midway to work this morning, i found myself walking alongside a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears undergraduates of the fairer sex in the student suburb of broomhall. they had the look of eagerness as they chatted amongst themselves as they walked uphill towards the university precinct and it reminded me of my first day at medical school.

it was registration at the med school cafeteria, and we queued to take get our mugshots for the NUS card. the two things i vividly remember was that i wore my shitty striped C&A shirt with a torn kobain-like dark green M&S cardigan (and that was before nirvana, i must say!). the other was my first lecture on the cell and tissue biology series which, after the 60-minute period, i came out as clueless as i came in.


i was lucky as my student flat was a stone’s throw away from the medical school, so walking to 9am lectures at 8.55am was really a non-issue. due to its close distance, i tend to go back for a soggy fish-and-chip lunch at the kedai makcik with my mates. we rarely venture the extra 200 yards to the union. which is no surprising why non-medics tend to see us as a tad antisocial. i put it down to geography and nothing else.

this morning reminded me of that sense of eager anticipation mixed with anxiety, fresh-faced from sixth form, felt that october long ago – first days are great, aren’t they, and funnily enough, it’s going full circle in a fortnight’s time.