Let me start off by saying, I'm so sorry blog, I've neglected you this entire time. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I'm here to say...... get over it!
Finally! Year 2 of podiatry is complete. Here are a compilation of my thoughts throughout the process, lets see if we can find a theme, shall we?
*Drumrolls please*
“Oh that’s new… and quite in depth.. did we already cover this in year 1?”
“I’m certain we’ve already been over this… how do I not know this already?”
“She got an A? … what am I doing wrong?! I’m so dumb”
“I don’t get this… Or this… I don’t get that either!”
“Are we sure this is still podiatry we’re studying? Did I accidentally apply for general medicine?”
“Why am I here? When did it get so difficult? I need mom!”
*Cries in podiatry*
As you have gathered from the thoughts of me from above, the general theme is self-doubt, and if you've guessed that correctly you win....... another awful foot pun video! YAY-YOU!
As students that have already graduated, can probably confirm, that their years of study were riddled with self-doubt and anxiety as well.
So what are some things that I’ve learned from my experience of year 2 that I hope will help year 1’s graduating this year?
Firstly, stop comparing yourself to other students, it won’t help you and it’s not going to make them fail all of a sudden if they’ve been A star students thus far, and frankly, they won’t notice you comparing yourself to them because that would be very weird and we’re studying feet, don’t make it any weirder.
Secondly, if you feel you need an AIR report (Academic Inclusion Report) then do yourself a favour and speak to your GP to help you get one. Especially if you feel like your academic struggle is less to do with being genuinely lazy and more to do with a health concern that may hinder your performance in exams (clinical or written) here is a link to one at the University of Northampton: https://searching.northampton.ac.uk/s/search.html?query=AIR+report&collection=unon-meta (I'd like to add a responsible disclaimer that this is a report that genuinely helps students that need it, please don't use it lightly or take it for granted!)
Lastly, make sure you engage in healthy activities and hobbies. Listen, year 2 is incredibly hard and no one can experience this for you. In our first year, we were advised but until you’ve truly been through it, you can’t fully understand the depth of how tough it is actually going to be, so bearing that in mind, its useful to engage in fun activities or to pick up a new hobby that will engage your brain outside of academics to reduce your chances of burn out.
Even though, with the pandemic it’s been a little hard to shadow, my advice is to get into shadowing private practitioners early on and attend as many lectures as you can on dermatology, orthopaedics and even anatomy lectures. Its always a good idea to keep revising your anatomy!
Thats all for todays post, I hope you all get the well deserved rest after an incredibly stressful year and enjoy your summer as much as you can!
Signing off until next time! Ciao!
Year 2 is and always has been the most difficult year for Podiatry students. Too much info and also preparing for 3rd year dissertation. Not easy at all but it's over now and look forward to finishing what you started 3 years ago. We'll done.