My main reasoning behind choosing Human Biology was that it is a beneficial course that will benefit me when I pursue a medicine and health career as a pharmacist. I also had a general fascination and love for science, particularly biology, and understanding how our world’s complex aspect’s function and operate.
I have always wanted to be a pharmacist from a young age, mainly because pharmacists serve as a highly quintessential aspect of our healthcare team. I think my love for biology and pharmacy started due to constantly being around my dad, who was a pharmacist, which gave me a lot of exposure to the field as I watched my dad help improve the health and wellness of patients by providing specialised advice was all the reasoning I needed to know I wanted to devote the rest of my life helping others through this spectacular field. Being a pharmacist like my father and being part of the medical field would be meaningful. This is because giving a hand to people who need it the most is a very respectful and honourable mission. I would feel a sense of honour, knowing I can positively contribute to improving patients’ health daily.
When I was sixteen, I also decided to do work experience at Priceline pharmacy to gain hands-on experience working at a pharmacy. This experience confirmed my passion for becoming a pharmacist as I highly enjoyed the community involvement this career provides and established skills such as customer service and communication, which will be beneficial in the future.
Since the beginning of my schooling journey, I had always had a love for biology whenever asked my favourite subject. Biology was always my answer. My biology passion was widely fuelled by my biology teachers in high school, who made studying biology more exciting and enjoyable through their fun and engaging lessons and experiments.
I think the aspect I love most about biology is that, unlike other subjects, it gives a form of practical learning. This is because it provides insight into how our bodies work and how vital every cell and biological process is. I think this excites me most about biology as I can learn more about myself and how to improve my health and potentially that of others around me. Human Biology is vital for me throughout pharmacy to first understand how the body operates before understanding the effects drugs have on the body.
The two graduate qualities in which I believe I need to work on developing most are my written and oral communication as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. critical thinking and problem-solving are the most vital skills for me when I hope to pursue my career in pharmacy. This is because as a pharmacist I am required to think for myself, question claims, make good judgements and make rational decisions to learn how to approach problems to maintain quality patient care.
Growing up critical thinking had always been one of my weaker points as I often found myself struggling to think and make decisions for myself as I often relied on others around me to help me when solving my issues for instance when completing group projects I was often too shy and embarrassed to speak my mind on a topic or even have the confidence to question popular thoughts and I often found myself agreeing with the majority due to my fear of judgment for having a slightly different opinion.
As a pharmacist I will constantly be communicating and exposed to new people therefore having good oral communication skills is vital in providing good customer service ensuring quality customer care. Similarly, oral communication has been a trait I tend to struggle with throughout my childhood. I constantly found it hard to be confident and talk to people outside of my friend group in particular one on one conversations with people as I often found myself getting anxious and messing up my speech.
An aspect I struggled most with was giving oral presentations throughout schooling and working in groups with people I often never talked too mainly because speaking in front of crowds or groups of random people made me anxious. A reoccurring experience that made presenting in front of crowds a living nightmare was constantly be asked by teachers to speak up as majority of my classmates were unable to hear me speak.
During parent teacher interviews throughout high school my teachers would recognise my academic ability but constantly suggest I speak up more in class and engage in class discussions. Going into my first year in university was also an anxious experience for me as none of my old high school friends are studying here which require me to step out of my comfort social bubble. However, I have attempted to improve my oral communication skills by encouraging myself to start conversations with my classmates and join clubs where I am constantly able to meet new people.
