studying abroad for the past 5 years. Yes, being back home makes it hard to create a proper study environment but I do feel very privileged that there was even a choice to study medicine remotely and that I am able to be with family during these trying times as not everyone was given this option.
So, even though I miss being back in Edinburgh and there definitely is some adjusting that I need(ed) to do, this is as good as it gets given the situation.
