When you go to university, you are supposed to choose the subject you love the most – your passion, something you want to do in the future. Or are you supposed to choose the one you are good at? Although very often, you like something because you’re good at it, that is not always the case.
Biomedical science at its finest.
Take me as an example. I wanted to be a scientist since I can remember. Later, when I was 13, after watching an utterly horrible movie Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon modifying his DNA to become invisible, I knew that I want to do biomedical sciences. Throughout my A-Level, my interests within the field were constantly changing, but generally, I had a good idea what I want to do and why I want to do it. The only problem was, that I wasn’t that good at it. I enjoyed maths and further maths much more than biology (I can partly blame the terrible A-level biology syllabus), and physics was extremely easy and interesting as well. I was also a big computer geek, and nearly everyone, even now, think I would be an amazing computer scientist or an astrophysicist. Out of my 6 A-levels, the only B i got was in biology. And that is the field of science I love the most.
The reason I’m saying this is because of my most recent module, integrative systems biology. It involves a lot of maths and programming – and although I was good at maths, that was over 3 years ago. Now I can’t even remember what the sine rule is. The module is hard, it’s different, it’s new, it’s original – and that’s exactly why I love it. After doing any subject for a while, you do become tired of it in a way. Something different provides a nice alternative and a cool way to have a little break from the usual stuff. Thinking more of it, the module I enjoyed the most last year, was my humanities module – communicating science. If I had an opportunity to do a module on, let’s say, literature, I’d instantly agree to do it. I might be a bit original with my opinions, but I’d rather have a broad spectrum of interests and know many different fields than be a specialist in one tiny element of one little area of science.
All those thoughts are probably inspired by the postgraduate applications I have to prepare very soon. Even though I might be fed up with biomedical science every once in a while, my life goals never change and I will pursue them as well as I can.
