My new Academic Year Resolutions

First year of medicine has probably been one of the hardest years of my life. But I've learned so much along the way, I can't actually regret it. However, this new academic year, which I started two days ago, feels like a brand new opportunity, and therefore I'm going to do something I've never done before: A resolutions list. Here are the things I want to improve this year, the mantras I want to run in my head every single day when I wake up:

• You're not stupid. If you fail, then try again. There are always new chances to improve what you do. 
• Start moving your ass. You need to lose weight and get in shape, for your own physical and mental health. Join the gym, start running early in the mornings. Anything. 
• Work every day, be organized. Buy an agenda and actually use it. Get a binder and keep it organized, so you know what you have to study and when you learnt it. 
• Eat healthier. Your body is what allows you to enjoy your life. If your body is not healthy, neither is your mind. Healthy food can be delicious and you know it. 
• Allow yourself to dream. If you want to become a doctor and a writer, then dream of it. Dreaming is the first step to making your dream come true. Don't be afraid of your desires. 
• Enjoy your days at uni. Go to the cafeteria with your classmates whenever you can, have fun in practices and classes, learn as much as you can, be nice to those who you love and value. Be nice even to those people who you don't like. 
• Read more. If you really want to read, make the time for it. You spend a lot of time every day traveling in the metro. 
• Write more. You've joined a Creative Writing group. Go to every single class every sunday morning, and don't be afraid of reading out loud what you've written. Nobody starts being an expert, you have to learn, and that's a long process. Write just for the sake of it. You love creating worlds. Nothing's stoping you. 
• If you want to go have a drink with your friends, indulge yourself. You can't spend every waking hour studying, you'll go insane. Balance the things you love most in your life, there are 24 hours in your day, make the best of them. An afternoon with your friends won't make you fail a single subject. 
• Be confident. You have many treats you don't realize. The people around you love you because of those treats, they must be true. You're human, and you're a miracle just for that single fact.
• Tell the people you love that you love them. If you wanna kiss them, kiss them. If you wanna hug them, hug them. If you wanna tell them they're fantastic, tell them they're fantastic, because they are. 
• Read all the books you have left. They're overflowing your book-shelves, and you're dying to read them. Do it. 
• Be excited for your niece. You're going to become an aunt come February. You're going to have a new life in your hands, and it's going to be so exciting. You'll show the world to this little girl, you'll read to her, you'll dance and sing with her, you'll make her laugh and she'll make you laugh. 
• Enjoy the rain. You love the rain. Take a book and a hot cup of chocolate and think that life has given you the best gift in the world. Put on a film, on comfy pajamas, make hot chocolate and croutons and have a wonderful afternoon with mom. 
• Be grateful every single day for the things you have. You're so lucky, you have no idea. 

What I've learned in my first year of med school

“So here’s my advice: study broadly and without fear. Learn a language if you can because that will make your life more interesting. Read a little bit everyday. But most impostantly, try to surround yourself with people you like and make cool stuff with them. In the end, what you do isn’t going to be nearly as interesting or important as who you do it with” John Green 

Studying a degree, or going into any higher education after high school is not exactly plain sailing. Specially at the beginning. Well, at least it is for most of us. It's a completely new way or working, of thinking even. New people, tons of material to stuff inside your head... My first year as a med student, after struggling a lot to get in this madness, hasn't exactly been what I expected, but I've learned lots of things I didn't think I'd learn. And I did it the hard way. 

• Work every day: this is very important. Like, wow, so important. I didn’t work every day in my first term and I regretted it to no end. If you work a bit and do it wisely everyday, you’ll be ok. Write down your own notes, resumes, flow charts, draw diagrams, take mock test, write explanations for something you don’t understand… The more you work your notes, the more you'll learn. 

• Stay in touch with your friends: seriously, friends are one of the most important things for a med student. For anyone, really. We spend too much time studying, and they know when to take us out to the street to see the light again. Also, studying with fellow classmates will help you a lot, because two or three or four brains think better than one alone, but don’t make your study groups too large, I would advise a study group of 5 (and that’s already a lot) people at the most, otherwise you’ll surely get distracted. Make sure those people are hard working, because as tempting as it is, you don't really want to have a sleep over, but an studying session. 

• Eat healthy, take long showers and do some exercise: I’ve literally felt my bones rotting while sitting in my desk chair studying. I never did proper exercise, I just walked my dog, and that’s not enough. Sometimes I didn’t eat and other days I ate everything I could, and that’s not healthy either. This summer I’ve started working on that, I still have a long way to go, but I’m on it. Also, long showers are relaxing. It’ll lessen the stress from your muscles and it’ll give you proper time to keep your mind blank for a bit. And if you sing as loud as you can while showering, then you’ll feel fantastic. This is first hand experience. I'm a scientist after all. I value the worth of empiricism.  

• Stay humble: It’s incredible the amount of amazing people I’ve met in med school, but it is also incredible the amount of envious, pretentious people I’ve met in med school. People who looked down on you for not getting As, people who thought that they always had the right answer and never listened to anyone, people who didn’t share their knowledge or helped a peer in need… You are studying medicine. You are going to treat people. Not just patients. PEOPLE. If you can’t collaborate and be nice to your fellow workers, how can you care for other people? This takes me to another point: 

• Stay in contact with art: Any form of Art. Dancing, painting, writing, singing, sculpting, acting… Whatever you enjoy. But stay in contact with Art. As I’ve already stated, you are going to treat more than patients, you are going to treat a body, yeah, but also a mind, and that’s where Art comes in handy. Art is the purest expression of human minds. If you can understand the mind of your patient, your treatment will be successful in an 80%. Patients like to feel that their doctor is listening to them, that they have enough strength to fight their illness and make them go through something as hard as a serious illness. No one leaves feeling well of a clinic in which they’ve been discarded in two minutes and they barely had the opportunity to tell what’s happening to them. An illness is a narration, and you must listen and interpret it. 

• Ask for help: If you think you’re struggling with something, ask for help. To your professors, your classmates, your parents, a tutor… There’s nothing shameful in asking for help when you don’t know something or you don’t know how to tackle a task. No one was born with absolute knowledge (despite what some med students may think of themselves…) and being brave enough to say:"I want to do this well, but I don’t know how to do it. Let’s find someone who knows how" tells a lot about your willingness to learn. 

• Enjoy yourself, your life as a med student, and stay passionate: don’t loose your enthusiasm. Go to parties if you like them, go to calmer nights at home with your friends and a bowl of popcorn, go for a ride with your music as loud as you can, go to that festival you’ve been wanting to attend for 5 years… That’s what is going to get you through med school, through illness, through loss, through hell and through whatever life throws at you. You are a student, one of the most beautiful things someone can be. You are a great person, a good friend, a good son, a good brother or cousin or maybe uncle, a good musician, a good writer, a good cooker, a good sewer, a good dog-walker… I don’t know man, just look at yourself, realize how hard it is to even be born, realize how many things could have gone wrong and realize how lucky you are to be doing what you really want, to have the overwhelming sensation of having so many open paths ahead of you, realize how wonderful your friends are and go have some coffee with them, realize how much luck you’ve had, how many things you’ve fought against, and how many things went horribly wrong but have already passed. Realize how many things you can do with your time, and do them. 

• Value the worth of knowledge: there's nothing I value more than knowledge. It's not only a source of personal growth, but a source of independence. With knowledge, you can't be fooled, no one can take advantage of you, and you'll have a much more open mind. I'm not just talking about academic knowledge, but the knowledge that comes with all sorts of experiences, with reading, with music, with art. Realize how important it is that you can learn, how amazing it is that we can even learn, that we have a brain that can understand itself and the world we live in, and learn. 

Although I wrote this form the perspective of a med student, I'm sure you can somehow apply this to some aspect of your life. Or maybe not. I don't know, but I think these things are important, and therefore I wanted to share them with you. 
And yes, what you see there is a real human skull. Hur hur. 

__________________________

And you? Have you learned good things in uni? 

In highschool? Anywhere else? 

Tell me your experience, I want to know!