With regard to global affairs, this has kind of felt like the summer that the world starts to fall apart. (I’ve read it described as scenes from the montage that is played at the beginning of post-apocalyptic movies describing the pre-movie apocalypse, which is, I think, pretty accurate.)

However, in my own little domain, this summer was a nice respite from action-packed second year.

I took two summer courses, worked in retail for the first time in addition to teaching ice skating with the city, and travelled to Florida for the first time. All in all, I had a great summer.

I remember feeling so frustrated at the end of last summer. Four months without school was just too long. However, despite having two courses to deal with all summer long and only three weeks in between my summer courses and the beginning of the fall semester, I’m already so ready to begin third year.

My summer courses, which were focused on syntax and structure and logic, have made me miss discussion groups and original thought. My limited working hours have made me miss a steady income from a job that I’m excited about.

Still, this will be a post about appreciating what I have learned over the summer, preparing to bring those hard-earned wisdoms into the future.

Working at Victoria’s Secret, for example, certainly taught me–as customer certain jobs are wont to do–the values of patience and viewing things from the other perspective. That being said, Victoria’s Secret has a pretty great crew of employees and of customers, so working there was actually really fun. It definitely ranks high on my experience of working with colleagues; all of the girls there tended to be quite fun and friendly, especially once I made the effort to get to know them better. I’m going to miss them a lot.

I obviously took quite a few things away from Symbolic Logic I and English Grammar and Usage, both of which ended up being grade boosters for me. Not only did they require skills that will help me in studying for the LSAT (and eventually, for law school), they bumped up my top 30 credits enough to make me competitive for the law school at the University of Toronto.

The two courses were also refreshing in the way that they required systematic studying in a way that my humanities courses haven’t really required of me. I can parse symbolic sentences and sentences in Standard (or non-standard) English… with some difficulty.

[S/NP(I) P/VP(can parse) O<NP(symbolic sentences) and NP(sentences in Standard {or non-standard} English)>… A(with NP(some difficulty))].

How do we even deal with parentheticals? A question for another course, I suppose.

They’ve also given me a revitalized appreciation for the nuances of language. As challenging and exciting as it is to consider the implications of language and literature at large, it’s also fascinating to delve deeper into the reasons we make certain decisions when we communicate. Like, why did I say “it’s also fascinating to…” instead of, “delving deeper into the reasons we make decisions when we communicate is also fascinating”? I assure you, that decision was a subconscious one!

But of course, this summer was not just all work, try though I did to make it so. (I was reading about declarative subclauses while in our rented villa in Orlando!)

Visiting family in the US is always a highlight of my summer. In the past few years, I’ve visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York City, Atlantic City, Orlando, and Miami. Although the destinations are always thrilling (and so surreal, after reading about those places and seeing them in movies and whatnot), spending time with family always reminds me to take things a little less seriously–I tend to be the most serious of my maternal family, with my outright dedication to my work and my wariness of substances that make one drunk/high.

But man, I love the Disney parks. When I went to Disneyland for the second time, this during my graduating year, I bought one of those big Goofy hats (a souvenir I knew I wanted when I visited Disneyland for the first time). I brought it home and wore it to school, and my teacher started a conversation with me about the Disney parks. It ended with him saying, “Yeah, but you realize it’s all phony and you get tired of it after awhile.”

(I don’t.)

Yeah, kids are crying and hungry and tired and want to pee all the time, and parents are also tired and hot and just spent hundreds of dollars to stand in line, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking that it’s magical for a child to see characters they admire come to life in front of them.

I went with two of my cousins and my aunt, and my younger cousin, who’s only five, is not afraid to talk. She greeted and thanked and conversed with every cast member we met–but she suddenly became a pink-cheeked, smiling, bashful, and tongue-tied little pixie when she met Tinker Bell and Mickey Mouse. And I think that’s pretty cool.

There’s also the fact that it’s fun. It’s impossible to spend a whole day at Disneyland or Disney World and not find yourself laughing or smiling, I think, especially when you’re with people you love.

Tomorrow is the Orientations Leader training for Imagine UBC Day. My third Imagine Day, and my second as an Orientations Leader. It’s such an apt name for the day!

With summer 2016 behind me, I’m ready to spend some (more) time imagining my third year at UBC, and I am just as ready and excited to bring those imaginings to life.