Pursuing an undergrad is a very unique experience that can vary for everyone. Beginning that journey feels like there is a very long road ahead, filled with a number of challenges and achievements. As exciting as it is when ending that journey, it can be a really confusing and overwhelming time.
After 4 long years, I graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.Sc. in General Science with a Biology Minor! It feels like it was only yesterday that I was jumping up and down in my living room reading my acceptance email from UWaterloo.
As I reflect on the past 4 years of my life, I’ve started to recognize the amount of mistakes I made that caused both my mental and physical health to go down the drain. In spite of all the negatives, I’ve also recognized the amount of high points I had occurred throughout the years.
It’s pretty annoying how the brain lingers on the negative events that have happened in your life. After failing so many courses and being forced to switch programs (from Honours Biochem. to Honours Science to General Science :c) I wasn’t even sure I would make it to the end. Two more failed courses… then I would have been forced to take a year off school and be placed on academic probation. During my second and third year I was constantly stressed, anxious, frustrated, scared… it was tough. I felt so alone, lost and confused as to who I was and what I was doing. What was I doing in science? Why was I there? What did I want to specialize in? Did I really want to study science?
Thankfully I have friends and family who are so supportive and reassured me that I would graduate, and that I would be okay. I found other outlets to let my feelings of frustration and fear out through means of my personal blog and I learned how to think more positively and to clear my mind from most negative thoughts. More importantly, I figured out what it was that had me stay in science – curiosity. I loved learning new things, especially in the biotech and bioinformatic fields of science. I fell in love with the two subjects in the last two years of my study and wanted to continue to learn more, so I worked harder to graduate whilst making sure my mental health was steady.
Here I am now, a #UWaterlooAlumni. Not sure what to do because I don’t feel confident enough to be able to be a lab technician, and I don’t have the grades to pursue a Masters or go to a med. school. I want to do a medical lab technician program to be able to be a mlt, but I also want to pursue a biotech. diploma and gain the skills required to work with researchers and be a lab technician that way. It’s a struggle. I know what I want to do as a career, it’s just a matter of which pathway I want to take.
It’s onto the next part of my life… not sure where it’s going to take me. All I know that I think I know what I want to do career wise. I know I’ll be in debt, but that’s something that I can easily handle. I know that I’ll be okay.
Noemi’s Corner 