A student summer

If you've been reading my blog posts over the summer so far, you’ll have noticed that I've tried to squeeze a lot into my holidays. I've been on holiday to Bruges, visited the Beaulieu National Motor Museum, had lunch on a cruise ship, been to Silverstone to watch the F1 and attended both my girlfriend’s and my sister’s graduation. However, as July turns into August, the time to do something a little more serious and useful has arrived.

This week I started a work experience placement at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. I am working within the radiation protection department, which is part of the hospital’s medical physics facilities. This is exactly the sort of medical physics department I wish to go into after my master’s degree finishes next year and so far it has been an enlightening experience and one that is making me even more motivated to achieve my dream job.

The grand façade of the hospital

The general route to get into a career in medical physics is to apply to be part of a training scheme that takes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) graduates and adapts their skill sets towards medically-inclined roles. These are hospital-run courses that last three years and involve working whilst you are also studying, so that you get the advantages of both worlds!

Going from student summer lounge-about mode into the role of a normal nine-to-five worker has come as a bit of a shock to the system. My alarm goes off before seven o’clock every morning and I am at the train station by eight. Now that I’m four days into my work experience I have become accustomed to these ‘strange’ hours and I am beginning to enjoy the ‘getting up for work’ routine – it’s a shame I’m not being paid for it though!

However, since my last blog it hasn’t been all work.

Despite the lovely, hot weather we have been enjoying, my girlfriend and I decided to indulge ourselves in a spot of nostalgic cake making and decorating last week. After finding a recipe online, we raided the supermarket for supplies and set to work making a chocolaty mess, which, rather surprisingly, actually resulted in some pretty good looking chocolate cupcakes! We then set to work decorating them, trying to create the best masterpieces we could. Our creations included a portrait of each of us, some weird and wonderful animals (including a unicorn, a dragon and a questionable tiger) and yes, an F1 car.

 Our weird and wonderful cupcake creations

At the weekend my parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary and took me and my sister, along with our respective partners, out for a family meal. It was a great night, filled with lots of laughter and it was also lovely to see my sister, who I haven’t seen since her graduation in July.

 Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad!

This balance between work and fun activities is a common juggling act that students deal with in the summer. If you fill your summer with too much work it doesn't feel like a holiday, but if you don’t utilise the time for something, it can feel like a wasted opportunity. I personally feel that as long as you try to get some balance, in whatever ratio, your holidays will be both fulfilling and enjoyable.

James