2k Q&A - Ask Me Anything

what what kind of question is this oh no oh no it sounds so cheesy i can't it's too much it's too much oh my god do i even have any hobbies outside of medicine so to be honest i can't believe that i'm already filming a 2k subscribers video i didn't think that i would get to this point so soon especially because i'm really sorry i've been so inconsistent with uploading videos so far thank you so much for subscribing i genuinely really really appreciate you watching my videos i can't believe that anyone would really want to watch my videos as much as you guys have so thank you for all your comments and coming along on the journey so over on instagram you guys asked me a couple of questions so i'm going to be answering those today let's go okay so question one is how am i feeling about being a doctor in six months i'm excited but i'm also kind of nervous i'm a bit worried that i won't love the job but i'm also really excited to finally graduate med school and actually get into working as a doctor and i feel like whenever i see the doctors all working together they all seem to have great banter together and they all seem to enjoy working together as a team so i'm looking forward to actually being part of the team rather than just being a med student turning up randomly on the ward so question two who is your role model and why who is my role model i often feel like i'm not a very interesting person because i don't have like all these like specific answers that people have to these kinds of questions so actually i don't really have one specific role model i feel like generally the way i think about this is in a person that i admire there are certain characteristics or qualities about them that i really specifically admire about them and i'll almost take those parts of them as a part of a role model that i kind of build up in my head which is made up of all of these little bits of different people and i'd say that's my role model so some of the people that i would take inspiration from are for example one of the doctors who works as a dermatologist in cambridge she's just absolutely amazing and just absolutely wonderful so i often think that she just looks so elegant and she's just so so warm and so friendly and i'm like oh i wish that i could somehow be at least a tenth of what she is in those areas so she sort of adds to this idea of a role model in my head for those characteristics okay next question is how do i feel recording youtube videos to be honest i have a huge mental block to recording youtube videos at the moment i think things like vlogs are a bit easier because it doesn't feel like there's so much setup to do and i don't have to sit in front of the camera quite formally and talk to it vlogs usually i just sort of take my camera out and while i'm wandering around or doing things i'll just chat to the camera and film what i'm doing but yeah it feels quite stressful for some reason at the moment i'm still quite new at making youtube videos so i'm hoping that this will gradually get better over time as i go through the process more and also actually the last sit-down talking head youtube video i filmed was a couple of months ago because i had a bunch of exams and then i got covered and then some more exams so yeah overall it's not it's not an easy thing at the moment but i think it will get easier next question if you weren't a medic what would you be doing i actually don't really know and this is something that i've been starting to ask myself a little bit more over the last couple of months honestly for so long i've just envisaged myself becoming a doctor one day because med school is a long long process and like maybe four or five years of that i was like yeah i'll just be a doctor so genuinely i don't know in terms of things i enjoy doing outside of medicine i really enjoy what do i enjoy do i even have any hobbies outside of medicine things i find fun include learning languages so learning mandarin that's really fun because you can see your progress and it's something that i genuinely really care about i also really enjoy doing yoga but none of these things are really things that you could do as a career so i guess we'll just have to go down the medicine route for now and i am still enjoying medicine very much and i think that once i get to the job and i start f1 in august then i'll get a much better barometer on how i actually feel about medicine as a career next question is actually from my friend ruri and she's asking me what my long-term youtube goal is i don't really like to think about goals in this kind of way actually we have a podcast episode where when we talk about this i'll link it down below or somewhere over here my more soft kind of goal for youtube long term is to more just like enjoy the process of making videos getting used to making videos and learning all the skills that go along with that it's more a project that i think there are lots of things that i will learn from doing it that don't necessarily mean i need to succeed on youtube in the conventional sense of getting like millions of subscribers or loads of views or whatnot i think ultimately if i could create videos that help to encourage people to live a healthy and happy life that's genuinely what would make me really happy and i would find that quite fulfilling and exciting to be able to do but obviously i'm quite far off from that at the moment i'm just starting out but hopefully if i stay consistent we'll see see where that goes okay so next question from instagram is what is my idea of the perfect date i think for me the perfect let's say first date just to narrow it down a little bit so the perfect first date is something that we can probably get to know each other but in a slightly different scenario than just standard coffee date it's nice to get to know someone but i think if you do an activity that is different or novel in some way that is much more exciting and you can also see how both you and the other person interact with an unfamiliar scenario or something that you're learning or something you're doing together so for example maybe something a bit more active such as going for like mini golf or going for a an interesting dining experience or i don't know maybe even something like wine tasting any of these sorts of things could be a great date i think it's not what you do that matters but actually what comes out of that and what that reveals about your potential connection that's more important and that's what makes a perfect date okay next question if you could only have one meal for the rest of your life what would it be oh my god i actually don't know see this is the thing when people ask me what my favorite food is i actually don't really have an answer does this make me a really boring person i don't know if i could only eat one meal for the rest of my life i think that it would be a nice stir-fry a cantonese style stir-fry with meat and with veggies and with a kind of side of like rice or some kind of carb like that because it's really tasty there's this might be slightly cheating but you can get kind of different flavor combinations slightly or different proportions of veggies and meat it's really healthy as well and can help support my health and fitness goals so that's what i would eat but this is such a boring answer i hate this answer next question is what would you want written on your gravestone so i think that thinking ahead to what you would want on your gravestone is a really long way away hopefully for me so i'm not really sure and i feel like i'm still in a phase of my life where i'm discovering who i am and who i want to be i am still a student i'm in my finally of medicine i'm still kind of figuring out what i want to do with my life and what really brings me fulfillment okay next question what are your top tips for first year medical students so firstly i don't know what university you're at and i feel like there are slight differences between universities but generally i feel like first year is a really important time to learn how you like to learn at university because there's a big difference between studying at school where you're given a very set syllabus and you're taught everything actively versus university at least in my experience at cambridge where there isn't really a set syllabus there are certain things they cover in the lectures but you also need to learn how to motivate yourself and find your own pace with studying and that's something i've really struggled with personally for the first year or two while i was studying so i'd say just really getting into a routine of being able to make the most out of your lectures and the things that you're learning whether that includes pre-reading or post reading or making notes or using anki flash cards figure out what works for you try a lot of different styles of learning and good luck and enjoy the process okay next question skin care routine please i guess this is asking about what my skincare routine is i actually really like skincare and my skincare routine has changed a lot over the years as i went through a phase of using loads of different products and now i've actually stripped back to a more minimalist skincare routine with all the essentials so in the morning i always a plot [Laughter] so in the morning i always apply an spf and i usually go for a high spf spf 50 usually which over here and i like to use this altruist face fluid because it's both a high spf but also it has uva 5 star protection it's not going to focus is it ah there we go and this is really important because spf actually only refers to the uvb protection whereas uva rays are actually responsible for majority of collagen loss and signs of aging such as age spots whereas uvb is more responsible for causing skin cancer so that's why when you're in the market for an spf you should always check the spf rating but also check the uva rating as well if possible and make sure that it's a high uva protection as well so often in the morning i only use spf sometimes if my face is feeling quite dry then i'll also add in a bit of this moisturizer which is the serra of apm moisturizer this one's really great contains some niacinamide as well which is fantastic and then in the evening i go for a double cleanse using the glycogen oil cleansing um what do they even call it they just call it oil cleansing but that doesn't make grammatical sense anyway so in the evening i use the gochujan oil cleanser which is an olive oil based cleanser and it emulsifies really nicely and i follow that up with the cerave hydrating cleanser this absolute cult favorite after doing that i pat my face dry i moisturized with the serra of apm again once again it has nice and wide lots of other skin friendly ingredients and then i follow up with my retinoid which is epiduo which contains a combination of adapting 0.1 percent and benzoyl peroxide 2.5 another reason why i love using the cerave pm and also the altruist phase fluid is because they both contain niacinamide which increases the skin barriers resistance to irritation by retinoids so that's a great synergy so that's my skincare routine that was a really long answer i might make a proper skincare video at some point as well there we go next question what's keeping you up at night currently the things that keep me up at night are mostly instagram and scrolling for no reason other than that the things that i tend to think about when i'm trying to wind down to go to sleep tend to be all the things that i need to do the next day which isn't particularly interesting so often that's youtube videos that i want to plan or things i need to revise or emails i need to reply to and all of this sort of brain clutter just buzzes around and sometimes keeps me up so i find what's really helpful to do in this situation is to actually just write it down sometimes just trying to push down all of these thoughts and just forget about them doesn't really work very well and actually writing them out on a page or somewhere that you know you can see them the next day kind of lets your brain be like okay i can relax now i can let this go i know it's on the piece of paper which i'm going to look at the next day so okay next question is what's a good book that you've read recently so i'm currently actually in the middle of reading this book but the book is called the courage to be disliked it's got quite a hot take on psychology and the way that we should view our own lives and our own stories about our lives and our lifestyle or way of life and i'm finding it pretty interesting so far and it's definitely got me to reevaluate the way that i tell my own story to myself and the narrative that i tell myself about my own life so i would recommend checking it out i haven't finished it just yet but i think it's definitely one of those books that can change your perspective on things okay so next question is what is your life story in two minutes okay we'll see if i can do it in two minutes let's go so i was born in sydney in 1996 to my two parents and i lived there in sydney until i was four years old with my family and my grandparents then when i was four my immediate family so my parents my sister and me moved to london because my parents wanted to explore europe and see what life in another country would be like i just happened to choose somewhere that was on the other side of the world so my sister and i went to school here in london and we grew up here and during high school i became quite interested in science and that was what i was what i was really passionate about and what i really enjoyed learning about and so then when i was in sixth form i decided that i wanted to apply for medicine i figured that i would apply for cambridge see how it went and then another option that was in my mind was potentially even going to apply to australia but i told myself you know what if i get into cambridge for medicine i'll stay in the uk if i don't then maybe i'll apply to australia and go back there and be back with all the relatives again as it happens i did get into cambridge as you may know and so for five years straight i was studying medicine at cambridge at emmanuel college then i actually took a gap year to focus on learning mandarin which was something that felt important to me for a really long time and so i thought okay it's now or never and i also worked a little bit with the startup and did an online yoga teacher training a couple of other bits i started a youtube channel and i finally returned for my final year of medicine which i'm in the middle of right now so that's my life story hope i made it in a two minutes next question is what is the most impactful book that i've ever read i would say that it is the life-changing magic of tidying up by marie condo just because i think before then i didn't really think about the fact that having extra stuff in your life isn't just either neutral or positive it can actually be a negative and it can actually drag you down and i feel like ever since reading that book i transformed the way that i decided on the things that i would keep in my life and the things that i would let go i think that sort of philosophy and way of approaching things can be applied to lots of different areas of life as well and i think ever since applying those principles and genuinely going through all of my stuff and asking myself does this spark joy or not was a really life-changing thing for me so it genuinely was the life-changing magic of tidying up i would highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet next question is how has youtube changed my life youtube has changed my life in i would say three main ways firstly now i am spending a lot of my time making youtube videos so i have a lot of time that's blocked out to do this whole youtube thing and i think actually on one hand that does put more pressure on my life overall because i'm busier but also on the other hand i think it's quite nice to actually create that space to do something a bit creative because prior to starting youtube i didn't really have that excuse it wasn't like oh i'm doing this project so i need to create this time for it if i just had free time i would just i didn't spend it either watching youtube or just doing something else the second thing is that i think it has taught me a lot of skills already so for example i watched a bunch of youtube videos on how to use davinci resolve which is the video editing software that i use and i've tried to figure out how to set up to film a youtube video and what's important in doing that and how to tell a story and all of these things that i have learned that i otherwise would not have learned if it weren't for youtube thirdly i think this is the most surprising one for me is all the connections that i have made and strengthened since starting a youtube channel so as you may or may not know i did the part-time youtube academy back in june sort of time and on that course i met two great friends matt and ruri who were my accountability buddies and every single week since then we have had a zoom call where we just catch up on how we're going with our youtube journeys and share all the things that we've been up to and we actually started a podcast together recently called milliseconds apart i'll link it below or somewhere around here other than that amazing friendship that was born out of me starting a youtube channel there's also lots of people who just send me emails and just want to jump on a zoom call or send me nice messages and i think that's the most surprising part of starting a youtube channel so if you're thinking about it i would definitely recommend just giving it a go because i mean what do you really have to lose you have maybe some time and effort but i think if you're up for exploring different things to do with your life and you feel like giving it a shot then go for it genuinely 100 go for it and you might want to check out the part-time youtuber academy as well next question if you had to pick one what would be your biggest dream in life this is a pretty cheesy answer but i'm just gonna lean in and go with it i think my biggest dream in life is just for all of my loved ones my friends and family and myself to be happy and healthy that's my dream in life and yes you might say that's a cop-out answer and it kind of is but i genuinely think that is the fundamental truth because i could talk about dreams in terms of success or career or things that i'm doing or legacy but ultimately it all boils down to that foundation next question who is your best friend and why sammy is my best friend because he is always with me that's why my best friends know okay seriously though i would say that my best friend is probably my sister because we have spent so much time together and really understand each other and have been there with each other and for each other through literally like almost our whole lives like her entire life and most of my life and obviously as kids with siblings you often will fight or bicker but in our teenage years we became really close and started to really be on the same side as each other and i feel like she is my best friend and she is the person who i would trust the most and go to to talk to about anything really okay next question what is a childhood lesson from your parents that has stuck with you to this day there's so many i i literally can't pick one so when i was a child we would often go out for long walks as a family in in nature or maybe even in like central london would go walking around and just seeing sights or hiking up a mountain or something like that together as a family just as a fun family day out and i was the kind of kid who is very full of energy always running around always running ahead to the point where i felt like i had a lot of burst energy and could really like go at it for a while but then i would very quickly become tired and just flop about and not want to finish the walk and just basically blob out and go home one thing that i learned from both my parents especially my dad is that if in those moments you check in with yourself and ask yourself what would make things better for me right now and from that next time what can you do differently to make sure that doesn't happen again and something that my dad always did that i always found amazing was he would always carry a bottle of water and a few slices of bread in a ziploc bag in his backpack along with a swiss army knife and some other bits so he was never caught unprepared for any of these situations so even after running halfway up a mountain and then collapsing and bursting into tears as a six-year-old kid my dad would come and pick me up and sit me down on his knee and give me some some bread just plain bread from his backpack and a little bit of water and have a chat to me and cheer me up and i would feel so much better after that and i guess there's two things there which is firstly learning from your past experiences and trying to figure out what you can do in the future to make things better for you and secondly is always trying to be prepared at least i don't know whether that's in bringing your antihistamines along with you because i have a nut allergy or bringing some bread in your backpack that kind of preparation in advance and that kind of thinking ahead was something that as a child i feel like that is the point where i learned that and i have continued to bear that in mind to this day and so in my handbag when i'm going out and about i always have a few essentials i always carry with me which includes antihistamines maybe a plaster or some micropore tape and some maybe some chewing gum and i often will carry a water bottle and an umbrella with me as well and maybe a cereal bar or like a protein bar so those sorts of things are like an essential survival pack for me which means that wherever i am and whatever happens to me at least i can have a snack a drink of water and maybe put a bandage on my finger if i cut it by accident so that's my childhood okay next question from instagram is if you didn't have to worry about money anymore what would you do i think that i would still work on projects that maybe were promoting lifestyle changes for health so like lifestyle medicine style changes for people and working on that kind of thing so i'd probably want to keep working on maybe this public health project maybe even work as a doctor i would also like to maybe travel the world maybe teach some yoga randomly and and do that kind of lifestyle i'd like to do a lot of reading maybe documenting my journey a little bit but one thing that i think is hard to answer is the fact that in order to feel fulfilled i feel like a person needs to have something to strive for some kind of meaning so i'd probably want to find that meaning in perhaps this public health project or or this is such a hard question but it's such a good question as well this is so hard so maybe maybe even some kind of education project because one thing that i do feel strongly about is that school doesn't adequately prepare young people for the real world and often school teachers kids in school things like history or geography or subjects which are really important but they're not as important as for example learning how to manage your own personal finances or learning how the political system works which i feel like is missed out quite a lot and there are lots of gaps in the education system which i think direly need to be filled so maybe one of those sorts of things if i didn't have to worry about money okay next question is do i have a mantra that i live by and yes usually each year i have a mantra that i kind of come back to over and over again and this changes maybe every every year or so so last year while i was on my gap year my mantra that i was living by was a confucius quote which is wherever you go go with all your heart and that was just to remind me to really go all in on these projects while i had this space and time on my gap year and to not hold back from really throwing myself into it because actually it's a privilege to be able to take time out of studies and pursue things that you're interested in and i wanted to make the most of that opportunity so at the moment the mantra that i am living by is nothing in nature blooms all year round and this is something that i've been thinking about a lot in this final year of medicine because i think that especially when i'm juggling a few different things such as my clinical studies and going into placement and youtube and then my health and social circles and all of these things it can feel like i'm not really living my best life all the time because i feel like i'm taking on so much but i think it's just important to remember that with all these projects and phases of life you can't always be on your a-game all the time there's going to be dips and peaks and that's all fine it's not meant to be a hundred percent all the time and that's completely okay so that's all the questions for today thank you so much for sending them in and thank you for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it if you did enjoy this video then you might like my previous q a which is over here and once again as always take care of yourself and i'll see you in the next video bye i'm just gonna brush my hair i'll be back in one second okay one sec let me just take a deep breath oh my back clicked that felt good you

Channel: Dr. Izzy Sealey

Views: 193,840

Keywords: cambridge medical student, cambridge university, q&a, first q&a, medical student, 2k subscribers, ask me anything, q & a, question and answer

Id: BA57ZpN_op8

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 07 2022