Hi, hello. Yes, hi there. How’ve you been? You’ve gotten taller. Some tea? I got this awful mango passionfruit blend the other day in hopes it’d keep me awake through my first day of second semester and I feel like I owe this poor blog at least that courtesy. In my defence, the last three months have been one blank space after another — of both the Swift variety and the sort that materializes in poor student brains after too many missed lectures and incomplete WebWork assignments. Emergency dance parties and cramming sessions definitely outnumber the chemistry lectures I sat through awake.

I never thought I’d ever compare my academic life to a trainwreck, but there you go. First semester was a disaster. Nobody’s going to look at my transcript and call me a joke of a student, but I’ve never been so disappointed in myself. I know I could’ve done better — and that seemed to be the general sentiment around campus earlier today. I’m so determined not to fall short of my own expectations again, and I think (key word there) I might even surpass them if I try hard enough.

For the second time now my physics professor opened his first lecture by asking us all what our goals are, and for the second time now ‘medical school’ far eclipsed the other options. I remember ‘pharmacy’ being the second most popular choice last semester, seeing as I gave that answer myself — but I think my goals have changed, and today has been such an eye opener. I’ll be honest; first semester was like a slap in the face. Somehow calculate the collective volume of the sweat and tears that have run down my face since September 3rd (with integral calculus — thanks, Professor Doebelli) and it’ll probably come to the conclusion that I’ve cried enough damage to equate a literal slap. I realized what I’m good at (not chemistry), what I’m terrible at (chemistry) and what I no longer want to major in (biochemistry). I realized I’m capable of attending six hours worth of class on just two hours of sleep, but not two nights in a row and certainly not three.

I don’t mean to sound upset, because I’m not really, but first year has thus far done a great job of teaching me about my limits and how far I can push them for academia’s sake. It’s done a genuinely terrible job of teaching me about chemistry, but I’ll get to that. I’m jumping on the bandwagon with course reviews while my workload is still light — though I’m hoping I’ll be better at keeping up with this blog this semester than last.

To finish off, quick bullet points re:stuff I learned last semester that’s mostly irrelevant but oh-so life-changing:

• Professors smile a lot during office hours. A lot. They genuinely want you to show up and  regardless of the usual demeanour will (generally) become the sweetest person alive upon your arrival.
• Using the facilities prior to sitting down alone in a library will save you the hassle of struggling to find someone trustworthy to look after your stuff later.
• It is possible to walk out of a physics lab halfway to buy a Blue Chip cookie across the street.
• Buchanan D is the one with the fountain.
• Strange stuff happens when you live directly above a parking lot — ie. someone may get arrested about four floors down from you and your open window will be the equivalent of a front row seat.
• Pizza is never a bad idea. Seriously, order a medium pizza and eat it all by yourself over the course of a few days (or one day, if that’s your style). You’ll feel better for it. Trust me.

xx