I cried when I got my acceptance letter to UBC. And let me tell you, they were not tears of joy.
Never in a million years did I expect to find myself going to school and living in Vancouver. Call me crazy, but as a born-and-raised Calgarian, I wanted to study in Toronto and truly experience winter. I even wanted to build an igloo, drink bagged milk, and do other stereotypical Canadian things.
To me, Toronto was the Canadian version of Los Angeles; it was the place to go for any aspiring filmmaker aka me. Unfortunately my dreams were crushed when my dream university sent me a heartbreaking rejection letter. Just kidding. I got three rejection letters. from three different universities in Québec and Ontario, thus putting my directing dream on hold. Looks like the East coast wasn’t ready for me.
I begrudgingly went to Destination UBC. I’m not even kidding, I was like a moody teenager whose parents wouldn’t let them buy the new iPhone. Despite my prejudice against the school, I was blown away by everything: the friendliness of the volunteers and other attendees, the eye-catching design of the buildings, the gorgeous campus, and just the sheer lack of snow in May. I could get used to this, I thought.
So that’s where I’m at now. Perpetually lost in Vancouver and the adjacent suburbs, extremely confused why there are no highways within the city (seriously people, this would help regulate your traffic problem), and anxious about starting university and having to make friends.
p.s. my name’s Shania. As in Shania Twain. I was named after her. But I don’t sing like her. Glad we got that out of the way. You can’t even imagine how many times I’ve had to go through that with people. okay bye.