Looking Back at the 4 Years in NUS

hello people! i'm a free bird now because i've just finished my LAST paper as an undergraduate yesterday afternoon! though the paper was a joke, not because it was tough but because more than half of the things tested were not taught, i made it through! *CHEERS AND APPLAUSE!!!!* hopefully everyone is as screwed so i can pass that module and graduate!

how time flies. 4 years ago, today seemed like it would take very long to reach me. and now, i'm getting out of the education system in which i've spent my past two decades in. no doubt there's a part of me that will miss what happened these four years, i'm really just glad that it's all over!

i remember at the age of 19 (wow so young) when i got my results for the A Levels, i had no idea what i wanted to do with my life so as to choose a relevant course. all i knew was that my interest lies in biology, and there were not many courses in the university involving biology for you to choose from. also, i didn't want to put what i'll be learning to waste when i enter the workforce in future. and these led to my decision to pursue a course in healthcare. it's the best of both worlds! i get to do biology and apply my knowledge to help patients, which is kind of giving back to society at the same time. how meaningful! though pharmacy wasn't my first choice, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise. these 8 semesters really felt like 8 years. and i think i've aged faster than i should have while in this course.

PHARMACY YEAR 1
like all other beginnings in a new level of education, we started the journey with orientation. perhaps the time we had the most fun and made the most friends. so this is my orientation group! all looking so young and fresh.

and how can we forget my sp! who turned out to be from the same junior college and secondary school as me. look, we were even wearing the same shirt! oh, he bought me melon milk too because i had sore throat :)

and i did my part as a floater in pharmacy rag as well! this was when i realised pharmacists are perfectionists. everything must be perfect even though we're non-competing. omg look at those legs, i was so much thinner last time :(

and during orientation, this guy actually caught my attention. *ARHEM!* so cheeky and full of nonsense. best of all, he can't crack an egg!

when we first got our lab coats! like some big deal because not everyone gets to wear this.

and then we grew closer as a clique and organised an outing to pulau ubin. i can't cycle so i walked. thanks jielin for accompanying me! :)

the people in the healthcare sector knows how to party as well. this was a combined session at zouk with medicine, nursing and duke. pardon my screwed up octopus hair.

and uniform day was kind of a big thing then.

had a short trip to malaysia after semester one. that was when i realised after every semester i'm just so drained that i needed a getaway.

and see, so cheeky!

haha and how can i forget this picture. keychains for the clique!

zichar at prince george's park.

and then don had to leave us because he was going to australia to study instead.

and yes, remember that cheeky guy?

yeah we got together. HAHA!

PHARMACY YEAR 2

and now we're seniors! decided to be involved in orientation again to make more friends, with my batch as well as the incoming batch. these were from the dry run!

drawing our orientation group flag. and yeap, same group as the boy! :)

and these were from the actual orientation!

hahaha oops!

and i got my karma for doing that to her.

bonding with the orientation group over birthday celebration. and oh, the boy and i broke up. but we remained very good friends :)

let's not remember the bad memories shall we? so i buried myself in work for a while, and this was my first poster presentation in NUS.

and i joined xperience pharmacy camp to know more people again haha. this camp is actually for junior college students who are interested in joining the pharmily (pardon it being cliche haha!). there'll be talks and hands-on sessions for them to prepare capsules, suppositories, solutions, elixirs, whatnot, so that they will have a better understanding of what this course is about. sorry if it sounds like i'm advertising for the course lol. 

the not-so-good turnout at the next outing haha. but oh well, we had fun. and through this camp, i got to know anthony, my fellow ogl, whom i realised lives in the same block as me! we used to play at the playground during our childhood days haha. he changed quite a bit i couldn't recognise him.

and i did my community pharmacy preceptorship programme at Mount Elizabeth's guardian. learnt more new stuff and made more friends. really love the bunch who were also at the same branch. the place became a lot noisier because of the six of us. i'm really glad to be able to meet such friendly and passionate preceptors as well! and how can i forget the cute pre-registration pharmacists who are already licensed pharmacists now. there was really so much laughter every day, reporting to work was less of a chore.

and this poor guy got bullied by us haha. sorry ray! but i know he still likes us! forever asking us questions about oral contraceptives *shakes head*.

PHARMACY YEAR 3

this was my second time joining brown bagging, which is actually reviewing the medications of the elderly. wish i could have helped out more then but my knowledge was very very limited at that point of time. 

and you would have thought that by year 3 there would be no more camps. but no, i got myself into another freshmen orientation camp. HAHA! got the chance to work with anthony again. notice the thin legs are gone now? BOOHOOOO!!! :( :(

thanks for always doing all the work! :P

and i can't stress enough how lucky i was to be able to get into the summer exchange programme to University of Toronto. It was kind of a 1 in 10 chances of getting in. my happiest times of university ever! really happy to made even more friends, this time from outside of pharmacy, but still within the science faculty. after all, it's a science faculty programme.

NIAGARA FALLS!

TORONTO ISLAND!

TORONTO ZOO!

CASA LOMA!

UofT!

and that basically sums up my third year, before the start of the horrors of year four.

PHARMACY YEAR 4
the final year! and we had to choose our final year projects. if you guys follow me on instagram or facebook, you'd have known which project i got. for the first semester, it was all about going to the polyclinic to survey patients. even during the holidays! :( but being efficient :P, i managed to hit my quota before the deadline. so i gave myself a well-deserved getaway - double date at bintan! yes you didn't read wrongly. because Q and i got together again. yes again. remember the cheeky boy from year 1?

changed a lot didn't he? nicer spectacles right? i'm really grateful for the second chance we got.

and the rest of the pictures sum up the second semester of the final year.

when we have too much manpower in lab, we camwhore!

colourful pellets we made and played with in lab.

FYP report submission! slogged over a month to churn out this report which i realised my work was quite bad when preparing for oral defense. anyway, spent many 6-hour breaks and late nights on this baby. hopefully the efforts pay off!!

relieved and drained faces on the morning of submission.

and then comes poster presentation! with my pretty and super efficient supervisor who has been ultra good to me throughout the FYP journey. vetting our assignments till past midnight and constantly showering us with encouragements. i'm really lucky to be under her guidance :D she made FYP so much more bearable.

 with the lab mates during poster presentation.

and some of the future colleagues!

another person whom i must thank! my academic mentor! while the majority either do not even know who their academic mentors were or who were neglected by theirs, mine took the effort to organise annual meet-ups! and he would always buy snacks for us during every meet-up session. this is also one place where i got to know more of my classmates as well.

the only 6-hour break of the semester that we were free. so we went to queue for free cone day!

and the next day we queued for starbucks one-for-one. fat die us. no wonder i got fatter. there was also free photography, so the kiasu us took two!

on our last day of school, meaning last day of lessons, we ended our journey the way we started it. being all grown up over the last four years, our lab coats have all shrunk to be white coats!

on the last official day of school, we went to have our graduation gown fitted. it's getting so real. graduation i mean.

and our batch ended the last day of school with a graduation walk. little miss pharmacists and mr pharmacist flooded the university town that evening.

the really flexible people at the back haha!

the goodie bag reminded us of our primary school days. this kind of bags were the "in" thing then okay!

couldn't ask for better lab buddies! enjoyed these four years of lab with them, always bringing so much laughter every lab session and during meetings for lab reports.

the MUGGERIDIANS!!

presenting to you, the class of 2013! :) i'm not going to miss the competitiveness and the steep bell curve! i think i'm going to face it every day during work if i'm still in the same industry anyway.

ORD LO!

special thanks to this lady who stuck with me throughout the four years. none other than one of the girlfriends, jielin!! <3 we did it!! and KOREA, HERE WE COMEEEE!!!