Spring has arrived in my beloved Vancouver! Pictured here is my second favorite tree around my house, and my dog about to do his business. I don’t really like winter, which I guess is a consequence of my tropical roots, but I feel sad that winter barely came. I was planning on snowboarding for the first time this winter. Skiing wasn’t really my thing, but Nathan wanted to teach me how to snowboard, and I decided I want to learn, but then it barely snowed on our mountains. It’s rained the past few days, as if winter is trying to make its last few attempts to settle in Vancouver, but spring persists. Below is a picture from downtown a few weeks ago, while I was having the famous Japa Dog of downtown Vancouver with my parents (but I’m boring, so I had a regular hot dog).

The past semester has taught me a few things about my choice in courses. Firstly, I am not a political scientist, even though Robert Crawford did almost convince me for a moment there. There is just something so intangible about politics, and for some reason, philosophy doesn’t infuriate me quite in the same way. I think it’s because philosophy doesn’t try to put up a guise of empiricism, whereas political science does. The textbook for POLI 100 is particularly uninspiring in this regard as well, because I could probably have paid for the textbook if I had a dollar for every time the phrase “is difficult to define” (or something similar) was repeated in the text. I took POLI 100 because I wasn’t hearing good reviews about the creative writing course I initially intended on taking. My reasoning at the time was that I was doing a lot of writing anyway. In retrospect, that was pretty stupid, since creative writing is really not the same flavor as academic writing at all, but I have learned some things in POLI 100 that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise (obviously). The most important thing I’ve learned is that I am not taking any more political science courses. (Sorry, Robert.)

The second thing I’ve learned about myself–which is a bit more heartbreaking than the thought of not being a political scientist–is that I am not a mathematician, either. I think I knew this in the deepest parts of my heart, but I just wouldn’t let myself admit it. Close to the middle of the semester, I was telling people that the “official statement” was that I liked math, which is still true. What I don’t like about poli is what I like about math: the concrete abstractness of it all. Sometimes I think about the arbitrary symbols that somehow work to these rules and theorems that people have discovered or created, and to me, it’s just so meaningless and magical. However, what people don’t realize is that what it takes to be truly excellent in mathematics is not only an understanding of the rules. Much like any art, one learns the rules and then must be creative enough to work with all the rules and learn where they don’t apply. The creative thinking involved with mathematics is something I just don’t possess, and that’s what made me realize that I couldn’t push this minor in mathematics, no matter how much I wanted to. I resigned myself to the fact that while math was important to me, the hit it was taking on my GPA was just too much of a sacrifice. Math was making me forget that I am an A-student, even in university (just with a bit more effort). My last math lecture recently also made me realize that there’s no way I’m never going to take math courses ever again, but there’s definitely no way I can specialize in it. So, although French last semester was tedious, I did quite well in it and I do like the French language, and once I take higher-level courses, I expect I’ll be challenged again, so it’s really not too bad of an idea to minor in French. Besides, it’d make Mom really happy.

I know spring has just arrived, but I’ve already got summer in my sights. Nathan recently revealed to me his plans to play beach volleyball very regularly this summer. Now, I’m really not a big fan of the beach. I just don’t like the feeling of sand on my feet… things getting beneath your toes and sticking to your skin. But the idea of suntanning and reading on the beach, watching Nathan play volleyball, got me quite excited. (I already bought a new bikini, which was quite premature.)

The other thing I’m looking forward to is my family trip to New York at the end of June. Two things on my bucket list are to see a Broadway show and to watch Misty Copeland dance live, two things my parents know I’m dead set on accomplishing this summer. I’ve dreamed about seeing Wicked for years, and I know the soundtrack by heart. As for ballet and Misty Copeland, I haven’t been dreaming about it for that long, but I’m still beyond excited to see those magnificent legs in action. I’ve always associated LA and NYC with the “big dreams, big city” thing of the USA, but all the love I could have had for LA, I gave to NYC. I’ve been to LA every summer for the past three years, and it’s definitely not my favorite place–but I’m so excited to be in the Big Apple for the first time.

I feel like I can’t really come up with anything conclusive about the first year of university. I mean, I’ve obviously got a few weeks left, but it’s so near to end that I’ve just realized how sudden it’s all been. I’ve made some wonderful friends who I intend on keeping, and I’m so glad for the friends who have stuck around from high school. I still feel like I’m in between things, but I’m happy here.