One thing that amazed me when I first started City is how much there actually is to get involved with. “Societies” as we call them are constantly springing up, left, right and centre, the freshers fair at the beginning of each academic year is a fine example of this. Walking around City’s state of the art sports facilities, with about 2000 other freshers looking at the hundreds of societies available for us to get involved with, it’s not hard to believe that there really must be a society for everything! As I was told on my open day at City, there is a society for basically any interest or hobby you may have and if there isn’t, why not make your own? And it’s clear that plenty of people have! The student union at City are amazing at organising the hundreds of societies under their belt as well as arranging events that combine societies and set up a platform for societies to compete with like minded people at other neighboring universities!
Mainly due to the amazing facilities available, City’s sport societies are extensive to say the least! If any of you guys decide to come to City and get involved in “CitySport” activities, you’ll be able to choose from cycling, swimming, athletics, judo, sailing and even clay pigeon shooting. And if you prefer group sports, take your pick of our 26 competitive sports teams including American football, badminton, basketball, cheer leading, climbing, cricket, football, hockey, netball, squash, tennis, volleyball and many more! And if sports clubs aren’t for you, you can join hundreds of students using the technology advanced facilities of the CitySport gym and you get a reduced membership just for being a City student!

But if like me and maybe sport societies aren’t the ones for you there are hundreds more much “calmer” societies to be a part of.  You could get involved with the film, computer and games, media, surfing, drama, dance- there really is a society for everyone! Have your voice heard with the debating and feminism society, stuff your face with the Domino’s or Nando’s society and if like me you’re a proper medical nerd, get involved with the midwifery or optometry society regardless of your degree of study.

For anyone who is looking to hang out with others of a certain religious belief or are just interested in finding out more about all the different ways of thinking from around the world, City can offer you societies based around faiths such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and many others that you may have yet to come across!

Ask any uni student, your experience of university and its twists and turns can be make or break depending on the people you share these memories with. University friends are friends for life and societies are the ideal place to meet like-minded people who think and speak the same as you (or maybe not, and that can be just as rewarding!). Some of my own best experiences have been through getting involved with the casual once-a-week drop in volleyball sessions, going to Pride and other crazy events with the LGBT society and of course, meeting loads of really interesting speakers through the midwifery society. City is a great place for loads of reasons but whichever university you guys find yourselves in just make sure you take full advantage of all the societies they have to offer!

This month’s blog I am in unbelievably high spirits because after months of working so hard in the hospital to commence my second year, I am finally back to uni! Because of the need for thorough hands on experience in order to qualify as a midwife I spend more time working with my mentors in the different midwifery areas than I actually do in university studying. Like every other uni student, I still have to attend lectures and seminars and I still have to do coursework, essays and sit exams but unlike other degree courses, I only have to study for about 4 months in the whole academic year. Some might see this as ideal and although I love my time in placement, the major stress and exhaustion of all those 12 and a half hour shifts make coming back to City feel like a holiday!

Being in uni, my timetable is very much the same as all other uni students; I have about 3 main lectures a week for my three modules and then smaller seminar groups where we can discuss the previous lectures’ topics in more detail. At the moment, I am studying a sexual health in midwifery module, a skills module to prepare me for my upcoming OSCEs and a module on the biology of midwifery. For those of you who don’t know what an OSCE is, it’s the type of exam that strikes fear into the heart of any health student. Because so many of the skills needed to be a good midwife cant be taught in a classroom, after a year of spending time in the hospitals and developing our own way of practising, we are then assessed on these skills through a practice examination aka an OCSE. Over the course of the module, our knowledge on the basic practical skills required in midwifery (for example vaginal examinations to assess progress of labour, recognising when a woman’s condition is deteriorating etc.) is consolidated and perfected and we are then tested on 2 random “stations” testing some of these skills. Unlike City nursing students, student midwives don’t do OSCE’s until second year and so this will be the first time I will have ever done an examination like this before! The stress of this, exacerbated by a complex biology exam and a workbook to be completed, mean the next few months are going to be full of hard work. But if I can make it through months of the hustle and bustle of a London maternity unit, I know I can tackle anything.

Having a little more time to myself now I am back at uni is allowing me to get back into the things I love that I have neglected whilst I’ve been on placement. I’m beginning to get back into my yoga classes and have even considered joining the gym (this is how crazy coming back to uni makes me). I have plans to get back involved with the societies I’ve been involved with around campus- the midwifery society (what else) runs loads of events that are really interesting and very helpful for me as a midwifery student so I am keen to get more involved in these and maybe even rejoin one of the sports societies.

The next few weeks for me is going to be full of relaxing laughs with all my cohort now we are back together coupled with a lot of hard work and maybe even a gym workout? I hope this good mood lasts because it’s a great new year for me so far!