March Thoughts

These past few weeks in the Pharmacology program have been exceptionally demanding, from not one, but two, Neuropharmacology presentations and the three exams for the Psychology module. For me personally, Neuropharmacology has been the most difficult course this semester. The papers we read are difficult to understand and require an immense amount of dedication. Finding a paper for each of our presentations was an obstacle on its own, my group members and I spent several hours looking for papers that met the requirements and we were passionate about. For our first presentation on strokes, I felt very intimidated because I did not have the same previous knowledge on the topic as my other teammates, I am not very passionate about strokes, and I managed to pick the most challenging portion, the results and methods. This caused my presenting abilities to suffer, I was nervous, stuttering, and not at all myself. I ended up freezing while I was presenting and was truly not sure if I was going to be able to finish the presentation. But I am so grateful that my teammate and friend, Sammy, stepped in and finished presenting the slide I froze on. After that I was able to finish off my portion. I knew I did not perform to the best of my abilities and was very embarrassed. However, I truly wanted to prove that I can give an impactful presentation and decided to do the same portion for our next presentation on psilocybin. I felt more comfortable with the material and supported not only by my peers, Amélie and Sammy, but by Dr. Mostany as well. I spoke confidently and was able to act more like myself during the presentation. It may not have been exactly how I wanted it to go, but I am happy to show that I improved. What I have learned from this experience is to focus on progress over perfection, as long as I am trying and learning, that is all that matters. 

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