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Biochemistry or Pathology?

I decided to take a short break after a long regime or revision during the holidays. Although I did not regard my mocks as something very important but they do stress me up because they somehow reminded me of my inadequacy in handling exam questions despite the revision that I have done. It is not really my favourite topic to talk about, I mean exams, because it is a common topic for cantabridgians especially in Easter term. I shall move away from it NOW!

I remembered that I needed to register my subject for next year and Pathology was the decided course for me. I really like Pathology a lot. The reason I chose Pathology is that I am interested in studying cancer apart from immunology. Generally, I think I have this strong affinity to diseases perhaps because I wanted to be a doctor. So, I am actually quite set for it. Another option that I considered is biochemistry, a subject that I thought I would never ever do during my first year and I am doing it this year because it contains a lot of knowledge which is both exciting and important for scientific development. It encompasses many fields in biology due to the fact that molecular biology has got many roles in all those fields. Whether you are talking about cancer or pathogens, molecular biology of it is essential to understand the reason behind all that happen and medical advancements cannot progress well without in depth understanding of molecular biology. As you can see, I am promoting biochemistry now.

There comes the point: BIOCHEMISTRY! It is now telling me to choose it behind my mind. It actually happened when I really look through the course on the website before I chose to register for Pathology. I noticed there is this option on oncogenes and cancer in the biochemistry course which overlaps with the major part of cancer taught in Pathology. So, that really swayed my choice to pick biochemistry because there are so many other interesting stuff including miRNA, DNA, protein interaction which I think are potential elements which can be useful in development of new treatment and therapy for cancer and various diseases. I started to work on the options and found that I can actually do a more interesting combination if I take biochemistry. Amongst them are oncogenes, molecular immunology, and antimicrobial therapy. Do they resemble Pathology a lot? Not too sure whether they are, but they do make me excited. I am sorry Pathology, I might have to ditch you for the moment, most probably so even though I haven't decided.

There are many other interesting options in Biochemistry and another good thing about biochemistry is I can do a 4th year and not graduate first. This is a rather biased and personal preference because I quite like undergraduate life for the moment and wouldn't like to graduate that early. 3 years is just too short for me. Maybe Cambridge casted some spell on me. Well, perhaps I will still go back to Pathology, maybe I change my mind again, hopefully no, and not too late or I might do a PhD in Pathology, who knows. But...Biochemistry is hardcore, everyone knows that. Hard choice huh?

Third year options aside, I think Cambridge has casted me another spell. It is turning me into loving science more and more. I am starting to imagine myself working in the lab now. Well, many would say that it is sort of expected since I chose a science course. This is a good point but I want to say that choosing a science course might not be equivalent to being able to imagine oneself working in the lab. I hope my summer internship goes well and can further inspire me to be a scientist.

Biochemistry or Pathology? It is rather obvious isn't it?

posted by Wei Shen @ 6:31 AM