Winter Break and Future Thoughts

The patch clamp rig I use for my lab project!

As I sit here writing this, a little heavier due to overindulging in chocolate over Christmas, I can happily reminisce about a winter break well spent… seeing the family (and family pets!), spending lots of time with friends and relaxing after a stressful term. Even the odd night shift where I work was enjoyable and filled with Christmas cheer! Suffice it to say, I had a great holiday and I hope everyone else did too!

As January begins, I feel strange not to be revising hard for exams. In third year, all of our exams are in May/June – a fact I am enjoying currently, but know I will loathe when those months finally arrive. Instead, I’m spending this fortnight doing some final work in the laboratory, desperately hoping to get some good results for my dissertation. The picture above shows my work station – I get to use some very fancy equipment! Yesterday, I had one of the few successes in over eleven weeks work! The experiment worked well and I got some really nice data. I just hope this progress continues into my final week so that I can focus on the writing portion of my dissertation – something I’d rather not think about writing for now. But knowing how time flies, that deadline will be upon me before I know it.

The start of the final Spring term has also brought thoughts of the future to many third year students. What to do after University is, for many, something they would rather put off thinking about until later. Well for us that time is now! I have some friends applying for PhDs, some applying for biology-related jobs and others who want to see the back of science completely! So what am I hoping to do? In October I applied to study medicine, so the waiting game has begun as I anxiously await news about interviews and, hopefully, offers! Many more years of education lie ahead for me, and personally I can’t wait.

Good luck to all with exams! They’ll soon be over and soon you can relax!
~ Joshua