Hi, nice to meet you, here is a map to my house

Hi – I’m Clayton, a 19 year-old 2^nd UBC Arts student. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to join Blog Squad this year, and if you can  sit tight for the next couple minutes I’ll explain to you who I am and what I’d like to talk about here.

First off, I’m a long-distance commuter student. I’ve been commuting from White Rock /South Surrey to UBC 3 days a week since the beginning of my first year. This year, it’ll be 2 days a week first semester and 4 days a week second semester.

For those who may not know where that is, White Rock is a small beach town just outside of Metro Vancouver named after a large erratic that was allegedly once given it’s colour from seagull poop. I actually live in South Surrey, which is the area surrounding White Rock with which it shares an uptown area. Together, they are known for their abundance of old people.

(And you didn’t believe me.)

Unfortunately, UBC isn’t exactly in a convenient location for me. On a good day, the bus ride is 1.5-2 hours from my home – fortunately, I’m able to carpool sometimes, which can be done in 45 minutes to an hour.

(The most accurate part about this map is my head-to-body ratio.)

However, there is actually a lot I appreciate about my circumstances. First, I’ve heard of much longer commutes – students that have to take a ferry to get to UBC everyday, in addition to a long drive. Second, having school and home exist in entirely different places keeps things interesting – but that’ll be a separate post on its own.

Though probably not just one post – I have a lot to say on the subject of embracing what UBC has to offer without actually living there. I learnt that being a commuter is no reason not to be involved – in the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to take part in the TREK program Reading Week Learning Exchange , learn how to research and conduct interviews for a couple Ubyssey investigative articles , learn from my FAACT mentors in the Faculty of Arts Academic Commuter Transitions program (sorry, having trouble finding linkage, but you can still register for it as a course on the SSC), meet university students from UMichigan and SeoulNU with UBC Cultural Anthropology 101’s Global Understandings program, and gain hands-on experience with non-profits through my Arts Internship with the BC SPCA (which I am still finishing).

I don’t plan on stopping my exploration of extracurriculars there – I have a lot more I’m interested in trying at UBC, with my top interests right now being Arts Co-op and Go Global Arts Term Abroad in Global Citizenship in Guatemala. Mix those in with my part-time job (or jobs, kind of), keeping up with academics, trying to stay healthy and maintaining relationships all throughout a bizarre class schedule (9 – 9 with only 1.5 hours of downtime on Tuesdays woo), and I don’t think I’ll ever run out of things to talk about.

But one thing I’d like to talk about most is something I think a lot of 2^nd year students in Arts and some other faculties can relate to – I need to decide my major now. While I’m glad I’m not in the position of any of my Science faculty friends who have to go into a major after first year, in some ways I’m envious as I feel this extra year of trying everything before having to fulfill prerequisites has transformed my future into a giant question mark (NOTE TO 1^st YEARS: Do not read that as “do not explore your options.” You’ll miss out on a lot if you don’t. Just be prepared to change your mind a couple times… hopefully less than me). A lot (though definitely not all) of us don’t know exactly what we’re doing, which makes sense when you give a group of well-rounded individuals many options to choose from in a limited amount of time. I think a lot of students (including myself) are trying to decide between studying what they find interesting and what they think they will get a practical job with.  It seems to me this is kind of the elephant in Buchanan that, when it is talked about, is played down a bit. It’s not an elephant. It’s a… tapir. Or something.

Because this seems like a pretty urgent matter to me, one thing I plan on doing is starting a little project sometime this fall where I conduct information interviews with people in as many different occupations as I can find and write articles on them. Don’t close the browser window from the wave of boredom you experienced just reading “information interview”. Bear with me. I want to ask people how they ended out doing what they do, if it was what they wanted to do from the start and if it’s what they want to do now. I want to ask them if what they did in school or early career really dictated how they lived the rest of their lives, and what’s more important – doing what’s practical, or doing what you like.

Anyway, you have my gratitude for reading all that. I hope to learn some new things and make some new friends out of this, and I swear I’ll do my best to keep this blog interesting. I’m still catching up with the new blogs, but I’ll definitely follow them like a creepy stalker. Did I say creepy stalker? I meant like your new friend.

…Anyway, I’m on vacation in Osoyoos, and the desert heat beckons me to the lake. Thanks for reading!