Howdy,
The last post I made here was back in October. This was definitely not the plan. I was planning on posting quite a bit more regularly. Like most of my plans this semester, that got drastically changed.
In high school I was told over and over again that university was going to be tough. I thought I understood what that meant. After all, I graduated in the top ten percent of my class at a high school in the top one percent of schools in the States. Whatever challenges were ahead I was sure I could manage on my own.
Spoiler alert: I was dead wrong.
Not only did I underestimate the stress of moving to a new country and being on my own, I underestimated the sheer amount of work university requires of you. This is not what university looks like in the movies. There, students don’t seem to ever go to class/worry about money/have panic attacks about their marks. None of that is glamorous enough for the big screen, I guess. Frankly, the struggle between student and university is not an interesting story. There isn’t any rising action, plot twists, big reveals and satisfying endings. There is just work and frustration and joy and highs and lows and way too many late nights in Irving K Barber.
Is it worth it? I don’t know yet. I can’t see where the arc of my not-a-story is taking me yet. But I love it here. Despite all the tears, when I look at how much I’ve grown these last four months and all the new connections I’ve made with Vancouver, UBC, and Canada, I’m happy. Derailed, yes, but happy.
Stay tuned next for my last final (WHY AREN’T I DONE YET) and hopefully more regular blogging in term 2.