Fatima | The Girl Behind the Microscope @efff_eff

11/11 So I keep coming back to this question: how do we take MLS to the top and fully activate its potential? Not just talk about growing, diversifying and becoming more visible, but actually do it. What role do YOU think MLS professionals and students should play in that? 🧪

10/11 This is actually something I touched on in my very first write-up on here: professional suffocation. And the more I learn about this profession, the more I realize it isn't enough to just complain about where MLS is today. We also need to ask where we want it to go.

1/11 🧵 So it all started with me asking my mum why people still study Microbiology, and whether she knew Medical Microbiology is just one specialty under Medical Laboratory Science. She said, "That's my friend's specialty." I said, "No, her specialty is Haematology."

@Abusarki300 Thanks! Already wrote it, but I appreciate it ✨

🎓 THE PROFESSIONAL EXAM FILES | EPISODE 1 The Two Days That Determined Four Years of My Life 🧵 Four years. Hundreds of lectures. Countless practicals. And it all came down to two days. This was my Medical Laboratory Science professional exam.

I’m anti-boarding school like maddd! If you check my page, you’ll see that I’m very vocal about my stance. DO NOT send your children to boarding school! The downside is wayyy more than the upside. All those talks about “boarding school shaped me,” yada yada, is just copium. Anyone who attended one, especially from JSS1–SS3, needs to see a therapist. * I eat too fast. I literally have to tell myself to calm down, that nobody is counting for me anymore. * I do not know how to miss people. Not friends. Not family. Not people I care about. It is not as though I don’t love them; I have just lost the ability to miss people. Out of sight = out of mind. * Do you know that a decade later, I still dream about boarding school every other week? I’m sure a lot of people who attended one can relate as well. * In boarding school, you are bullied so much that, at some point, it starts feeling like your new normal. And the reason that pattern is never broken is because the SS1 students you bullied in SS3 are desperately waiting for their own turn when they get to SS3, so they can finally do the same thing to the new set of SS1 students. A vicious cycle. I’m not here to invalidate anyone’s experience. Some of you may argue that the best six years of your life were the ones you spent in boarding school. Those of you who share this sentiment are the minority. No child should spend the formative years of their life in a boarding school. If I co-exist with someone who attended one for just one hour, I can already tell because of the similar habits, often bad ones, that we share. You end up always on edge. It is bad. Imagine waking up every day of your life as a teenager by 5:30am, knowing fully well that no matter how well-behaved you are, there is always some punishment or strokes of the cane, belt, hanger, chain, cutlass, or slaps lurking around for you. You are either sitting on your head, hanging on the wall, frog-jumping, rolling in the mud, crawling long distances on gravel, giving up your meals and provisions to your seniors, as a TEENAGER. Imagine someone giving you N100 to go to the tuck shop, buy something worth N500, and still be asked to return N200 change? Imagine having to hide to eat your own provisions, hiding your cutlery, belt, sandals, perfumes, e.t.c., simply because someone can just tell you to hand them over and there’s nothing you can do about it? Yeah, that is how bad it is. I’ll continue preaching this for those who care to listen: do not send your children to boarding school. I went to one; now they don’t have to go through the same thing. Are there upsides? Of course. But when the downside of something outweighs the upside, it is no longer healthy. If you don’t want to raise children who will end up as adults with teenage trauma, do not send them to boarding schools. I hope you take this seriously.

@Abusarki300 Cortisol…

Shoutout to my HOD, who believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself. That pushed me more than I expected. If you're an MLS student and practicals scare you, you're not alone. It gets better, one exam at a time. 💪🏽 What's your practical horror story? 👀👇🏽

But it wasn't like I sat down and practiced a hundred times until it suddenly got easier. It was more that with every exam and every practical I went through, I came out a little less shaky than the last one. Gradually, not all at once.

🎓 THE PROFESSIONAL EXAM FILES | EPISODE 3 How I Overcame the Fear of Practicals 🧪 300 level, bench work felt manageable. I had time to breathe, time to think through each step.

Those are a few lessons I learnt from my professional exams. What about you? If you’ve already written yours, what’s one thing you wish someone had told you? If you’re preparing, what’s your biggest worry right now? 🧪 Fatima 🧪 | The Girl Behind the Microscope

If I could tell my pre-professional exam self just one thing, it would be this: You’re more prepared than you think. Tie your horse and leave the rest to God. Put in your very best, then trust that your effort won’t go unrewarded. 🤍

🎓 THE PROFESSIONAL EXAM FILES | EPISODE 2 Things I Wish I’d Known Before My Professional Exams 🧵