Sofiia Furman Biology Blog

As I was rewriting my introduction for the eighteenth time, I couldn't stop thinking  ''My skills in writing biological papers are severely lacking, I'm so bad at this'' and that can definitely be seen by comparing any article or paper I read to mine. However, with the thought circling round again and again, I decided to try reframing it. I keep telling myself with every word I write, we all start somewhere. Sometimes I forget the finished product I am reading in a highly acclaimed journal is probably the result of years of experience, failures, successes, tries, drafts and blank documents. I suppose we all sometimes fall into the trap of 'I'm bad at this' and 'I can't do this' or 'I'm not good at this'. But I've also found that the trap can be broken if we try. It may be slow, but for me, I like using the word 'yet'. 'I can't do this.... yet' but I will be able to one day 'I'm not good at this....

  Leaps of interest and deep dives into niches are both one of the best ways to research and one of the worst to produce any useful output. When upskilling my biology before university, I knew my love for 'research' exploration was not mirrored in my ability to document or share that research (usually in the form of a paper). Whether it was a theoretical 'I should bring pen to paper' thought whilst tunnelling through books, or even a document with a near finished draft that I left abandoned, my beginning to end process typically ended before any output. Now I justified this with 'who needs to hear my thoughts?' or 'I'm not qualified enough to bring my take or even converge the opinions that others have stated', but really it was my way of not facing the fears- academic and emotional- of attempting to create some sort of public output. I am determined to start early and young, in part because the best way to learn is to do in cases such as this, but a...

 Step in the right direction For as long as I can remember, I used to enjoy maths.  Also for as long as I can remember, I used to think ''golly-I'm bad at maths'' Perhaps the paradox was because of the 'maths' I referred to. I loved the process of reasoning, of logic, of following patterns and applying rules.  I loved mathematical puzzles and thought experiments, and digging into highly abstract mathematical concepts. And yet I was bad at maths. Well, by typical people standards maybe I was okay at maths, but in my mind (I am working on this) I thought I was horrible. By about Y5, I was doing the UKMT final, and I knew in my mind I wouldn't have been selected or won the previous rounds without some aptitude, and yet all I could think was 'I'm the imposter, the other people deserve to be here and I'm here out of pity'.  My maths ability was quite strong relatively up until Y9, and that's when I started really being knocked by my anxiet...

 Welcome to my blog! This post is a bit of a  introduction. I am Sofiia, starting university next year to study biomedical science and in love with all things musicals, animals, biology, STEM, science, disability awareness, neurodiversity inclusion and more. --------------------------------------------------------------- Some links: email: sofiiafurman.reachout@gmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiia-furman-8a6853340/ https://x.com/SofiiaFurman_x https://www.facebook.com/people/Sofiia-Furman/pfbid0355UXq3fC5Z2oGquCQKH6gu5C9TzF6kVpUe1aiMjtpQFbqtQH1ZpJ36wFjjJQELuzl/ https://www.instagram.com/sofiiaf_insta/ https://www.threads.net/@sofiiaf_insta (insta for my puppy @sunshine.superdog) --------------------------------------- Introduction I'm Sofiia- a biology student who loves musicals, animals, health, STEM, biomedical science, biosecurity, disability awareness and more! Interests biology, biomedicine, biomedical science, science, stem, medicine, health, biose...