For those of you interested in literary journals, there is a table between Buchanan D and E on the ground floor that has piles of CanLit just waiting for you to collect them.
All new copies of old issues, and free!
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Posted in Academic
Hmm, my Blog Squad avatar seems to have disappeared from my front page. This is a little disconcerting, but not enough to push me to find out why. School is ridiculously busy at the moment (as it always is at this time of year).
For those of you who are interested in this kind of thing, there is a slam poetry event going on in MASS (Buchanan D) on March 31. You can find the Facebook event here. I will definitely try and make it if I can.
I had a really comforting discussion with some third- and fourth-year friends I bumped into today; it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who gets more confused about what I want to do with my life the older I get. It’s extremely frustrating to remember how much more direction I had in first-year; sometimes I just want to pick something and go through with it. It’s especially frustrating when talking to people who do know exactly what they want to do and are following their passions.
What if you don’t really know what your passion is, or more specifically, how to make money off your passion? What if you care about more than one thing and don’t know how to balance it all?
At the moment I’m just trying to plan out my life in the short-term and not worry too much about the long-term details. Life happens, things change, and it’s very hard to to make concrete plans. As long as I do what I feel is right and good for me at the moment, things should work out.
(NB: Please note this is only a short-term solution for the confused. Having a sense of the general direction you want to take goes a long way in helping you shape your life.)
Summer will be a wonderful time to sort out some more of what I want to do with my life!
For now, I should work on those six term papers.
Comments Off on Continuing the ‘Lost’ Journey
Posted in Academic, Careers / Work, Recreation
This is something I once heard (in Chinese):
In your first year of university, you don’t know that you don’t know.
In your second year, you know that you don’t know.
In your third year, you don’t know that you know.
In your fourth year, you know that you know.
And that, my friends, would describe my university education perfectly.
Just entering university from high school, I was pretty confident in my abilities—and while I did well overall, I found out quite a few things about myself and how I envision my learning environment that I had to work hard to create.
In my second year, I’d managed to get into third-year English Honours, so I was pretty excited about embarking on a two-year journey of lotsandlotsandlots! of English. Knowing perfectly well that I didn’t really know much about anything, it was incredibly enjoyable to just launch myself into my learning. Over the last couple of years, I’ve taken at least one course in each century of English (which is how the courses are loosely divided) and then some. That’s a pretty great overview, if you ask me.
“In your third year, you don’t know that you know.”
I’m really hoping this above statement is true because, since I don’t know what I know, I generally feel like I still don’t know very much about anything at all. (And this statement will probably continue to be true for years to come, when faced with the great sea of knowledge.)
Which is very frustrating when your friends are graduating around you left, right and centre, and you still can’t clearly articulate what exactly it is you want to do with your life this summer.
The main problem being that there are many things I ought to do this summer in preparation for applying to graduate school and to explore possible careers, such as:
And these activities do not count the things I want to do for fun, like:
My one bit of advice? If you’re thinking of grad school, consider doing the GRE at the end of your second year. Depending on your program and how ready you are for it, it may take a lot off your plate in your third year—and at least it will allow you a chance to retake it if you need to, without any rush.
Posted in Academic, Careers / Work, Life, Recreation
Third year, second term — that would make this my back-to-school post x6.
I rock at maths. Speaking of which, I should think about refreshing my maths in preparation for the GRE, which I really should take this summer. There are so many things I should do, it’s hard to keep track of them all.
Like finding a second part-time job, finding a co-op work placement for this summer, learning how to drive, independent research so I can finally decide what I want to write for my Honours thesis next year, and so on and so forth.
Plus school.
Which is looking really good at the moment! I just had my last class I was deciding on today, and it looks just as good as I was hoping it would be, or better. I’m very excited for all the texts that I’m to read (again, I am taking all English classes in my efforts to finish up my requirements) — that is, if the Bookstore would stock them.
I was at the end of the massive, massive line that is the UBC Bookstore at 3:30 PM on the first Monday back at school when it struck me this is probably one of those few, rare times when UBC students from all faculties get to be together again since the IMAGINE pep rally. Arts meets Sauder, Science meets Engineering, LAFS meets HKin. Vanier residence meets Burnaby commuters. (Face it: the SUB is dominated by commuting kids.) All of us cradling in our arms (or baskets) the books and course packages showcasing our departmental pride. Imagine the kinds of interdisciplinary conversations we could have if we just turned around to the person behind us, pointed to the giant five-hundred white paged book they’re toting about, and asked them about what they do and why.
But you’d better hurry and turn around if you want that kind of conversation — there are a lot of better book deals going on in other places, and students won’t be sticking around the Bookstore for long. (I spent a happy hour finding cheaper ones on Amazon this morning.) Unless, of course, you’re waiting in the massive, massive line that is the UBC Bookstore Buybacks in two weeks’ time.
I decided to write a post in between frustrated research. I’m mostly frustrated because I can’t seem to download more than one JSTOR article without getting logged out. Articles on the topic I’m looking at, there are plenty of. (Mem: Try downloading selected articles from Chapman tomorrow. I don’t know how to fix this when my VPN says I’m logged in.)
Dear goodness, there’s an awful lot on James Joyce. I suppose it’s what happens when you go out of your way to be a cryptic writer, and you’re good at it.
I’ve just also completed teaching evaluations, partly because I didn’t want to get another reminder about them, and mostly because they are important. One thing I’m glad to see this term is that they’ve put back the boxes where you can make your subjective comments about the course. I ranted last year about how there was nowhere to put qualitative feedback that I thought was really important — especially because the professor wasn’t reacting to verbal feedback — and there was no space. Nada. No problem like that this year, and I’m glad to have the space to talk about some really great professors I’ve had.
Of course, all that evaluating has made me assess myself as a student this term. I can’t say I’m very happy about my self-evaluation. I haven’t been very well for most of this term, which is my reasoning for not being as diligent as usual, but it frustrates me nonetheless. I’m doing considerably less than I’ve ever done in most other terms and I’m still always really, really tired. Actually, I’ve just been really tired all year: physically and emotionally, 2009 hasn’t been a particular favourite.
Lessons in Life by JohnSu
But! It’s almost over. I’m working hard on my last big assignment, I’m catching up with my readings, and as soon as classes finish, I’ll have a great exam schedule to look forward to. I’ve just got two finals this term and they’re quite spaced out, so that’s plenty of time to study.
And then I’m going back to Hong Kong to visit for about ten days (I do go back every holiday, don’t I?) and I have every intention of enjoying myself completely. By some minor miracle, all my high school friends will be in the same city again since we graduated. Add to that the fact that some of them are going to be graduating in 2010 (because they go to UK unis), so who knows where they’ll be in the future, and you’ve got the recipe for a once-in-a-lifetime reunion. Excellent!
After classes are over, I’m going to redo my course schedule for next term and do all my readings before term starts (because I am nerdy like that). Then I’m going to work out what I want my term to look like. The one good thing about my mid-uni crisis this term is that I’ve spent a LOT of time thinking about what I’m doing here and where I want to go… so it’s time to start shaping life into something that looks more like what I’m envisioning!
So all in all, I’m actually pretty excited about these last few weeks of 2009 (already almost over!). How are you dealing with end-of-term stress and what are you looking forward to next?
(Oh yes, Speakeasy in the SUB North Concourse will continue providing peer support during exam time. If you’re stressed or want to talk about anything in a confidential space, go along to the SUB information desk and let someone know you need to talk. They’ll be happy to help you.)
Posted in Academic, Recreation
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