“The Swagger of a College Kid”

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TI – Live Your Life

So we’re finally here.   The end of the first week.  (or something happier sounding: the first weekend of the school year)  Have you developed your swagger?

If I had a swagger right now, it would be a hunched over one.  This was a very tiring week.  I remember in grade 7 all the teachers said that going into high school would be a huge change.  In grade 8 we even had multiple orientations.  Personally, I didn’t find it much of a difference and adjusting was easy.  University however, is quite the formidable challenge in terms of the work load (to me anyway.)  How exciting! Really!

It is a little hard though, the amount of reading I already have to do is scary.  It’s just how university is though I guess.  My friends at other institutions are going through the same things.

A recap of my week:

IMAGINE Day
I am not a fan of chants.  School/Faculty pride is fine and dandy but chants… not so much.  The atmosphere changed things though.  When all the faculties gathered in the stadium for the pep rally, I just got compelled to yell and wave things around like a maniac along with all the other maniacs in the seats (pretty much everyone?)  As lame as it sounds, when everyone did the YMCA in the stands together, I could breathe the unity in the air.  It was a great feeling.

Class
The pace of lessons is very different from high school.  It’s faster.  Teachers are more passionate about teaching than I thought they would be.  Otherwise, learning is learning.  Only the work is harder and heavier.

Free Stuff
There is free stuff everywhere!  Clubs always hand out pins.  Fido gave me gum.  And there was this one cart thing that literally gave out candy by the handful.

Not Free Stuff
My friend and I thought that the AMS BBQ had free food.  So we went in, but first we had to get past the security check thing.  They dumped out our water.  We thought we would get free food inside so we told ourselves it would be worth it.  But the food wasn’t free.

WOODWARD to MATH is far
Power walk it.

Napping
Classes move too fast to blank out for more than a minute and the little table thingy that comes out from the chair is too small.  Koerner Library in the basement is very quiet though.  The long commute is a nice place to nap too.  I think I will need it.

Notebooks or Binders
Notebooks.

Now to rest my back from carrying textbooks! (and live up the weekend because this week was crazy busy!)

Goodbyes.

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Today, after I said bye to the friends that I was hanging out with, I couldn’t help but feel extremely sad that I couldn’t say “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”  We’re not thousands of miles away from each other, but just knowing that, unlike the past 8 years,  I won’t see them at school is so unsettling.

Goodbye sleeping right before sunrise.
Goodbye waking up at noon.
Goodbye staying out late with friends.
Goodbye minimal responsibilities.
Goodbye TV show marathons.
Goodbye do nothing days.

See you at Christmas time.
Or possibly next weekend! Haha.

Goodbye the best summer I’ve ever had.

Random fact about me #2: This summer I traveled to Asia with 5 of my friends.  It was by far the best vacation of my whole life so far.

Hello… things I’ve yet to meet.

As the last moments of the summer of 2009 wind down, I think I am finally excited for tomorrow.  I don’t want it to come any faster than it should, but I don’t mind that it is coming.

Things to do outside the house when you’re broke:

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Who isn’t holding back their wallets a bit these days?  Espicially after buying those textbooks.  (Discount Textbooks @ UBC Village FTW!)

So here’s some stuff to do for free and outside of the house:

plan a: crash a friend’s house
plan a2:  crash the furniture store as if you were crashing a friend’s house
plan b: raid your friend’s video game stash
plan b2: raid best buy’s video game stash (aka go play their Rock Band/WII)
plan c: go to the park
plan d: go to the park that you usually don’t go to
plan e: go on the skytrain and ride it to the most interesting sounding name, get off and walk around
plan f: the seawall!

So it’s not the most interesting compilation of things to do.  Really, it’s just what I’ve been doing.  What have you been doing?  I need some inspiration.

plan g: get a job and start a new list of things to do when not broke?

It’s ending.  I’m sure you know what “it” is and have long realized it’s end so I won’t go into the depressing details.  T minus… a small number of days.

As much as these moments are our own, we can never have them back.

First trip to campus.

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I’m so relieved. After reading other people’s posts about their first visit to UBC, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who has never been. Though some of you are actually international students which kind of changes things since I’ve always been in the area… but whatever. It’s fine. =D

Random fact about me #1 (because at this point I don’t intend on making a real profile): I am a local commuting student… is “local” the correct term? As in opposite of “international?”

I knew that UBC is big.  I just didn’t think it would be this big.  My friend and I spent 5 hours just walking around exploring.  It was a good way to spend our day considering we were too broke to do anything else.  5 hours sounds a little ridiculous, but we spent a good 20 minutes wandering to find the bookstore and another hour inside it playing with the Macs and looking at other random stuff.

Opinions (and facts?) of UBC:

  • the bus loop is kind of far from everything
  • the ocean can be seen from the Rose Garden, but the ocean is still a ways away.  It is still beautiful though.
  • Chapman Commons at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre looks like Hogwarts! Continue reading →

another letter from UBC.

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You know, I don’t think I’ve ever received a letter before that wasn’t related to school in some way.

The letter is about the first day of school.  aka IMAGINE Day/Orientation.  Here is what was inside among the letters:

I AM UBC.
A nifty sticker!

Is it supposed to be a bumper sticker?  Could you see yourself driving around with it on though… whatever, free stuff is always nice.  I guess it will come in handy if I develop a case of school spirit.

Another interesting thing about the little package,

It says "Swing Space"

It says "Swing Space"

I’ve very curious to find out what this is… and if it’s what I’m imagining.  Which I doubt.

Also on the map is a building called “Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre.”  Could it be?  Is it for the Olympics??

The first time I heard that the mascot for UBC is a Tunderbird, I immediately thought of Zapdos from Pokemon.

"I CHOOSE YOU!"

"I CHOOSE YOU!"

IMAGINE sounds like it should be a pretty good time.  Why do I capitilize IMAGINE?  I don’t know, that e-mail from UBC types it that way… but not the letter.  Those free root beer floats they speak of sound very enticing.  I am not, however, looking forward to getting to school by 8:15 am.  That is earlier than the time I woke up at for high school.  I guess it’ll be an adventure.

By the way, who is planning to buy their textbook at the Textbook Exchange? (Sept 8, 4-5pm, Koerner Plaza) Where do we find what books we need anyway?

last night: the clouds drifted away for falling stars

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last night: was the night for watching the annual perseid meteor shower
(don’t worry if you missed it, you may still be able to catch some shooting stars tonight around 2 am)

The thing about watching meteor showers is that when your eyes scan the sky so fast, you think you’ve seen a trail of light.  You end up wonder to yourself if you actually finally saw a shooting star.  But when the moment comes and you see one for real, you know it.  Without a doubt, you know that it was there and that you were there for it.

I wish I could be as decisive as that feeling.

Want to hear about my first “failure” at UBC (though school hasn’t even started?)

FROSH is the 2 night 2 day long orientation for new commerce students.   I wanted to go, but my parents were hard to convince. Their reasoning led me to waver.  Sign up starts, I leave the country to travel with friends, one month later, I decide I really do want to go to FROSH, finally convince parents, return home, sign up is full.

There is no real way of knowing what could’ve been, but if I weren’t so wishy washy about what I wanted, I probably wouldn’t be so regretful right now.

Decisiveness. Seems to be a big key these days.

Decisions… decisions… such as: should I be thinking about getting prepared for school right now?

My choice: No, I’ll pass and enjoy my last summer before being considered an adult.

And yours?

post #000: Challenges are not meant to be feared, but our greatest challenges are our fears.

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[As an unofficial start to this blog, I thought it would be nice to share the post I wrote for the Blog Squad application.  The topic was: What you think your biggest challenge will be in your first year]

I will first tell you my fears:

  • not getting the STT I want (but that is over now)
  • standing in a crowded bus for an hour every morning (that many people in such a small space freaks me out)
  • flunking out
  • making new friends (or enemies)
  • first impressions

Overall, I’m not afraid of the schooling in university itself but rather the fact that as a first year student, it’s a new start all over again. By the end of high school, I finally found my place and felt truly comfortable. It’s time to build that up again. With the building comes my greatest challenge: not losing things from the past.

I think my greatest challenge will be to stay close with the ones I won’t see everyday anymore. When circumstances (like school) don’t bring us closer, will we still stay close? I hardly have any contact with the good friends from elementary school that didn’t end up going to the same high school as me. Will university be the same? I sure hope not.

As I’m typing this I feel like I should pledge to myself not to let that happen. Sadly, deep down I know that though I feel this way right now, when September rolls around it’s hard to say if I will feel the same. The little world I’ve been living in, that even now feels big, is expanding once again… please don’t burst on me!