{"id":918,"date":"2019-02-28T19:52:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T09:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejugular.org\/?p=918"},"modified":"2019-02-28T19:52:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T09:52:30","slug":"dear-class-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/2019\/02\/28\/dear-class-of-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Class of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 57 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

by DANIEL XUE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations kiddos, you\u2019ve made it to the promised land. If you\u2019re like me, then you\u2019re expecting to step into a world of opportunity, filled with great experiences and even greater people. In a way, you\u2019d be right. If you put some effort in, the med<\/g> community (and UNSW as a whole) has so much to offer. But if you\u2019re like me, then you\u2019re also scared. You\u2019re scared because, as great as these things are, there\u2019s a chance that they might not happen. So here\u2019s a rundown of the experience I\u2019ve gathered in my first year of uni, and I hope that it might do some good for you all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, let\u2019s talk a bit about your cohort. If I had to pick some buzzwords to describe it, I\u2019d go with \u201ctight\u201d and \u201cdiverse\u201d. While 250 kids, or 30 at Port Macq, sounds much smaller than most other degrees, the distinction in both backgrounds and personalities that you can find is vast. Sure, most of us are pretty young (18-21), but the mix of cultures (places all around Australia plus Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and more) more than makes up for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most domestic students are fresh outta high school, but there\u2019s a fair few transfers and gap year folk (me!) running around too. If you\u2019re not from a high school with numbers akin to a plague (looking at you, James Ruse), you might find the transition phase a little lonely (but more on that later). For interstate and international students, living on campus with a bunch of other students (both med and otherwise) will give you a cozy home away from home. On the first Thursday of uni, I went to visit a mate who was staying at Colombo House (he\u2019s from Singapore). Upon entering the dining hall, I was greeted by nine other students; all from Singapore, all studying medicine. So if you\u2019re feeling anxious about leaving home, I\u2019m here to tell you not to panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll also notice that there are many variations of the medical student. There\u2019s the typical high achiever: good grades, involved in student life and somehow still finds the time to party. There\u2019s also the stereotypical \u201cnerd\u201d: reserved, socially awkward, and doesn\u2019t do much besides study or stay at home. Oh, and then there\u2019s literally EVERYTHING in between. I\u2019ve met musicians, artists, dancers, athletes, foodies, academics, party animals, wholesome souls and almost anything else you could think of. That\u2019s the best part about your cohort; no matter who you are, what you like or where you\u2019re from, you\u2019re bound to find others whom you can relate to. Side note: there\u2019s plenty of great people that you won\u2019t meet until much later into uni, so don\u2019t shut yourself off from others just because you\u2019ve found some friends already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing I like best about a small cohort is the fact that you actually get to spend decent time with people during uni. However, you\u2019ll tend to only see people from your college on a regular basis. For me, keeping up with mates in other colleges involved a combination of smart planning, online chats and clubs\/societies. (Another side note: UNSW has so much to offer in terms of extracurricular opportunity, so I\u2019d highly recommend having a look around and seeing what interests you!) Lectures were also a great way to keep up with people (while we still attended them), because groups tend to chill out together afterwards, and before other classes. There\u2019s nothing wrong with chatting to new faces around the hall each morning, but I found that I would never see almost all of the people I met that way.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I wanna tell you all about my first week of uni. I remember walking around a campus filled with people, yet feeling so alone. I remember sitting in the lecture hall by myself, watching bunches of bright-eyed faces stroll in together, laughing and talking. I remember that hollow feeling when SG would end, and we\u2019d all pack up and leave without wasting a word. I remember the constant struggle that was talking to someone new, always searching for the right thing to say. \u00a0I remember that pit in my stomach, sinking as I fell further and further behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, everyone\u2019s the protagonist of their own story. When the only thoughts you have are your own, it’s easy to convince yourself that everyone else has got it better. It\u2019s not true. For my first peer mentoring session, my buddy asked my mentees what each of them wanted to get out of uni. All of them said the same thing: to meet new people and to have a good time. And on that note, I want to leave you all with one last piece of advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent the last year of my life doing this whole \u201cmed student\u201d thing. I know exactly how it feels to step into a brand new environment, full of blind ambition. I know that trying to stay afloat against a flood of lectures, pracs, SGs, hospital, people, clubs and events might seem impossible at first.  But at the same time, you\u2019re surrounded by so much potential. So I implore you all, don\u2019t be afraid to put yourself out there. If you\u2019re unsure about whether you should talk to a person, just try it. If you\u2019re worried that some particular club might be too time consuming or you\u2019re afraid of big groups of people, give it a shot. My first year was enriched so much by all the chances I took, and I have no doubt that yours will be too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All it takes is a little push.
<\/p>\n

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I remember walking around a campus filled with people, yet feeling so alone. I remember sitting in the lecture hall by myself, watching bunches of bright-eyed faces stroll in together, laughing and talking. I remember that hollow feeling when SG would end, and we\u2019d all pack up and leave without wasting a word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}