{"id":1683,"date":"2023-02-27T10:53:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T10:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/?p=1683"},"modified":"2023-02-27T10:53:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T10:53:50","slug":"devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2023\/02\/27\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Devni Peramunugamage, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1685\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/files\/2023\/02\/23-02-Imperial-People_LGBT_Twitter_Devni-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"Devni Peramunugamage\" \/><br \/>\n\u201cComing to university I was suddenly thrown into an environment where people were celebrated for being themselves. It was wonderful.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>I was always bothered when my peers would talk about how big the universe is and how small we are, and how because of this life is meaningless. Year nine career talks didn\u2019t help this existential crisis \u2013 if life was meaningless, how was I supposed to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of mine? In the end, it was a poem, by Rupi Kaur, that inspired me. It talked about how in the end, while we\u2019ll realise so many of the things we worried over were trivial and meaningless, human connection is meaningful. Between a mother and her daughter, between a couple married for five decades, between a group of lifelong best friends \u2013 I think human connection is meaningful because we feel it is meaningful. And I realised that something that made me angry was how such arbitrary things \u2013 a virus, a drunk driver, a clump of cells growing where they shouldn\u2019t be \u2013 could end these connections. I realised that if I did medicine, if my life was about trying to stop these arbitrary things, then it didn\u2019t matter how big the universe was. My life would be meaningful to me. And that would be enough.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Growing up, I was incredibly shy. I was somewhat scared of almost everything and everyone around me. Subdued, and in my shell, was where I felt safest. Realising I was queer, in an awfully homophobic environment, only reinforced this. Coming to university was a culture shock to say the least. I was suddenly thrown into an environment where people were encouraged and celebrated for being themselves. It was wonderful.<\/p>\n<p>Joining IQ (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imperialcollegeunion.org\/activities\/a-to-z\/iq-imperial-college-lgbt\">Imperial\u2019s LGBT+ Society<\/a>) was perhaps one of the best decisions I made at university. The society, and community I formed with it, played such a huge part in my process of coming out of my shell and becoming confident, and just being me &#8211; still a work in progress! I couldn\u2019t wait to be on the committee and help facilitate this for other people.<\/p>\n<p>Several people have raised questions to me over the importance of pride, LGBT+ history month, and LGBT+ societies in general \u2013 \u2018surely being queer isn\u2019t your whole personality?\u2019, \u2018if you want being queer to be accepted and normal, why make such a big deal of it?\u2019. I think those common views are missing the point. Perhaps in an ideal world where not being straight, or not being cis-gendered, was never seen as anything other than normal, LGBT+ societies would be redundant. Unfortunately, in the real world, LGBT+ people have faced an extensive history of violence and marginalisation that still persists. Many of us in societies like IQ are from countries where LGBT+ people are still criminalised and punished with imprisonment, torture, or death. These societies are about forming communities that provide support, visibility, and advocacy; they provide a platform for education and raising awareness. They are so important for so many people and I\u2019m honoured to be part of running one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cComing to university I was suddenly thrown into an environment where people were celebrated for being themselves. It was wonderful.\u201d I was always bothered when my peers would talk about how big the universe is and how small we are, and how because of this life is meaningless. Year nine career talks didn\u2019t help this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1693,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Devni Peramunugamage, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine - Imperial people<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2023\/02\/27\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Devni Peramunugamage, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine - Imperial people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cComing to university I was suddenly thrown into an environment where people were celebrated for being themselves. It was wonderful.\u201d I was always bothered when my peers would talk about how big the universe is and how small we are, and how because of this life is meaningless. Year nine career talks didn\u2019t help this [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2023\/02\/27\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Imperial people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-27T10:53:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/files\/2023\/02\/23-02-Imperial-People_LGBT_Twitter_Devni-1024x512.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laurie Anderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laurie Anderson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laurie Anderson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c82a214cfefc6f15caf13fe599c13d4\"},\"headline\":\"Devni Peramunugamage, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-27T10:53:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/files\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/23-02-Imperial-People_LGBT_Twitter_Devni-1024x512.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Students\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/imperial-people\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/27\\\/devni-peramunugamage-undergraduate-faculty-of-medicine\\\/\",\"name\":\"Devni Peramunugamage, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine - 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