I’ve been sitting here thinking for nearly 10 minutes on how to create a very witty, cleverly written introduction that will stand the test of time and charm the socks off of you.  But I couldn’t come up with anything.

So my name is Alyssa.  I am 18 years old.  I write for the UBC First Year Blog Squad.
Hello.

No, that’s not all, I’m just being mysterious (which is a euphemism for ‘bland & uncreative’).  Anyways, I’m an Arts student and an aspiring writer (this would be a good time to say that I will be scattering typos and grammatical errors in this post just to be ironic… but I would be lying).  I’ve come to UBC mainly because of their Creative Writing program, and also because of Vancouver itself–I’ve lived in West Vancouver my whole life, and although I’m insanely happy to leave high school (don’t ask, those memories are best left forgotten in Pandora’s Box or something), I love the city too much to move away… for now.

I’ve never enjoyed an independent life.  Well, to be more precise, I’ve never taken the initiative to put myself out there–to try and toughen up my weaknesses or learn more about living alone.  For one thing, I still don’t know how to do laundry.  I’ve only taken Vancouver public transit alone once in my whole life (yes, 18 years in the same city and only one trip on the bus alone), I’m afraid to order at restaurants or ask for directions, and my idea of socializing is typing “LOL” on pointless Facebook wall posts at midnight.  But I digress.  The main point is: I’m excited to start this year off to change myself.  I’ve got way too many bad habits and I’m scared by nearly everything–fears that are usually accompanied by rather radical reactions (for example, while typing the middle of the last sentence, a moth flew in, and I dashed out of the deskchair, tripped over the garbage can, staggered towards the closet and smacked my face into the mirror.  If you’re living in residence and you have a similar room layout as me, you’ll probably find that relatively amusing).
I hope that at UBC I’ll meet new friends, get to know a lot of people with different stories and points of view, get as much out of classes as I can, and start a new chapter in my life.  You could say I’m dying to ‘turn a new leaf’.   It’s probably going to take work and struggling… and lots of it.

So that’s my story.  It’s one among thousands here at UBC, but it’s my own unique journey and I hope to see it take shape in a positive way over the next few months.  I may madly rant say a lot in the coming posts, but the point is, I hope my story is inspiring, if not at least good for a chuckle or two.
I sometimes wonder if there are other people out there as scared as I am when I look at the fresh faces at residence or at frosh.  Everyone seems to be so cheerful, ready, and confident, and I feel a little like I’ve shrunken back to hide in some sort of invisible shell (namely, the Internet.  Or Skype.).  But I’ve been told: “everyone is just as nervous as you are”.  As untrue as it seems on the surface, I know I can’t be alone–and I’m ready to do what it takes to get out there.  Because God knows I’ll be sick and tired of making these blog posts sound interesting if I have nothing to blog about in the first place!

Coming up eventually next: moving in to res, frAUSh, and Imagine Day.