Author: Shanna

3rd last day of 1st term re cap

(Note: I don’t write much about class because other things are more fun to write about)

  1. I slept early last night but woke up tired. Oh sleep debt…
  2. I did not have my knowledge together for my Chem quiz in the morning. I don’t want to relive that.
  3. We had a substitute chemistry professor who I loved. Prof MacLachlan. He talked to us about his research which include iridescent material and cellulose nano crystals. Cool! He was super energetic which was nice to watch when all my body wanted to do was return to my bed.
  4. Lunch with Misaki in the Nest – She said she’ll never get chicken noodle soup ever again.
  5. We took pictures at the photo booth. (Oops I can’t remember what cause the photo booth was fundraising for though…)   Made awkward poses. Hope the pictures turned out well.
  6. English – We got our Rhetorical Analyses back today. I realized that I wrote some pretty dumb things. Hindsight is always 20/20.
  7. Andy grabbed me and Alyssa to go see the A&W commercial man filming on campus. That was our celebrity sighting of the day.
  8. As usual, Andy glanced over this blog and wanted to know why he’s not mentioned more often.
  9. Disappointed in myself for not getting much done after class 🙁 We had to get up and move a lot of time. That was really disruptive to my writing flow haha. I’m so easily distracted and unproductive after class nowadays. I got to fix this. 🙁
  10. Surprised to learn something totally awesome about my friend today. Good luck girl!
  11. My Big let me know about this super quiet and comfy and totally awesome study spot that I want to try out! (Hopefully with her) My Big never ceases to be awesome. I got to meet Big’s ‘bae” today.  So that make him my Big in law? I don’t know…
  12. Freshly baked cookie Yay!
  13. I visited my Alpha Omicron Pi girls today at their fundraiser for Kidsafe (an organization that provides after school programming to children, technically “at-risk” children but I don’t agree with the use of the word “at-risk” – which is a story for another day). Lots of hugs with girls. I missed them!!
  14. Photos with Santa
  15. Shinnie ate a cookie that she claimed she will die if she doesn’t learn where to get more of them.
  16. Fraternity boys sang Christmas carols. They were off-tune but we could sense the effort.  Boys, please leave  “You’re Beautiful” to James Blunt.
  17. I love Christmas carols. Shinnie and I sang along. My favourites include: Last Christmas I gave you my heart, All I want for Christmas is You.
  18. Shinnie and Lisa wanted me to pinky-swear that I’ll re-join AOII in the spring. I take my pinky-swears really seriously so I couldn’t pinky swear. I really want to be with them more though.  Missing the sisterly love <3
  19. Had to turn down their invite to go out tonight in order to go home and work on my paper.
  20. Watched an episode of Oh My Venus while eating dinner: strong female lead inspires me
  21. Reading on selection bias, espeically survivorship bias.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
  22. Blogging in the middle of the night.
  23. Back to my English paper!

Have a great end of the last week of classes!!

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Tough choices

If you seek courage to make a tough choice, think this:

  • Life wasn’t supposed to a straight road from one point to another.
  • Life is full of forks to different paths.
  • When you get to the fork in the road, choose a path and don’t spend your life at the fork. There’s nothing to see or do at the fork in the road.
  • The interesting sights and experiences are always on the sides of the road.
  • Pick a path and move forward.
  • You can’t always have everything. Yes, there are great, totally amazing things along the path that you didn’t take but you know what? There will different amazing things along the path you have chosen to take too!
  • That said, it’s normal to feel sad if you have to leave something you love so allow yourself to feel sad if needed.
  • If you’re leaving behind an activity, you can find a lighter way to get involved e.g. a recreational level sport as opposed to varsity/pre-professional level, or if you leave jazz band, play some jazz on your own once in a while
  • If you’re leaving people behind, keep in touch with the ones you connected with most.
  • Proceed with your adventure in life!

The tough choice I’m making is that I know that de-pledging AOII is the road I must take but it’s still really hard to leave such a great group of girls.  I may cry on Monday when I fill out my de-pledge forms. Watching this video made me sad because the video showed the reasons I wanted to join a sorority – the laughter, love and support of sisterhood. I’m extremely thankful for the experiences being a part of AOII gave me and the girls that AOII allowed to meet (especially my Big Sister Sisi!! and Shinnie and Elaine). Shinnie and I clicked super well, and Elaine and I went through the whole journey of formal recruitment (rush) together.

Shout-out to the talented Michelle Ma for making such an amazing video! Joining a sorority is a worth-while experience if you have both the time and money to commit (neither of which I have). Having been an member of AOII, I highly recommend AOII.  If you’re interested, email or Facebook message someone in AOII and try a casual interview.

Check out AOII UBC’s instagram! https://www.instagram.com/AOIIUBC/

To the beautiful ladies in my pledge class <3: I’m really sorry that I can’t spend more time learning all the layers of each and every one of you. You’re all inspiring!

(Edit: The instagram photo is appearing funnily in the published post so I’ve deleted it from the post.)

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Thankful Friday

Lessons learned:

  • Word limits are hard to stay under!
  • Read the 152 page review BEFORE you read papers separately. Once you’ve read the individual papers, you won’t enough energy left. Update: I still haven’t read all of this yet. Sigh.

Thankful Friday:

  • I arrived late to Biology and sat on the floor. Later in the lecture, my professor walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to sit in a chair. #embarrassing
  • In chemistry, Dr. Crane made nylon right in front of our eyes! Chemistry is so cool!!!
  • Alyssa saved my butt by lending me her phone to answer Learning Catalytics questions (Physic 117’s version of iClickers). Thanks girl!!
  • In Physics, we calculated the density of the universe that would cause the universe to collapse in itself – the reverse of the Big Bang known as the “Big Crunch”. If you mess up your calculation, you will feel terrified. If you calculate correctly, you wouldn’t be so terrified.
  • The UBC Math Club sold all of their MATH 102 exam packs before I got there at noon. I hope that the Math Club will produce and sell more next week. I’m el cheapo when it comes to a lot of things but when it comes to exam packs, I tend to spend without my usual hesitation.
  • Fun lunch with Misaki and Sisi in Irving. When Sisi was debating whether to go Black Friday shopping, Misaki was the devil on the shoulder.
  • Dr. Fox made English class funny and enjoyable as usual. Class breezed by quickly.
  • Done for the day! Alyssa was headed for the pharmacy building so I walked with her. A brisk walk on a rain-less afternoon while having an unbeatable conversation with a friend  is a pretty great way to spend time unwinding after classes.
  • Clocked in three hours of biology and chemistry study time at the pharmacy building. I love huge windows so I grabbed an empty table by the window and spread all my papers and notes and pens.
  • Bus ride home was slow.
  • Spent time talking to my grandmother who is awesome and goes out of her way to help other people.
  • Mom and I talked about how proud I was when I gave my first paycheck to my mom and then my second paycheck to my grandfather. She told me about how she saved up her first paychecks to buy a table for her parents. When I was younger, I always had a goal that when I become a grown-up (whenever/if ever that is supposed to be), I want to be able to provide for my parents and grandparents. My parents and grandparents likely won’t need me because they all live frugally and don’t care much for material possessions. But all of them have sacrificed and done so much for me that as a child/grandchild, I want to be able to thank those who once took care of me by taking care of them. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

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Potential guest posts, LEAP, VocalEye AGM

Guest posts hopefully coming soon from Alyssa, Veena, Andy. Every student at UBC has an unique experience that can be shaped by the faculty that you’re in, the classes you take, the on-campus and off-campus organizations that you’re involved in and your future goals. Alyssa and Veena are two of my closest friends 🙂 and Andy is a very silly but sweet human. I’m asking our buddy Kevin if he also would be willing to write a little post.  I don’t know what they’re going to write about but I’ll list some things about each of them are knowledgeable about and/or might interest some of you readers! I bet that one of them will punch me for exposing their intelligence and awesomeness on this blog.

Alyssa:

  • I bow down to Alyssa for her skills making the BEST study plans, catch-up plans, study for finals plans. She is sooo good so she might share her method or tips for making totally awesome study plans so that you don’t feel as stressed about all that you need to do/study.  She is one of the most organized girlies I know 🙂
  • Alyssa has a different career goal than I do so for those of you interested in Pharmacy, watch out for her post! I think she’s pretty committed to this and probably knows a ton about what courses are required for applying, other requirements for applying for pharmacy school, etc. This information may be super helpful to those of you dreaming of becoming pharmacists.
  • She also has a super long commute everyday so perhaps tips on dealing with that and waking up so early.
  • Alyssa is also super sweet and kind hearted.

Veena:

  • She’s getting involved with several on-campus clubs such as Canadian Liver Foundation and Circle K. Veena’s involvement in clubs and leadership amazes me. She probably knows more about the many clubs on campus than I’ll ever know so if she leaves her email with her post, seek out her wisdom!
  • Veena is super knowledgeable about what medical school requirements are: courses for applying, courses needed for the MCAT, when to take MCAT, all these extracurricular and other requirements. Since I’ve come to UBC, I realized that a sizable number of students in my classes are interested in pursuing a medical degree so Veena’s wisdom on all this may interested a significant number of you.
  • She is also one of the smartest friends I have 🙂 Ask her about how she manages to totally knock midterms out of the park.
  • Both Veena and Alyssa are modest and are incredibly genuine about supporting each other to do our best! I know I can count on both of them to always have my back. 🙂

 

Andy:

  • Andy really wanted to be featured here but just to spite him, I will make my description of him short.
  • When we all parted for our respective buses today, he said he would make muffins but not share them.
  • He’s focusing his studies on Computer Science. He makes cool animations.
  • He is probably going to read this and demand a better representation.  (too bad hehe)

Monday:

  • Lunch with my Big and Misaki. Unfortunately, I don’t have the choice of remaining as a New Member. I
  • Much to my horror, I fell asleep for several hours right after school.
  • Biomechanics /Physics Circular Motion night with Misaki.

Tuesday:

  • 1st LEAP Intensive session: Backstage tour of the BMO Theatre. The costume storage is HUGE. Construction of the set for Peter and the Starcatcher is occurring at the same time that construction on the building is! The new space is amazing!!

Wednesday (Today)

  • Volunteered as a sighted buddy for VocalEye’s  Annual General Meeting downtown: I love volunteering with VocalEye a lot because VocalEye’s work and mission are incredibly meaningful. I enjoyed meeting a number of VocalEye members today. I was amazed when I heard a summary of all the accomplishments (successive fundraising, grants won, awareness events, shows described) this year during the annual report. I look forward to volunteering with VocalEye again soon.
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10 FAQs: Applying to UBC

  1. Who or where did you get help from to write your personal profile?
    1. Write your personal profile yourself.
    2. Come up with your ideas yourself. It’s not the job of your mom, your sister, your cousin twice-removed to come up with essay ideas for you.
    3. You want to express who you are. Don’t pretend to someone you’re not.
    4. I personally didn’t get a professional editor for my personal profile but my family/friends generously looked my personal profile.
  2. What do I write about??????
    1. I helped friends brainstorm. It helps to have someone to talk to. Your friends should not come up with the idea but should tell you what’s a cheesy idea and what’s a cool one.
    2. You don’t have to write what you think everyone wants to hear.
    3. Your life is unique! You’ve had experiences that no one else has had the exact same ones.
    4. You also don’t have to go crazy trying to “think outside the box.” You think your experience with a challenge is a cliche. It might not be to someone else!
  3. What if I’ve never had a significant challenge in my life?
    1. Be thankful for that and don’t wish that you’ve gone through rough times. Don’t wish that you lived below the poverty line as a child because that would be cool to write up. Not cool. I will refrain from ranting here.
    2. A significant challenge can something you thought was minor.
    3. Did you have a tough time adjusting to a new environment?
    4. Did you have difficulty interacting with a particular person?
    5. Did you struggle with learning something for the first time?
  4. I don’t think I’m good enough to get into ___. What’s a good back-up?
    1. If you want, work for it: Agonize over your personal profile, get your grades up as high as possible. Don’t stop yourself before you’ve started.
    2. No faculty is a back-up. Each faculty is competitive in its own right. DO NOT apply to a faculty just because you heard it’s easy to get into if you have no interest in it.
    3. You should apply to be in a faculty that you’re interested in and will be happy studying for years in.
  5. Who should I ask to be my letter of reference?
    1. Note: If I’m applying for Science, do I need to get a letter of reference from a science teacher? Nope! I put my French/Creative Writing teacher who is AWESOME in so many ways.  My other reference was a mentor figure from outside of school
    2. For applications besides UBC’s, I also asked my super cool hockey coach/English/Social Studies teacher who taught me so much in the classroom and on the ice and my biology teacher who gave me so much life advice outside of biology class.
    3. If you haven’t done so already, get to know your teachers. They’ve accomplished a lot of interesting things in their lives and they’re great sources of wisdom.
  6. OMG I wasn’t on student council, didn’t do MUN, etc. I’m never going to get in.
    1. Stay calm.
    2. You do not need to do any particular extracurricular to get into UBC .
    3. Don’t ever do something just because you think it sounds impressive.
    4. Don’t ever do something because you think all the “successful” kids are doing it.
    5. Do it because you love it.
    6. Do it because you want to help people and your community.
    7. Do it because you want to change the world your special way.
    8. Do it for the right reasons and you’ll be happy.
  7. What’s the best school?
    1. A better question is what is the best school for you.
    2. What programs does it offer?
    3. What scholarships can it offer you if you need financial aid?
    4. What sports/extracurriculars can you get involved in there?
    5. Don’t care about ranking too much.
    6. What’s the best school for me may not be the best school for you.
    7. Go visit the campus, talk to students who go/went there, etc.
  8. All my friends are going to SFU but I want to go to UBC. (And similar situations) What should I do?
    1. You will make new friends where ever you go.
    2. You will also be able to stay in touch with your friends that go to other schools.
    3. I would say go to the school that you want to go to.
  9. December or January deadline to submit?
    1. Submit by the December deadline if you’re able to.
    2. If you don’t have time, the January deadline is fine too.
    3. I know people who got in submitting before either deadline so it really doesn’t matter too much.
    4. Try not to procrastinate until the night before though because the UBC application website always crashes the night before the deadline.
  10. UBC O vs Vancouver?
    1. Depends on what you want.
    2. Smaller campus- O
    3. Location near big city- Van
    4. More snow- O
    5. Lots of water – Van
    6. UBC O is a beautiful campus in my opinion and I know people who love it there.
    7. I love it here in Van.
    8. Jokes aside, it’s really hard to describe the differences between the two. It’s more of a feeling/general vibe that is a little different. You should visit both to compare!

Have fun with the personal profiles UBC Hopefuls 😀

 

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Time & money

I participated in LEAP Launch and Orientation today at the Arts Club. I met participants from all levels. The level 1s impressed me with the amount of experience in theatre that they all had.

I really question whether I’ll have enough time to study and write an one-act play and participate in other extracurriculars and still live life (work out, clean, sleep, socialize). While I’m concerning about maintaining a balance, I believe that if you want to do all the things you want to do, you’ll make the time to do them. That said, my biggest challenge will be determining what is at the top of my priorities and what can be put off. I really strive to put all in a full effort. If I do something, I want to do it well. I don’t want to half-ass anything. This decision to put in my full effort definitely leads to stress when deadlines crash together. BUT I know that when I have more things to do, I’m forced to be more efficient and that what needs to get done will almost always get done at the end. In summary, I guess that I’m not concerned about things getting done but rather things get done with high quality.

Congratulations to the lovely ladies in my pledge class who were initiated into active members last night! I chose not not to get initiated this fall. Being in a sorority is great but chapter dues are quite a lot to invest in. Those of you who have been reading my blog know that I’ve always been very careful about money.  I do have enough money saved and (thank you all so much generous donors!!) financial aid BUT I am also firm about only using scholarship money for tuition, textbooks, school fees, etc. It’s extremely important to me to always have at least a particular amount of money saved and to save most of the money I make from work.This money I absolutely refuse to touch no matter how painful the decisions are that I’m forced to make because of this. This resolution of mine probably requires a backstory but in short, I’m saving this money so that I have enough to apply for and hopefully attend professional school.   So, that doesn’t leave me with much leftover money. I have so much on my plate that I don’t want to take on another job or else I can’t achieve quality in my academics or the other activities that I’m already involved in. (I already have one job but it doesn’t pay enough to cover dues.) I also believe if I become an initiated member, I want to contributing quality effort and time to my sorority. My goal with sorority life was to become very active with our philanthropic efforts. While I was up and totally involved with our fundraiser for the Arthritis Society, I was unfortunately unable to participate in philanthropy events such as Theta’s Katwalk and Beta’s Gammies because I was writing my midterms during the events. This alerted me to the fact that I’m just not able to do sorority life very well at the moment. I need more time to learn how to manage my time and work effectively before I commit to the huge time demands of sorority life.I’m still affiliated with AOII but I’ve chosen to take on a lesser role as an uninitiated member. I may choose to become a full member in the spring.

To finish off, I want to share with you all the song that I’m addicted to at the moment: The music video makes little sense to me but this song energizes me!

 

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I’m going to meet Scott Young!!!

I am so excited that I’m going to meet someone I deeply admire! Scott Young is an author and blogger who writes about productivity and self-mastery. I’ve subscribed to his blog for quite some time now and now I’m going to meet him on my birthday. If you’re interested in learning how to learn and career development, check out Scott’s blog at http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/

Now if I could also meet Cal Newport, Leo B from ZenHabits, LadyKayMD, Andrea Tooley, Cassey Ho and … (this list goes on and on )

As my birthday is coming quickly around the corner, my friends have been asking me what I want and what I want to do to celebrate. I’ve often replied, “Nothing.” My ideal birthday doesn’t involve any gifts or fancy night out. I really don’t need any things. In fact, I believe that I need to live with less. Things don’t make me happy. Having more things can make me unhappy because things can become clutter and once I have things, I’ll want more things. Once I want things, the wanting never stops. So for my birthday, I don’t want material items or money being wasted. My ideal birthday would involve:

  • Spending time with those that I care about. Perhaps over a meal,  or casually chatting over snacks at home, or teasing each other and laughing and the laughter becoming white puffs  in the chilly autumn air, or doing laundry together with my mom. That’s what I like.
  • Spending time quietly to reflect on the last year of my life that has gone by. Perhaps while all cozy with a notebook and pen or while sweating it out on a nice long run in the early morning.
  • Time writing writing and writing
  • Relaxing because I know that all my studying and homework is already be (mostly) done
  • As much I love people, I feel like I haven’t had much time to myself nowadays. I’m thankful that I’m constantly surrounded by a bright, cheerful, caring, loyal and supportive crowd of family and friends but I need a break to stop and think about who I’ve been this past year and what kind of person I want to be to this world for the next year.

A preview of this upcoming week: (sorry for all the abbreviations.)

  • LEAP Launch Party and Orientation at the Arts Club Theatre on Granville Island tomorrow. I have to get to sleep after I’m done writing this!
  • Time with my favourite
  • Study time with my best friend (Best Friends Forever!! )
  • Lots and lots of studying and prepping for meetings etc
  • A light workout
  • Lunch with my Big
  • Physics quiz.
  • LEAP first session at BMO Theatre Centre, which means that I have to miss RD crew appreciation that evening. That’s too bad because I really want to see the crew. I could stop by after LEAP but that would be pretty late and I should probably go home instead.
  • Volunteering as a sighted guide for VocalEye AGM meeting downtown.
  • Math quiz
  • Research meeting at HVEM
  • One of those brutal 9-5 non-stop Fridays… sigh. But I love Chem lab so I’ll have something to look forward to.
  • Need to prep for REX meeting

Then it’ll be next weekend. I think this week is going to fly by.

Hope you all are going to amazing weekends!

Shanna

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What does family mean to you?

As today was the first day after all my midterms finished, I wasted time relaxed was by watching part of a drama series called “Seoyoung, My Daughter“. I had a master plan to catch up and get ahead on readings but Seoyoung, My Daughter really hooked me in.  The story of Seoyoung, My Daughter has so much emotional impact that I teared up multiple times. The complicated relationship between the daughter, son and father brings up questions such as

  • whether love for your family can truly be unconditional
  • when do you choose morals over personal happiness and when do you put happiness first
  • are you responsible for the mistakes (e.g. gigantic debt)  of your loved ones
  • What do I value in life? and in what order? specifically of family, love, career, money
  • Is money that important?  (This story proposes that money is both important and unimportant.)
  • If you always make morally upright decision, why do you always get the short end of the stick in life?
  • how many more times can these actors make me cry?

Morals of the story:

  • All lies will unravel. The truth will always come out.
  • Life is full of tough decisions
  • AND everyone does things that hurt others
  • Those who love you will love you nonetheless
  • Parents love their children unconditionally
  • Children love their parents
  • People don’t always show their love obviously but it doesn’t mean that they don’t care and love you.
  • Love is caring for them, wanting them to live well. The simple things like eating enough, sleeping enough, being warm, not being sick, hurt, sad.
  • Live how you want to live. Don’t let pressure from your parents, spouse, siblings, society dictate the way you live if that way of life makes you miserable.
  • Letting go of bitterness from the past will allow you to be happy.
  • You can choose to be happy.
  • Being rich doesn’t guarantee happiness.
  • There are times when you just can’t change the situation and you lose.
  • Take one for the team.
  • Don’t be greedy. You feel happy if you’re satisfied with what you have. If you always want more, you’ll never be happy.
  • If someone has emotional scars, don’t force them to talk about it. Everyone deserves to keep something to themselves.
  • Siblings are the best and will be there for you through thick and thin.
  • People have their reasons. Seek to understand before you judge.

A question that I keep asking myself is why do I like this story so much. I think it’s because I identify with the struggles of the characters very well. Family is extremely important to me. Just like the twins, I would do almost anything for my little brother because he’s my brother and I love him. Though I don’t always agree with my dad, I love him too. I cried so much when the mother died. (Not a spoiler since she dies right at the beginning).

In my opinion, this story captured the complicated unbreakable nature of family love well but the romantic love portrayed was unrealistically.

Readers, what do you think about family? 

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