Enough is okay

I don’t usually like to stop at enough. If possible, I often try to go beyond what is just enough, to do more than is asked for because hey, why not?

However, I think student culture nowadays can sometimes be too extreme. There never seems to be an enough, which can harm us mentally and physically. It can difficult to decide when is enough and when you should keep going.

Today this is my enough:

  • I’ve attempted this crazy chem online assignment three times. I just keep getting only 1 question wrong so I tried again because how hard could it be to do it just one more time. But of course, it’s a whole new set of questions so my total time spent on this assignment has been five hours. Five hours is absolutely ridiculous. So I still have one wrong but I’m not going to do it again. I’ve learned the skills of solving questions related to acid and bases so that’s enough. I’m done.
  •  I’m bitter about how inefficient my time has been spent. Only one task accomplished this whole evening? Ridiculous.  One thing better than nothing so that’s enough for today. Tomorrow I’ll do better.
  • I haven’t been working out or eating as healthy as I would like because I haven’t been feeling very well. But I did achieve a goal of waking up earlier and including protein (yay chicken!) in my breakfast. Something is better than nothing.
  • After I went to an office hour where I learned so much math (Prof Ed Perkins is an awesome Math 103 prof. Take his class!),  I met up with Alyssa, Kevin and Andy to study but I realized that I just couldn’t get much done. So I said that’s enough of forcing myself to study here. I packed up my bags and headed to the bus.
  • I originally planned a solid few hours of studying down at the Vancouver Public Library on Saturday morning because I had a accessibility training session across from VPL. However, my dentist appointment ran longer than expected, my sweet mother wanted me to eat a decent lunch (because I neglect lunch hehe) and stocked up on groceries at a Chinese supermarket. Despite how quickly my lemon grass chicken rice came and was eaten by me and some rapid grocery shopping, I only made it to my training half a hour early. I initially pulled out my slides for a flash study sess but then put it away and took the opportunity to talk to and socialize with the other people at the training session.
  • If someone named Elena Diamond messages you about wanting to buy your textbooks and then asks you a slew of very personal questions and tells you strange things, do not talk to him or her. Block him/her. I gave her/him the benefit of the doubt because I thought “Elena” was that proficient in English and maybe didn’t know that it was inappropriate to ask such questions. To be fair, “Elena” did ask about the textbooks and appeared to want to negotiate the price, and I ignored the warning bells in my head because I really wanted to sell all three of those textbooks. Do not ignore your instinct that something is very very wrong! Anyways, I had definitely had enough of tolerating that.
  • Right now I have more moments of that’s enough to write about but for now, I’ve had enough. I think you guys get what I’m trying to so I’ll stop here.

Two things to say to yourself: this is enough. And if necessary, tomorrow I’ll do better.

 

On an unrelated note, life:

  • Study night with Juliet and Veena. Juliet made us fabulous instant noodles because #cravings.
  • Listening to Chanon and her many thoughts on Friday afternoon 🙂
  • New stationary: pen that smells like mango. and 100 page memo pad from the dollar store
  • Apink concert
  • Loving my classes!
  • The usual trying to stay on track in classes and balancing social life and the bazillion things that I have on my to-do list. 🙂

Have a great week everyone!

Saving on tuition – Advice from White Coat Investor

FANTASTIC advice from the White Coat Investor on making financial decisions as an undergraduate whose future may include expensive years of additional schooling and training. Honestly, I think this advice will be helpful to all undergraduates because the cost of living is crazy nowadays!

White Coat Investor’s message: Try to finish undergraduate  debt-free by LIMITING YOUR UNDERGRADUATE COSTS.

  1. Save on undergraduate tuition by choosing a school that doesn’t cost so much.
  2. Later on, choose the professional school that costs less. (Though I’m not at the stage of the journey yet, I’m iffy on this one. I think fit is more important there.)
  3. Live frugally.  e.g. If you don’t have to, don’t buy a car.
  4. Work part-time and/or during the summers.

Sidebar: I actually came to UBC to save on tuition because in grade 12, I knew for sure that I want to pursue professional or graduate school after undergraduate and I knew that I would need to save for that! I didn’t always have the goal that I do now so I originally applied to some schools in the States and got into some of my favourite ones. But this is how I made my decision at the end: if you want to be careful about your finances and want to minimize debt upon graduation, choose wisely between the school with a 50, 000/year pricetag vs the 10,000/year price tag. Pricey school might be better but not necessarily better. Don’t think that a more affordable school is not good enough for you because it’s public, it’s close to home, it’s not an Ivy League, etc.

You can be successful at any school. It’s up to YOU to make the resources and people surrounding you.

 

Working part-time during the school year

I’ve been thinking about getting an additional job (I already work)  since school started. I kept holding myself because I thought that I needed the time to focus on transiting from high school to university, adjusting to the amount of studying, etc. But now, I think it wasn’t so bad that I could handle more but I’m still hesitant to take on too much and have my grades suffer. Sigh… but academics are so important to me.

Any students who work part-time have any advice? I would love to know what you think in the comments or email me at shannayeung@gmail.com !

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