Imagine UBC
University is something you will definately remember for the rest of your life. What’s in the picture? Why it’s the pep rally at the Thunderbird Stadium of course! Imagine UBC (orientation day) was spectacular. According to the orientation package it is one of North America’s biggest orientation events. It was amazing to be a part of it. The best part was the moment when our President and Vice Chancellor got dunked with ice water as part of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
During the pep rally they mentioned some pretty awesome facts about the incoming class of 2018. Here are some of them:
> The class of 2018 is composed of 8,360 students from over 100 different countries around the world.
> The average of all students equated to around 88.6%
> The youngest student: 14 years old & the oldest student: 65
There was so much cheering, hollering, and just people having a good ol’ time I swear I was deaf by the end of it! The whole day ended off on a good note and I was heading home with anticipation of my first official day of classes at UBC!
Week 1
The most people I’ve had in a class was probably around 60. That was when 2 classes in my high school merged together. My first class, Physics 100, had about 300 students. I’m not kidding. I have never seen so many students in the same class room. Now I understand why everything is online, printing would cost too much and would take too much time distributing. But it was fine, I just got a new MacBook and everything is going fine. Classes are honestly shorter than I thought. I imagine university to have classes 5 hours long but it was literally only 50 minutes. Which was nice!
It was’t until my third or so day when I realized there was something that I spent most of my time doing: waiting in line at the bookstore. The lineup went all the way to the back of the bookstore and I spent honestly, about 45 minutes each time waiting just to pay for some notebooks and clipboards. I didn’t mind though, they came in funky colours so it was totally worth it. I think I ended up paying $900 in total on textbooks and supplies. I was ready to kick off my second official full week of university.
<——- A snapshot of all my textbooks and notebooks/clipboards. Probably weighs over 50lbs, no biggie.
Week 2
The first full week of school started well! The labs were relatively straight forward and the lectures were mostly reviews which weren’t too bad. It wasn’t until Wednesday when I began to feel the overwhelming feeling from university.
I had a math 180 workshop that was Wednesday morning, and it was my first workshop so I arrived at UBC early. I then realized, I forgot where my workshop was since there were two other math buildings and my schedule simply stated “MATH”. I messaged my boyfriend asking “WHERE IS THIS PLACE?!” but he was fast asleep. After wondering around helplessly and frustrated I gave up and went to Irving. I know, I should’ve asked someone else, but I was very shy.
By Thursday I figured, “Hmm, I should probably begin on my Math and Physics assignments”, which were both due Friday night. I procrastinated like I always do, and I eventually found myself stressing last minute on problems which I thought I could due. I was also upset with the fact that I went for math help and yet the person who “tutored” me left the room right after writing some calculations and not even checking to see if I understood. So, that was a bad first impression.
In the End
Friday night, I was a mix of emotions. Angry, frustrated, overwhelmed and being mean to myself for procrastinating. I almost felt like “maybe I’m not cut out for this” but I was told by many loving people to keep pushing. It’s only the first couple weeks and I shouldn’t feel like giving up. I should learn from what I did wrong and progress forward. This was one of my first lessons to be learned and I have learned it. I know I will experience this again, but I know I will learn to handle it better.
So.. let’s get week 3 started right!
Tuum Est!
