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Near wins are when you are close to achieving something but are not quite there yet, many people would take this negatively but there are many ways to see it in a positive light. Getting a near win presents you with the opportunity to learn from the experience and be better next time, it also motivates you to try harder and do better when you try again. Another thing we talked about was mastery, this is when someone perfects their craft whether they are an athlete, doctor, or plumber. Being a master of something means you can do something perfectly multiple times and be comfortable while doing it, you are one of the best in the field and are able to perfect your craft when dealing with anything related to your job. Maybe its perfecting a surgery for doctors, or hitting the bullseye for archers, these are the things that make someone a master at something when done again and again.

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On the 25th of February there was a Kuwaiti National Day celebration in UBIC, before we left for our winter break we were all asked to help out with bringing in decorations, snacks, and drinks for the event. Everyone brought back something different that perfectly represents the Kuwaiti experience, and it was a success. I brought in many decorations to be put around and four packs of chocolate milk that every Kuwaiti student is obsessed with, and it was gone instantly. We spent most of the day celebrating at UBIC and played some Kuwaiti music on a speaker, some of us were also interviewed about why celebrating the National Day at UBIC was so important to us. I answered this question by mentioning how it made me feel closer to home, and that it is nice to have a community to celebrate with when my family is all back home. The celebration was a success and we all had an amazing time.

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Being happy is a very important thing in life, because if someone is not happy life would be miserable and it would be incredibly hard to get through. Being successful is also important in life since it gives you a purpose in life and allows you to build something up for yourself and be proud of it. I believe happiness and success do relate to each other and that you need one to have the other, in order to be happy I believe you need to be successful in life and have something that you are proud of in order to actually be happy in life, that may not be the main factor to happiness but it definitely affects it. I also believe that you need to be happy to be successful, I do not think someone can claim they are successful in life, no matter what they have built, if they have no happiness and are miserable in life. So happiness and success are both very important in life and I believe you do need one of them to have the other.

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In class we discussed what skills a leader should possess, and only a person who has these skills could be a good leader. One skill we mentioned was communication, a leader should be able to communicate with everyone in the team, and this includes both speaking to everyone and also listening to them. Another skill is the ability to collaborate with people, someone who just works alone and does not think about the people they are responsible for is not a good leader, a good leader would collaborate with everyone and take in ideas from multiple people to be able to create something that everyone is proud of. We mentioned how they should be responsible in their actions and be a good example for the people they are leading. One last thing we mentioned was the ability to make sound decisions, making decisions is a skill that a leader has to have since the responsibility of the final decision is on them, and they are responsible for listening to everyone before they decide on something but to also make a responsible choice that is best for everyone. To answer the question are we all leaders, honestly I am not really sure. I believe if someone tried hard enough they could be a good leader, but some people are just not willing to learn and be better. So I think it entirely depends on if the person is willing to put in the work to be a good leader and to lead by example.

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Communication skills are very important whether it's in a professional setting or a more casual one. Having good communication skills is not about how much someone can talk, it is about how much someone can actively listen and provide a proper response when engaging in a conversation. The main things that help maintain proper communication skills are maintaining good eye contact with the person you are talking to and ignoring all other distractions, this allows the person to feel like you are giving them all your attention and that you are actually listening to them. Having a proper tone when talking to someone is also very important, if you are talking with a tone that is too quiet they might think you are not comfortable with having a conversation, and if you are talking with a tone that is very loud they might get defensive and think that it is rude. Personally, I am studying to be a doctor so communication skills are extremely important since part of the job requires me to be interacting with different people daily, so practicing to have good communication skills would be very beneficial for my career.

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Last week on Friday we medicine students went to another campus located in the center of Brighton, and we all went to a theatre to practice for our MMI. When arriving we saw that our pharmacy student colleagues were going to be the ones interviewing us, this was a nice surprise because I felt more comfortable doing the practice MMI with familiar faces. It was a fun experience overall, there were two practice interviews that I really enjoyed and they involved acting, one of them involved me going up to someone who looks sad and I had to talk to them about it, this was a nice practice interview as it allowed me to practice my empathy skills and my classmate was a very good actor too so she was very convincing. The second one was a restaurant setting and I had to fill in for a manager, I had to deal with two of my colleagues one was new and the other was lazy, this allowed me to practice my teamwork skills and also my patience since Mary-Anne was a really good actor and really tested the patience of everyone who went to that station, it was a very entertaining station overall and everyone broke character many times so it was really fun to do. The whole experience with the practice MMI was a positive one and I feel a lot better going into the actual interview after getting a taste of what is to come.

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Today we were asked to reflect on how things have been going so far in UBIC, and we were asked to discuss it in a group. Firstly, three things that have gone well since coming to UBIC for myself are that I found a nice and comfortable apartment that allows me to enjoy my time in Brighton, I have developed better studying skills since I came to UBIC, and I have developed better planning skills throughout these last couple of months. Then, two things I could improve are to practice more math questions to be better prepared, and I should work to improve my punctuality and attendance. Lastly, one thing to celebrate is that we are approaching the beginning of the winter break, and this means that I can go back home and see all of my family again.

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Today we discussed all the stressful things everyone has going on in life, and we all shared different ways to cope. One specific way to cope that we learned about is meditation, we practiced meditating during the class using an app called calm. While meditating in class I felt more calm, focusing on my breathing was very helpful as it allowed me to live in the moment and forget about everything else going on for a little while. Another app we learned about is called Finch, it was recommended by another student and it is basically an app that gives you the oppurtunity to raise a bird, and the way to raise the bird is to take care of yourself. I never thought about meditating to cope with my stress, but after the experience we had today in class I realized that it is actually very helpful as it allowed me to feel calm and less stressed.

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During class today we started to learn about empathy and respect, we read a poem called "Choose Respect". This poem spoke about how respect is something that is important, and how we can all choose to have it. There is a line that spoke to me the most in the poem and it is "Respect can prevent someone from feeling rejected", this line stood out to me because I strongly agree with it. I believe that if everyone can be respectful with each other this would lead to a healthier society, it would make everyone feel more comfortable and happy, and it would allow people to coexist. Another line that stood out to me is "Don't allow them to feel powerful", this line is important because through my own experiences I learned when facing a bully it is important to just ignore them and pretend like they do not exist, after ignoring my bullies everything they were doing eventually stopped. Being respectful is not difficult at all and everyone should start to be more respectful so we can have a happier and healthier society.

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Trying to stay positive can be very difficult at times, especially when you have a lot of stuff going on in life. I usually try my best to turn situations into positive ones, a big example I can think of is when I did not pass my previous foundation program last year, at first I was feeling very down and annoyed with the situation but then I decided to move on and try to see it in a positive light, I saw it as a experience that I could learn from and I looked at ways I could better myself from that experience. Another example of trying to stay positive is when you loose contact with a friend after getting older, this can be a sad situation but trying to see it in a positive way can make you feel better, loosing contact with someone could be positive because it is a sign that the two of you are figuring out who you want to be in this world, and finding yourself might unfortunately lead to loosing some people too.

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Equity vs Equality, and Unconscious Bias

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Equity vs Equality, and Unconscious Bias

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In class today we learned about Equality and Equity and the difference between them, equality is about treating people the same and being fair, while Equity is about treating people according to their needs. We also learned about the term Unconscious Bias, this is when someone would unconsciously treat someone differently based on their cultural and social background, many people including myself can relate to unconscious bias in a way, I grew up in a very religious country where our cultural norms and values are all based on our religion, this could lead to me being biased against some people even though I don't mean to be, since coming to the UK I learned more about the equality act, I also believe that everyone should treat others with kindness, equity, and not discriminate against them no matter their beliefs, sexual identity, or gender. This is something I always make sure to be aware of when I am getting to know people as I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, and I try to always treat people the same way I want to be treated, no matter what makes us different.

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We had a full week of Life and Career Skills, also known as LACSA, in this week I was able to tell a story that happened to me and what lesson I learned from it, it was nice to change our routine going to LACSA lectures and having no core lectures, I liked getting to know people in my class by reading all their stories and getting to share my own story, there was a nice mix of non-fiction and fictional stories which allowed everyone to show their storytelling skills, and what I liked about this class was it allowed us to channel our creativity and tell a story with no limit set upon us. I also had to attend two revision classes for Biology, these classes were very helpful and we got a recap of everything that happened during our Biology classes since the beginning of the year, and we also received a lot of worksheets that will be very helpful when it is time to revise during exam season.

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Today we were introduced to the student success area on the VLE, and we were told to take a self assessment quiz. When I took the quiz I realized that I have many skills that are necessary for a university student like presentation skills, communication skills, and the ability to navigate the internet safely. I also realized that I also needed to work on some of my skills, like completing more of the activities on the VLE, and getting some hands on work experience which would help with my career choice. When I finished the quiz I was told I was a level 2, this means that I am at a university student level. After finishing the quiz I started to look at some of the professional networks that are present in the VLE, the ones that interested me were Psychology, Film, and Health Science.

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Academic integrity can also be known as academic honesty, and being dishonest will lead to something known as academic misconduct. Arguably the most common type of academic misconduct is copying someones work, this is known as plagiarism. Some ways that I make sure to maintain my academic integrity is to always cite my sources while writing any type of paper, citing sources leads to the teacher seeing that this is not my data and I am using another persons research. Academic integrity is extremely important because it maintains a trustworthy relationship between a student and their teacher, being honest would lead to a mutual respect and even though the work will not be of a high standard, the teacher will be able to see how the student is progressing through their course.

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Time management is arguably the most important trait as a student, and there are many examples of have someone could manage their time. One example I use is to form a schedule for yourself, this can be extremely helpful especially during exam season, having an organized schedule would help you visualize the amount of work you must complete and it would help avoiding the stress of studying everything at the same time. Another example of time management is to set specific times for yourself everyday for what you must complete, whether it is for focusing on your studies or your health, this would help with the agonizing stress of having a lot to complete.

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My first week in Brighton was filled with apartment hunting and preparing for the long journey I am about to take. When I first arrived I settled into a temporary apartment for a couple of days before moving to my permanent residence, I had to move all of my possessions several times which was very overwhelming but exciting since I was starting a new chapter in my life. In my arrival week I also made sure to register at UBIC and I got to know some of the staff, I was nervous at first but after visiting the campus and meeting some of the staff I felt more comfortable about being away from home. The last few days of my week just consisted of me setting up my apartment, and getting to know the city of Brighton.

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There are several traits to being a successful student, I believe that having good time management skills is the most important thing about becoming a successful student, being able to properly plan all the assignments you have to do and all the assessments to study for is essential in the life of a student, without a proper plan everything will start to get overwhelming and hard to manage. Another trait I believe is important is being passionate about the course you are taking, I am studying medicine and I think without the passion of wanting to be a doctor anyone would not be able to get through this course, it is passion that drives someone to try their hardest to achieve their goals.