dazed and confused in vancouver

All of last year, I struggled with being a subpar student.  I have a long list of excuses as to why I was subpar, whether it was my lack of IB education (only one school in Ottawa had it and it wasn’t mine), the fact that I’d been out of the school system for 2 years, the fact that I was homeschooled for 3-odd years.  I grew accustomed to the fact that getting a C+ was normal for me and anything above that was a blessing from above.  I do not think I that I am stupid, I just found that I had a hard time getting into the university mindset.

Going into second year, only being able to register on the second-last day of registration due to a low GPA, I really wasn’t expecting much better from this second year.  I’ve set myself some goals, like no C’s, getting a 70%+ average so I can apply for Go Global and getting a 74%+ average so I can apply for the Asian Studies Honors program.  Did I realistically expect to achieve these goals?  Perhaps not.

So far this year, I have not received anything less than a 90% in Japanese and I was just returned an in-class essay with a mark of B+/A.  For anyone who has ever heard me complain about it, I am the worst in-class essay writer as I tend to have problems developing a thesis and supporting it within the time allotted.  In high school, my teacher would call my mother because I would write really good essays that had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked.

Maybe my goals aren’t so far out of reach after all!  This year, I’m making concentrated efforts to sit down and do my readings, prepare for all quizzes, be comfortable with the material enough to get through essays and such.   It is possible!  For all you slackers and academic misfits, it IS possible!

Now, back to work researching for a paper that is worth 50% of my final grade, ack!