Patchworked.

As of tomorrow, April 25, 2012, 2.30pm, my 2nd year as a UBC student will officially have finished.

Wow.

Cue the “This year just flew by”s and the “I’m gonna be a 3rd year next year?!”s. The end of the year is always a time of mixed feelings, a huge pile of feelings that are settling in my tummy, and ones I am trying to figure out.

2nd year is difficult, more so than 1st year. Like any year, ups and downs were there, but due to personal circumstances I admittedly went through more downs than usual. I will not lie- my feelings are still in the dumps, but the hope is there. There is motivation, and though I am sad, I feel so inspired at the same time. More on this in the next two days- I have a couple more posts coming up- one with more reflection and pictures, another with a lot of reflection on New York, but this post is different. This post is supposed to be my funny one.

Because it’s the sequel to my smash hit of a post from last year, My 1st Year UBC Experience in GIFs, in which I attempt, once more, to express the trials and triumphs of the past year through that subtle art form, the GIF image.

Here we go- for your enjoyment! Warning that they might load slowly.

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Literally.

Well, it was for a family wedding (my dad’s cousin/my godmother), and you can never really avoid those.

I ended up missing three days worth of courses, including a midterm. I will leave the ranting of how difficult it is to study for a past midterm/learn new material after said midterm simultaneously, but to be honest, the trip was amazing. I really, really, REALLY needed it. I swore to myself I’d bring all my study materials and do studying during my free time, but I spent more time actually having fun, which is always a good thing.

As always, my family and I drove from our humble home in Surrey to San Francisco, where a good chunk of my dad’s side of the family lives. I’ve been to San Fran countless times by now- mostly with terribly sad memories (two funerals in a row and all), but with this latest trip, it being for a wedding and all, there was a certain atmosphere to everything- one of solemn happiness, hope and remembrance. :)

Below, under the cut are some photos I’ve taken on the trip- well, during the long drive, where most of the boredom came along. :P I actually forgot to bring my phone half the time for when I was in San Fran- I didn’t want to end up texting back with roaming rates in place.

I went a bit Instagram-nuts- I’ve actually just discovered it recently and as a self-confessed Photoshop lover, it fascinates me.

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I deem today my ~last day~- my most difficult final is done, and I only have one left, which is next week, on the 28th. I figured that was enough reason to slack off a bit without feeling guilty. :)

And thus, I blog again. I… I feel a lot of things right now, what with the all “Oh wow I just finished my first year EVAH *___*” feeling and all other mini-feelings that go into this feelings-of-awe pie. Fellow Blog Squaders have written great entries about it, and honestly I feel like they took many of the words I would type out of my mouth. SO THIS ENTRY? IT’S MAINLY PICTURES. :D

First, a ramble:

Me… I’m a commuter student (as if I don’t rage about it enough…), and of course, this means my UBC experience has been vastly different in contrast to those who chose to live in 1st year rez. I’m not gonna lie- it has led to moments of frustration and regret that I didn’t accept my housing offer. Making friends is not instantaneous and events and meetings can be difficult to focus on when you’re worried about missing the last bus. I also have to admit that I’m still learning to adjust- I can’t claim yet that UBC has changed my life, that ~*IT’S THE BEST DECISION EVAR*~ (first half of Grade 12 year, UBC was the last uni I wanted to attend), or that I’ve made best friends that I’ll never forget.

HOWEVER. I can claim that I’m slowly finding my niche, even breaking out of my usual comfort zone in the process. I can claim that I’ve found a place that I like to be in, a place that I feel can really bring out my potential. A place where I’m often inspired and motivated by my surroundings, by the people around me. I have felt more confident and proud of myself in the past year than before, and I have shared heartfelt laughs and tears with people who are not BFFs, but might very well be, given the chance.

I am still an awkward turtle around most people, and no, no housing for me in the near future. Here’s to hoping that slowly, but surely, this would change. HERE I COME 2ND YEAR after my History final.

And underneath the cut is a series of GIFs that depict various moments in my 1st Year at UBC. Perhaps you can relate to some of them as well.

WARNING: This will load quite slowly.

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The first part of this series was a rant, and so, I shall make this one more positive.

Yesterday was, long story short, not one of those good days. HOWEVER, I always attempt to find the positive side in everything. Oddly enough, in retrospect, all the positive things I could think of centered around my commute.

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I don’t know about you guys, but when I was little, I went through “phases” of career aspirations; one year I wanted to be this, then this, then do this again. It all depended on my current obsession e.g. astronomy, theatre, etc. (all of which I’m still obsessed with, ha).

See below:

Really little-first grade: Pediatrician (insert tumblr lolface here)
Second grade-third grade: Astronaut
Fourth grade: Archaeologist
Fifth-sixth grade: Editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine
Seventh-eighth grade: Broadway performer
Ninth grade: Editor-in-chief of a nerdy magazine
Tenth grade: Radiologist (see lolface above), then website designer, then diplomat (a very fun year- I won a website design contest in SFU, and attended my first MUN)
Eleventh-twelfth grade: Foreign Services Officer

So I start as a First Year here in UBC, with aspirations of being a hotshot diplomat, with Europe being my geographic specialty.

While being determined and having a clear goal in mind is a good thing, being in a place like UBC makes it essential to keep one’s mind open. There are so many choices of things to do, and now I find myself like a little kid again. I am second-guessing my ambitious plan of a double PoliSci + IR major (well, there’s only self-esteem issues associated with that, but that’s for another entry). I find myself interested in fields such as the Science Studies Minor and European Studies. And most importantly, the idea of law school is slowly but surely becoming a goal in my mind instead of a mere possibility.

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The responsibilities of being a new student these past few months has been increased by the fact that I turned 18, got a job, and well, am considered an adult by my parents. While I’m a commuter and still get to enjoy the joy of homemade food, I still found myself having to adjust to all the responsibility.

It felt weird, it still does- instead of having my mom make my dentist appointments for me and my dad always driving me to the bank, it’s up to me to get all that kind of thing handled. I had to learn my dentist’s work hours, make the trek to the Village to deposit money and even made my own tax-free savings account. All by myself. It feels rather nice, though now with the dawn of a new semester coming upon me, I have a brand new daunting-as-always list of “adult tasks” I have to accomplish- paying tuition fees and selling my textbooks and letting my boss know my new work hours. Adult tasks=managing my own money, most of the time. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but I think I’m slowly but surely getting there.

Besides these adult tasks are still the typical student tasks, the biggest one being cleaning up for Term 2. » Read the rest of this entry «

This is preposterous. For the past week, yours truly has managed to go into random bouts of sleep on her commute to school. Usually, this never happens- I’m way too paranoid that I’ll wake up and find myself in the middle of nowhere. Alas, it seems like my sleeping cycle is finally catching up with me.

This post does not contain any of the content I said I’ll be updating with. Instead, this post is for: UBC: A Constant Learning Process aka new things I keep finding out as a uni student (the unofficial first installment: here).

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Current Music: Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now (fitting stuff)

I must admit, I intended my first post to be a whole list of how I’ve been preparing myself for attending UBC and university life in general. As you can see, though, I decided against it in the last few hours.

It’s just that I’ve realized that no matter how much I try- no matter how many to-do lists I write and routes I map and browsing trips I make for netbooks and bags, I’ll never really be prepared. At least not completely. This is a whole new chapter in my life, in any person’s life. It will be full of scary, and mainly unknown, things that will only make itself known to us once we get going. It will strike at us unexpectedly and throw us off guard, and rattle us a little out of our comfortable shells of security and familiarity.

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