Here we go, term 2.

Just got back from UBC’s Got Talent. It was so amusing. UBC does in fact have tremendous talent. Seriously. PS can someone please upload a video of UBC President, Professor Stephen Toope’s, and AMS President, Bijan Ahmadian’s duet ASAP? Please and thank you. Edit: I found it on Youtube. Hahaha.

It’s been about a week and a half since I’ve been back at UBC. I went to Shanghai for Christmas to visit my family, and had a really nice restful break in my own bed in my house. Yes, Totem Palace is great, but it’s not home. A week ago today, I attended the Student Leadership Conference. Like many others have blogged before me, the conference was really insightful and I was especially pleased to listen to The Buried Life. Yeah, I’m a huge fan. I’m pathetic, moving on. The opening speaker, Drew Dudley, was exceptionally inspiring. Here was my favorite part-

So, lollipop moments. I’ve been thinking about them lately. And in my first few months here at UBC, there have been so many people who have done or said something that have affected me in a great and positive ways, and I’ve never really acknowledged or thanked them for it.

I don’t think many people really realize how much our teachers and advisors do for us. For many of my friends and me, one of the commerce undergraduate academic advisors has created an extraordinarily large impact on our lives. Whenever we’re feeling uncomfortable, upset, or doubtful of the way our classes are going, or the grades we’re getting, we run to Jamie Tooze. He’s the best. I met with him for the second time today and explained to him that I was really disappointed with my term 1 grades and needed to see what other options I had. After a ten, fifteen minute chat with him, my day literally got so much better. I dropped HIST 106 (uh I’ll give global environmental history a try next year instead. Maybe.) and learned exactly what I needed to do in order to stay in Sauder. Also, the sun came out and I think we have Jamie to thank for that. He’s a miracle worker, I swear. My friends Anoud, Topaz, several others and me are the co-founders of his fan club. True story.

Also, I can never seem to post something without somehow mentioning how much I love the friends I have here. I was so upset to leave my family and home after winter break, so the day before getting on a flight back to Vancouver, I called up Topaz and told her how I felt and that I dreaded going back to UBC. She cheered me up, and since arriving back in Vancouver, I haven’t felt lonely or sad at all. A few of my friends and I went out to see Black Swan (which was an incredibly beautiful movie, but so scary. So scary omg.), threw a surprise party for another friend, went to the Student Leadership Conference, and bussed down to Granville Island the weekend I got back. In my Blog Squad application last year, I had to write something about what I wanted to get out of UBC, or something similar to that. And while I’m here to get an education and expand my mind and all of that, I wrote that I was here to make connections, meet people, and create friendships that will last for many more years after UBC. As I sat in the Chan Centre today for UBC’s Got Talent, thinking that in less than four (or five) year’s time, I will be in that hall graduating from school, I realized that while I’ll eventually have to move on from this place, the friends I’ve made in the last six months will be the friends that will be by my side when I get my first job, get married, etc etc. In my application, I also wrote that I wanted to make friends that I can sit in bed and watch Grey’s Anatomy with 24/7. And while it has been more like “studying accounting 24/7”, I have made friends that I can call up to watch TV with and just cry to. And for that, I am so so grateful. I’m not good with words, or talking about feelings, but I just want my friends to know how much they mean to me and that without them, there is no way my first year at UBC could have ever been as good as it is now.