Entering Sauder last year meant entering a world of firsts. I remember my first trek across campus, a rain-soaked forty five minute adventure from the bus loop to Henry Angus. It seems ridiculous now that such an easy route could take so long, but at the time having my best friend, a damp map, and a handful of people passing by to ask questions to, wasn’t enough to make sense of the maze that is our campus.
I remember the first friends I made at Frosh. I remember the goofy nicknames we gave each other and how they stuck so well that when we passed each other in the halls the next week, we realized we’d never learned our real ones. I remember an anxious conversation on the way to the first night event with a new friend; I remember us spilling out our fears and the fact that as much as we were ready for Commerce, we didn’t feel like Commerce was ready for us. It was the moment when I found the first person who didn’t fit the stereotypical “businessman” personality, but rather fit me. It was the first moment when I realized that I might actually fit into the Sauder culture.
I remember my first class, my first midterm, my first team project. I remember the smell of my first textbook, the shake in my knees as I paid out way too much money at the register. I remember calculating how much money I had, how much I needed for books, how much I needed to save, how much tuition was, how much scholarship I had, how much PANIC I felt.
Everything was a first, from the day we got lost in the Forestry department, to the day I landed my first position in a club at UBC. Life was scary, but it was always so revitalizing.
And then the summer rolled around and again it was a season of firsts. It was my first office job. It was my first time getting a monthly salary. It was my first time applying school concepts to my job, my career. It was my first time socializing with people in their 30s. It made me realize that age isn’t all that important, especially when you get to where we are in our lives. It’s your maturity and your willingness to respect others that makes it possible for you to interact and develop relationships with other people, not a number on your ID. I realized that these wonderful women that I was working with face the same fears and issues as I do. They don’t quite know where they want to end up in life, and they aren’t quite sure where their career is headed, and sometimes they fight with their husbands. They like to go out late with friends and sometimes spend too much on specialty coffee. They are just people: wonderful,caring people.
So of course, I was terribly afraid of second year. I somehow got it in my head that second year meant that there would be no more firsts. I was so convinced of this, so afraid of the predictability and familiarity of life at Sauder, that I became negative and hesitant before the semester even started. I could keep that mindset now, but it would just ruin the whole experience for me.
Sure, the firsts come fast and easy in first year, because everything is new and unexplored. That doesn’t mean that you can’t seek your own firsts in second year. We’re only three days into the semester and I have already begun to implement my first student competition. I have already volunteered for my first Commerce Ambassadors shift. I have already had my first day as a MUG leader. I have already attended the first class of the course that will lead me towards my Econ minor. I have already locked in my first sponsorship deal. The world is full of firsts; it’s full of verve and exciting new experiences. You just have to constantly remind yourself that YOU have to seek out those experiences and YOU have to create the life that you want.
The class of 2015 pep really said that you only get one shot at being a first year. This is true, but you’ve got your whole life to take shots at firsts.
Today, go DISCOVER YOUR FIRST __________