Humans of RCSI Dublin

"In Year 1, I lost sight of the real reason why I wanted to do medicine. It was shrouded by my attempts to adjust to the reality of being thrown into a foreign environment alone and stay on top of my academic work. Over summer, I went to Thailand for a medical mission, hoping to rediscover my meaning of doing medicine again. It was then I realised what I have been doing has been so wrong. Yes, studying is important, but not for the grades, it is for my future patients. It is my duty to have the required knowledge to be able to treat my future patients with my best ability. It is only my duty to provide the best from myself for my patients. Instead of prioritising the grades, I seek to be able to apply my knowledge to my future patients and treat them to the best of my abilities.

A journey to becoming a physician is a journey of never ending learning. Be it new illnesses or new treatments, we are perpetually surrounded with new information and changing circumstances. In this industry, nothing seems stagnant. In the midst of the stress and chaos, time should be taken off, for yourself to recharge and allow yourself to have better energy to improve our own knowledge to better a patient’s situation. Best doctors are not those with the best grades or those that scan through thousands of patients a day, they are those who have an open mind to change, ability to empathise, those who slow their footing to understand every patient and disease well and those who treat patients as who they are, not as a disease.

Getting a medical degree is not for its perceived grandiosity even though it might sound prestigious to many around us. I’ve learnt that it is not about the prestige, it is about the little things I will be able to do for my patients, to help them get better in every way possible, be it physical health or emotional pain. Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is and I want to be able to empathise and sympathise with the pain they are experiencing. I want to be able to cure it and if I cannot, I want to be able to alleviate it.

Moving forward, I will try my best to keep all these in mind, to ultimately treat my future patients with my best ability and as who they are, not as a disease, no matter how difficult this journey may get.

“Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always” -Hippocrates"

"When I first got to RCSI in the fall of 2018 I was very hesitant, I had a lot of questions on my mind- Am I smart enough to be here? Do I want to be this far from home? Will I make friends? My reason for being so hesitant was because, when I arrived on campus, I was 17 years old, had just graduated high school, and being from Canada, I had never been that far away from home until I moved to Dublin, so in short I was absolutely terrified. However, once I started my first week, almost all my previous hesitations had been silenced, I’d made my own friends, gotten involved in the school’s clubs and societies, and was learning to manage my school work with help from my friends in the upper years.

Moving to Dublin away from my friends and family back home was definitely the hardest decision I’d ever made, but thanks to everyone I’d met since I’ve been here, it also turned out to be my smartest decision too."

"Once upon a time, I was at an animal fair with my family. It was crowded, packed with young kids and full families admiring the animals, big and small. In the centre of the fair there was a stage, with a snake tamer, a massive albino Burmese python. He was showing the kids how the snake slithered around his arms. I couldn't see properly so I walked to the side of the stage, up the stairs, out of sight to the public but close enough to see the show.

I watched for about 15 minutes in awe at the python and the man moving in synergy together. The show ended. "Whoever would like a chance to hold the snake, then come to the side of the stage and line up", said the man.

I wanted to do it so badly, and just as I was about to walk on stage, my legs froze, I glanced at the crowd and felt my heart pound inside my chest. I couldn't do it. I stopped there deliberating on whether or not I should take those 3 steps onto the stage. As I was frozen in my tracks, another young boy came and walked onto the stage. Suddenly a queue formed and I was out of it. My chance was gone.

The last thing I remember from that day was walking away with my parents, taking one glance back at the boy who wasn't afraid with an albino python on his shoulders.

Every time I'm afraid of something, I think of that moment and realized which one of those boys I want to be."

"The process of inner healing is one of active listening, feeling, and tolerance. Of all things, this was the one thing I didn’t realize when I first asked myself what ‘healing’ even meant a year ago.

It’s not a matter of eating healthy and waiting for some cells to clump together and patch up whatever cuts there are or taking something to ‘boost’ your immune system.

It can be painful, frustrating and may often leave you in a dark pit feeling despondent. Some of us are afraid of our own capacity to feel so we try to forget it, brush it off or silence our minds instead - ‘It’s too dark to look at,’ ‘It’s too deep,’ ‘It’s really nothing,’ ‘I’m fine.’ Listening is difficult and I was so used to not listening that I didn’t notice anymore when I wasn’t.

Perhaps always silencing your mind like that is like always silencing a child without ever listening to what he/she has to say. It builds a strange environment with all the unsaid manifesting in new perceptions and ways of interacting with the world. Maybe the child will forget but with every little push away something inside changes.

In the same way that you can never know another person until you listen to what they have to say, it’s difficult to truly say you know yourself until you listen when feelings have their say. It’s like a relationship but with yourself.

It’s a process of self-discovery and love which is eventually rewarding and liberating. In time you’ll come to accept the marks you can’t erase and take in their beauty. They’re part of your story - one that makes you who you are. It goes far beyond snapping your fingers in the mirror and winking at what you see.

It just starts with listening, lovingly.

‘In the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.’
— Sam Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)"

"When I was 15, I bought a book copy of the hit blockbuster, “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.

To be honest, I still don’t really understand the meaning behind some interactions, and maybe some parts were rushed through. While reading through this seemingly-overrated book, my eyes gazed over these next few words:

“We accept the love we think we deserve”

A quote that I, a dumb teenager, did not understand at all, yet somehow felt was profound and greater than myself. I remembered it ever since, and it is something I have come to scratch the surface of its meaning recently.

If you only think you’re worth 30%, you accept it when people give you 30%. If anyone gives you more than 30%, you’ll feel like it’s Godsent.

When you only love yourself at 30%, you allow toxic people to stay in your life. If they aren’t good friends, it makes you start to wonder if you deserve it. How would you know you are worth it? How would you know if you deserve more?

The people you surround yourself with are important. I hope you find people who love you and accept you for who you want to be. Not all scars can heal by themselves. Some scars heal when the people who support you, show you that there is no longer a need to be hurt.

If you made a mistake and you did your best to correct it, please forgive yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. Forgive people and start anew if they are trying to change for the better.

Don’t feel pressured to be friends with people you don’t click with. It’ll only make you depressed. This world is great and vast and there are all sorts of people out there. Don’t be afraid, get out of your comfort zone. There are so many opportunities to expand yourself elsewhere. Don’t limit yourself to please others.

Love makes people blind. It starts out sweet and all things are good. Slowly they get used to you and try a little less. As time passes by, they no longer look up to you. You put up with it regardless. When you love someone, you just have to look past some things. Right?

To that I say, no love is worth putting down your dignity. If you want someone to respect you, learn to respect yourself first. If you want someone to love you, love yourself first. When no one loves you, who is going to? When no one fights for you, who will fight for you?

You are worth it. Don’t doubt yourself. If you don’t know what you deserve, then at least know what you don’t deserve.

This is what it means to me, to love myself."

"Whenever studying becomes hard, and I start doubting myself, I read a quote that I have on my wall “Remember all your hard work when you passed the first hardship, you see that you can? Or was it someone else? You who can turn spring into fall, continue your quest to achieve your dreams”

On my first year away from home, it hit me so hard “I’m alone, away from everyone” I felt like a branch that fell off a tree.
But that changed when I realized that this is my own adventure, my own story I write it how I want.
I also know that I wasn’t alone in this because I have my friends with me.
Some miles away from me, but their support pushes me forward nonetheless.

Always remember that you’re going to be the hope to someone, the life saver of someone and you will be on someone’s mind all the time .

Don’t put barriers between you and others or between you and yourself.
Love yourself, love your friends, and spread the love."

"Watching a mother cry over the passing of her son during an overseas exercise, really changed my outlook on life.

I was sent to Australia as a trainer during my time in the military and an accident occurred. A tank overturned and it threw the commander out of the tank.

I was there at his sending off back to Singapore and there was an eerie silent when his parents entered the room.

This made me reflect and this accident could have happened to anyone and even me. Life is precious and short. You will never know a good thing till it's gone so be careful who you let out of your life. Chase your dreams and in the end we only regret the chances we don’t take.

RIP Gavin."

Hello beautiful Humans of RCSI! Wow, we’ve had such an incredible campaign week ❤ SUFA (SU For All) has loved meeting everybody, sharing the ideas that we’re passionate about, and getting to know more of our fellow RCSI students! We’ve had such constructive feedback throughout the full duration of the week, and we truly appreciate how much time everyone has spent reading through our manifestos and providing challenging questions that have allowed us to showcase our plans. We’ve heard everything that you have told us you’d like to see from a Student’s Union for 2018/19 and it’s all in a big word document on our President’s laptop and ready to go for next year 😉 we’ll keep you updated!

We hope that everyone got a chance to see our genuine personalities shine through, and hear more about how we’ve all individually been exposed to the inner workings of RCSI through our experience as Class Reps, Heads of PLTs, Members of Pharmacy and Phsyio Societies, Clubs & Societies committee members, and even previous Students Union members behind us that have provided us with strong admin connections and the power to make things really happen within the context of RCSI.

Our drive is to build further upon the solid foundation that all the SUs before us have provided, and to work not to turn RCSI around completely in just a year - but more so to follow through with modest but meaningful initiatives that will improve daily life for RCSI students and can be implemented to last beyond far beyond our time in office.

SUFA has spent months growing into a family, and April 1st-4th has been the final solidification of this. We'd love the opportunity to continue to strengthen these bonds whilst working for all! But we also truly wish the best of luck to both teams, and believe that no matter who is selected for the coming year, you’ll all be well represented 🙂 شكرا جزيلا للكل

Reminder: voting links will be sent from 9am Friday (tomorrow) morning, and your 2019/20 Students Union will be announced at 5pm on Tuesday (April 9th).

Follow SUFA on Instagram: , Snapchat: rcsisufa, and FB: SU For All if you missed seeing us throughout the week! Xoxox
SUFA

(Vote SUFA :P)

College is stressful, there's so much work to do, you're in a different place, you don't know what to do and it's honestly crazy. Having great friends to fall back on when times get tough is the best thing ever. We can all say that joining SURGE was one of the best decisions in our lives. We now have another family, away from home on whom we can lean when the brown stuff hits the fan! Hopefully you all can see that you too can lean on us as the SU next year.

SURGE 2019
Giving you the power⚡⚡⚡

Our main goals are:
1.To put the power into the hands of the students. We want to be an open and clear communication channel between the student body and the college staff.
2. To revitalise the energy in the college. We want to bring the excitement back into RCSI.
Some of our plans to achieve this are
- Add a video segment "Keeping up with the SU) (complimentary to the student newsletter, but in video form) that allows delivery of information to the students in a fun, easy to digest manner.
-Work on getting a meal subscription plan in place with 1784.
-Allow for anonymous, confidential feedback and suggestions (possibly integrated into the RCSI student app)
-We have many more ideas and you can read more about them in our manifestos or an even better option would be to come talk to us about it!

"I used to feel like most people get through RCSI scot-free, you know, just one smooth ride the whole way - obviously it’s a lot of work, but you just keep putting one food in front of the other and before you know it it’s graduation day. But of course there were always the unlucky few who had bumps in the road that I’d seen them through the years, and I never foresaw myself being one - but I guess that’s always the way.

I was absolutely walking on clouds in May 2017 when I was given the news that I was going to be permitted do to an extended mobility program in RCSI Bahrain, somewhere I’d grown to love after my IC2 exchange and IC3 SSC research spent there: yes, I was going to be the first RCSI student to spend a clinical year, SC1, on exchange. And then in the summer before I started came the news that I needed heart surgery. I figured it was but a small bump in the road - the surgery would be minimally invasive after all, and the surgeons even said they could do it in December and I could be back in Bahrain again for classes in January - but of course that’s not how it worked out. And semester 2 of 2017/18 I found myself home in Canada recovering from a nasty and prolonged hospital stay following post-op pneumonia, and absolutely lost for what to do with myself.

I know it’s horrible, but I’d always seen it as a bit of a weakness when someone had taken time off of the program before. And even coming back to Dublin to do SC1 again this year in it’s entirety, I feel like I constantly need to clarify that I didn’t fail the year, and that it was health reasons that held me back. But I still feel self-conscious about it. It’s as if my body wasn’t strong enough to keep going in the program, as if it was my fault.

Recently though, I saw a quote that has really stuck with me. It said ‘Everyone around you is just doing their best - including you’ and I feel a bit lighter after reading it. As if the weight of my surgery, and being behind a year now from my peers, and feeling as if I’d been booted off my rightful path wasn’t so heavy anymore because I really am just trying my best. I feel like at RCSI especially this can be difficult to remember sometimes. Everyone in the library looks so focused, and it seems like everyone is studying more than you are and still somehow working out and eating well and partying every weekend - but as soon as you stop and talk to people you realise it’s not like that. Everyone else around you is also really just doing their best, and getting by the skin of their teeth like you are. And everyone has their own stuff that they’re dealing with, even if it hasn’t had them take a semester off of school just yet. I guess the gist of what I’m trying to get at is to be kind - to everyone you meet, but most importantly yourself."

"“Laughter is the language of the soul” - Lisa Simpson quoting some nerd. Although I do not have many inspirational things to say, I will say this: To me, medical school requires complete dedication and an undivided sense of attention. That being said, however, it does not mean I won’t take time off studying whenever possible; chillaxing is key. Without it I’d probably get better grades, but that’s not what life is about. We live in discrete units of 24 hour days, and really it’s only 16-18 hours that we are conscious everyday. Life is but only a day, and we only have so many days. I therefore attempt to enjoy every single day, as missing a day in the life to appease myself in another is nonsensical I find. It’s almost like missing a meal to eat a meal at a later time, your body knows; those calories don’t lie. What I’m aiming to communicate to you is that this journey should be relished. Always appreciate the good and the bad, the repetitions, the peaceful times, the repetitions, the repetitions. Disregard all of this information if one day we discover a cure for sleep, because then we’ll substantially add onto our “living” hours. You may find it difficult to perceive this stream of consciousness, so I’ll end it here."

"I remember when I first arrived at RCSI two years ago. Although I’d heard countless amazing things about this place, I found the transition incredibly difficult. I was in a rough patch in my life at the time, so unsure about the decisions I’d made and so apprehensive about the road that lay ahead & the challenges that glared me in the eye.

There were times when I’d feel lonely, there were times when I’d feel like I was in the wrong course altogether. Heck, there were times when the mere concept of making new friends (something I thought I’d forgotten how to do) seemed terrifying... but often we can be terrified of things we don’t understand.

I wanted to make the most of my college experience & I knew that deep down, something had to change. So I told myself I would do this one thing: every morning, I would walk into college with an open mind, two open ears & a big ole smile on my face. And it made all the difference in the world...
Two years later, I consider myself lucky, every single day, to part a college so unique and so diverse, a place where you’ll always have the opportunity to try new things & a place where people accept you for who you are (not what they expect you to be). Even at the start of this semester, I thought I’d already reaped the benefits of every wonderful thing this college has to offer - Yet I still find myself running into new challenges, new experiences, new opportunities, new friendships and forming new connections each & every day!

None of us truly knows what tomorrow holds, so just take each day as it comes - One step at a time.
And if there’s anyone out there who’s reading this and who’s feeling kinda lonely or just feeling like all this RCSI-jazz ain’t for them, promise me you’ll do this: Every morning, walk thru those revolving doors with an open mind, two open ears & a smile on your face.."