#studentblog — Public Fediverse posts

End of term. What I’ve studied, struggled with and what’s coming next – final year!!

Hey, hi, hello! It’s me I’m back!

After a much longer break than planned, I’m finally writing again.

The last few months have looked very different from what I expected. Seven months ago, I fell down the stairs and ended up with three separate spinal injuries. Combined with one of the most demanding semesters of my degree so far, my energy went towards the basics: recovering, keeping up with university and getting through each week.

There was not much room left for blogging.

But I’ve missed this.

I’ve missed writing things down. I’ve missed having somewhere to explore ideas beyond lecture notes. I’ve missed the process of taking something complicated and trying to make sense of it.

So I’m hoping this is the start of being a little more consistent again.

Especially because the timing feels quite fitting. This upcoming year I’ll be studying science communication and one of the recommended extracurricular activities is, unsurprisingly, science communication. Which means this little corner of the internet might finally become part of my academic journey in a much more intentional way.

This is the second year I’ve written an end-of-term reflection post and reading back over last year’s feels strangely emotional. It’s strange seeing a version of yourself from a year ago who was excited about what was coming next, knowing that all those weeks of studying, deadlines and late-night revision are now memories.

So what did I actually study?

This year took me into some areas of health science that I hadn’t previously considered but found incredibly fascinating. Translational medicine being one we explored:

• Cancer therapeutics and molecular pharmacology – looking at how we understand cancer at a biological level and how treatments are developed
• Clinical trials, ethics and how evidence moves from research into healthcare decisions
• Pharmacogenomics – how genetic variations alter how patients metabolise drugs
• Parkinson’s disease – from the mechanisms behind the condition to the challenges of managing a complex neurological disorder in clinical practice
• Musculoskeletal medicine – biomechanics, injury repair and prevention (which felt especially relevant after my own experience with injury this year)

Then came infectious disease and public health, which was probably one of the broadest areas we covered.

• Pathogen biology: cellular mechanisms of major diseases like Influenza, HIV, malaria and Tuberculosis, including drug resistance mutations.
• Host immune defence – how the body fights infection at a molecular level and how vaccines stimulate long-term immunity.
• Epidemiology – the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations.
• Global public health interventions – outbreak control, sanitation, quarantine measures and the impact of social and behavioural factors on disease spread

What I struggled with

Math.

Again

At this point, this is becoming a recurring feature of my academic journey.

Quantitative methods and epidemiology continue to push me outside my comfort zone. I understand why they matter and I appreciate how much they contribute to understanding health and disease, but numbers have never been where I feel most naturally confident. Because my final semester requires me to analyse scientific papers, my focus over the summer will be on applied research statistics.

What’s next?

The next sentence feels slightly surreal to write…

September marks the beginning of my final semester of my degree. 

My final year will bring science communication, evaluating contemporary science, applied statistics and research literacy AND my dissertation project running alongside everything else.

Right now, I’m in the messy brainstorming stage. I’m collecting ideas, reading around possible topics and trying to work out which research question I want to spend the next year living with (that’s exciting and slightly terrifying).

I’m looking forward to documenting that process here.

The next chapter of aBookishScholar is going to be about finishing this degree, learning more about science communication, exploring research and continuing to follow the questions that refuse to leave me alone.

I’m glad to be back 🙂