Hi, I’m Hazel Mason and I’m a second year medical student. My SSC group has decided to write blogs about our experience as medical students. We are covering various topics and this blog is covering a day in my life.
My university experience this year has been very different from what I experienced last year. Even between my first semester and second semester there has been massive changes. First semester I was living in Edinburgh with my friends and now I’m at home with my family. Although my day is likely to be very different to most other people’s, I hope it will give an insight into how I am managing to compromise.
Incorporating learning, family life and farm jobs
I live on a small farm in the Scottish Borders so the wakeup call is much earlier than I would like. While in Edinburgh if I managed to wake up enough to move my laptop onto my bed for a 9am lecture it was an achievement, but now my alarm goes off at half 7 and I need to be out the house by 8.
I’m definitely not a morning person but spending the first hour of my day in the fresh air wakes me up and sets me up for the day. I’ve never really enjoyed breakfast food which often meant I skipped it or just had a small snack. However recently I’ve been trying out some porridge recipes that I’ve been really enjoying and help to stop me snacking throughout the day.
One of the biggest benefits of online university is the ability to tailor your day to suit you. I work best in the morning, so I normally start at nine. Normally we have a lecture each day which I watch and make notes on in about an hour. I then make flashcards covering main points from the PowerPoint.
Importance of regular breaks
During this time, I make sure to take breaks whenever I start to feel myself getting distracted. Taking more breaks is much more efficient than having to rewatch a lecture because I was thinking about something else. I also normally have a tutorial each day. I’m very lucky to have access to my aunt’s empty holiday cottage which I use for tutorials. Access to fast Wi-Fi and a quiet space is hard to find in my house, so having this space to go to has made tutorials so much easier.
My youngest brother is in primary school, so I usually spend half an hour each day helping him with schoolwork. My parents both work full time at home and so me and my other brother have to help out as often as we can. We all cook one meal a week, I really enjoy cooking for myself at university so I use this opportunity to try new recipes that I can look forward to cooking for myself once I’m back in Edinburgh.
Throughout the day we split up all the jobs that need to be done on the farm, but for some reason the only task we need a rota for is doing the dishes. Learning how to work my day around helping out with the family can be difficult but I find the most important thing I can do is try to stay positive (more difficult than it sounds but check out my group members blogs on wellbeing if you would like to get some tips!).
Keeping in touch with friends
One aspect of online university that I really struggle with is keeping in contact with my friends. One way of keeping in touch which I have been using, is a text message group chat. I can access the messages on my computer meaning I won’t be distracted by my phone, and throughout the day we can chat about the tutorials and lectures and it feels like much less of a forced conversation than a Zoom call.
Everyone has needed to learn to adapt and compromise this past year. I have found that sticking to a timetable and working in the morning has helped me to have as productive a year as possible. I’m hoping that it won’t be too long before we can go back to some sort of normal but for now, I’m trying to make the best of a tricky situation.
