Why I Was Away

I always seem to have a convenient explanation anytime I come back from one of my hiatuses, and this time I do again, although I had mentioned it in the past that I was going AWOL sooner.

So what had I been up to in these months I was away?

Exams.

Schools resumed out of the blue more or less, and as soon as lectures began, it was obvious that we were in for a crash course of sorts. Not that we hadn't expected it - my parents practically drummed that into my skull while I was at home, but hearing and seeing are two different things.

Finishing the Anatomy of the Abdomen in just a week was mindboggling, especially as there was a whole lot of information to assimilate and not enough time to.

It was impossible to squeeze out time for other extracurricular activities and even hangouts, talk less of sitting down and drafting articles for my dear read.cash subscribers.

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FEBRUARY 9TH was my birthday, and at least I celebrated that, even if it was a small get-together with my friends - I couldn't risk anything big, as it was not only bad for my tight pockets 😂😭 but also my academic life.

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At the end of February, the exams started, and I can only say that the whole examinations in general left a bad taste in my mouth. Out of six courses I took, I can say at least four went relatively well.

The last two were just pure hell for me.

• Medical Biochemistry. 150 multiple choice questions, complete with a lot of wicked sections that didn't fail to confuse and irk me. I remember telling @Hanzell how much I hated Organic Chemistry, and I guess having a dislike of the fundamentals of the course in the first place wasn't doing me any favours. That became evident in the hall when I had just about the worst exam I had written up to that point - a sentiment shared by most of my classmates.

I think there's a word that disapproves of this behaviour, but I can't help feeling content that I wasn't the only person who felt that way. I wouldn't like it if I was just the one experiencing a tough exam because I couldn't reconcile with a dislike of the course.

• Physiology. Essay. It was the course I dressed more than any other. Unlike the others, which had Multiple Choice questions, hence giving me the option of selecting answers according to the accuracy my memory, Physiology questions required me to write essays, discuss topics or explain processes, so I was going to be talking a lot,which meant I wasn't only reading to know, I was ready to remember and remember accurately

• The exam was going to be four questions, usually to choose your best three. One section from General Physiology (Mostly Cell-related topics here), Blood Physiology (Blood Cells, Blood formation, Blood Clotting, Resistance to Infection, Immunity and Allergy), Excitable Tissues (Basically the nervous system and how electrical currents are transmitted in the body to perform bodily functions) and then Respiratory Physiology.

• Because the area to read from was so big,we all made the grave mistake of choosing only three out of those four sections to write from - already picking out our best three, and then choosing specific topics to read and practice essays in depth. It wasn't much of an irresponsible gamble, those topics were favourites of our professors, so we all expected that they'd come out. And then even at that, we still neglected some topics.

• The end result was DISASTER. When we got to the hall, we discovered that the instructions told us to ANSWER ALL. Although that already disoriented us, it wouldn't have been all that had, except that all the topics we predicted did not come out. The professors set their questions from a section they never had before. A section we hadn't practiced. So in other words, we didn't have enough detailed knowledge committed to memory.

• My essays would have seemed very 'vanilla' to whoever's marking my scripts.

All in all, we're done. We finished on Monday actually, and what do you know? Second Semester lectures started on Wednesday immediately. We only had s break because of the Easter Celebrations here, but on Tuesday, they'll be continuing. I have enough time management skills at hand to make sure I continue writing here while I focus on my academics, and I hope I see things through.

A lot has happened here, I see 😭. I'm seeing green Club1BCH (was it?😂) stuff and so on around. What's happening?

Anyway, this is how my life has been these past two months, and I hope you all can understand the reason for my long break from this beautiful space.