When I entered the atrium.

Source: Po Hsuan Huang - Unsplash

September 2025.

Walking into the atrium for your first lecture brings a strange mix of emotions. You tell yourself, you’re now a student paramedic, but it still doesn’t quite feel real.

I was overwhelmed with feelings; doubt, anxiety, excitement, confidence and a quiet fear of what lay ahead. I didn’t know what to expect. Standing in an atrium filled with 60-plus people, all of us aware we had essentially “fought off” many others for one of these limited places, it felt like it should mean something definitive, like instant certainty or belonging.

But instead, it was just the beginning of uncertainty.

A lot of unknown faces, some looking astute, others acting like it was not their first time in a lecture room.