Fellow students: Don't give up

Many of you students will have been enjoying a deserved, relaxing summer break after the gruelling academic year you've had. Come early October, it'll be the same old story again: lectures, labs, coursework, revision, exams...

I feel pharmacy students aren't given enough credit these days, considering the amount there is to do during an academic year. As well as the aforementioned, fourth years will be applying for pre registration places (or summer placements for the other years), attending interviews and completing their fourth year projects...and that is besides things that extra keen people like me take on as extra curricular stuff, such as peer mentoring, article writing, charity and voluntary work and sports activities. Oh, and those very special people who blog for Tomorrow's Pharmacist [Yes, big thumbs up to our bloggers! — editor].

This is my message to fellow pharmacy students and pre registration trainees: don't give up when the going gets tough. Sometimes, you feel like that's all you want to do, but sticking to your guns will reward you in the end. I nearly gave up, when it came to finding pharmacy-related work, but in the end I prevailed: yes, I did find a community pharmacy that allowed me to work part time and unpaid, but to be honest the not getting paid part was unimportant considering the amount I learned and the great time I had while I was there. Today was my last day at said pharmacy, ahead of starting back at University as a third year on Wednesday, and I have come away with lifelong friends, contacts and confidence going into third year.

Remember, you are not alone in your situation.