The Chronicles of the Purple Sweater

There’s an incredible excitement stepping onto campus again after four months. It’s crazy to see how much on campus has changed in just four months, and equally wonderful to be reminded of the things that haven’t: the past week has been filled with the familiar sights, sounds and tastes of Pi R Squared, Starbucks, SUB, Buchanan, CIRS, IKB, and all the other places I’ve frequented so far on campus since I left for the summer. I am always remind how gorgeous and beautiful the campus is and just how lucky I am to be going to school here. Grabbing my UPass, getting a Blue Chip Cookie, seeing the poster sale back on, checking out the festivities at IMAGINE, running to and from different buildings (I have a crazy trek this year! CIRS to Buch to ESB, no kidding!) and grabbing two quick slices of pizza at Pi R Squared are just some of the simple things I simply missed while I was gone during the summer. Anyways, I digress – it’s wonderful to be back.

With school starting, however, also come the hoards of reading assignments that come in (I’m ALREADY behind, can you imagine that?! It’s like the fourth day of school!), selling and buying textbooks, seeing old friends and classmates from your old classes in your new classes, overcoming the awkwardness of saying hello to new people in your new classes, and the daily struggle to run to catch (and fit in) the 99 or the 43. Good times.

Overall, it is so great to be back for another year and equally wonderful to now have declared and focussing on a direction for the rest of my education here. Where that will lead me, only time will tell, but as of now I am just incredibly excited and it really should be an awesome year! (UBC PSYCH FTW!)

Let’s go get ’em!

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WHAT? In the blink of any eye my first year at UBC has ended. I simply cannot believe how fast this first year passed by… considering I didn’t seem to have done much at all. But yes, I remember sitting down and writing an excruciatingly hard calculus final yesterday at the SRC and yes, I believe that was my last exam! Now the waiting begins.

This past year has been one of many learning experiences for me, both inside and outside of school. I took my first steps in experiencing the “real” world and I know I still have so much to see of that. I learned the increasing importance of time management and prioritization, and also learned the true reality of how hard earning money is with my first job. I learned about being independent, even if just partially, as my school and work schedules differed from the rest of my family and I was often forced to figure out a lot of things by myself – like transportation, food, alarms (oh, the dreaded alarm clock!). There was sincerely much to be learned and experienced in simply this first year, I can’t imagine how it would be like in the future.

I learned that as much as it is important to succeed in an education, it is just as important to secure friendships, reach out, and be involved. I learned the importance of having enough humility to ask for help, and the willingness to offer that helping hand if someone is there to ask.

I learned to look for objectives when acting, I learned how to derive and integrate (the latter… only sort of), I close read about vampires, food, werewolves and drew meaning from Old English passages, I learned the origins of language and English language roots, I learned about the large complexity that is the human brain, about learning, stress, coping, about mental disease, about social interactions and personality; I learned the basics of the economy.

To say simply that this year was a year that was packed full of learning and gaining new insights would be an understatement. It was a year that was simply very enjoyable and eye-opening to say the least, and makes me ever more glad that I chose UBC.

This summer I’m looking forward to working a little more and also spending LOTS of time relaxing and catching up with friends. I’ll blog once in a while, but probably will be back full force in September. Here’s to the four month summer! (And to those who are taking the summer term – best of luck!)

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The past week, I have been increasingly overwhelmed of the fact that midterms were approaching so fast and also of the fact that I didn’t really do as much as I would’ve liked to prepare for them. My first two midterms of the year were on Friday, and I think (well I hope) I did relatively well. I do have to mention that it is incredibly difficult to do well when you are falling behind on all the reading and homework, which is a position that I would rather not be in this early in the school year. But unfortunately, my brain is still in summer mode and I don’t even know how many more cups of Starbucks Mocha (wow… those are REALLY good) my brain needs in order to stay awake and realize that school has started over a month ago and that it should really start functioning properly in order for my year to go at least relatively well. SO WAKE UP BRAIN.

And the second thing I wanted to say is how AMAZING it is to walk through the SUB in the morning from the bus loop while the rain is pelting down and the wind is blasting everywhere, to smell the AMAZING smell of coffee drifting from the Starbucks and basically hear the coffee scream, “COME GET SOME TOM, YOU KNOW YOU WANNA”. That’s when I realize that I do want to and I scan my card, leaving a couple minutes later with a steaming mocha or pumpkin spice latte in my hand. It takes all of my willpower to walk away without one, but the thought of having to refill my card more often is enough motivation for me to not. Haha.

As ironic as it sounds, I remember a few years back when I was still in high school saying that I will NEVER, EVER drink coffee. But I have underestimated the power of the Starbucks card and I have also underestimated how draining University would be. So here am I, sitting early in my lecture hall with a steaming cup of White Chocolate mocha beside me. After all, it’s the only thing that really helps me wake up nowadays. Yikes :1

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Now people may consider me insane for saying this, but the reality is that I love the rain – probably because I have spent the past 18 years of my life in this beautiful city. And when it rains, there is a certain… excitement and nostalgia I feel towards it that I can’t really describe. But long story made short, although I love the sunny days (and the weather has been INCREDIBLE here in Vancouver past few months!), there is something that makes me very happy inside to see the rain fall again.

Mostly, that gives me the time to enjoy my hot chocolates and Boston Creams again, (and now this is turning into a Tim Hortons commercial) and that is EXACTLY what I did in my break today. The cold weather lets me have much warmer drinks and more chocolate-y treats, I find. It also reminds me of Christmas which is now a short three months away (yes, I start counting down in like August, and yes, Christmas is my absolute favourite season if you haven’t figured that out already :D)

Now there really wasn’t point in this blog post other than the fact that it is the time for Boston Creams and hot chocolates and hot coffee and pumpkin spice lattes. But I guess my message here is to find something positive about every negative situation. Maybe then you’ll find that you’ll love the rain as much as you love the sun here ^^

Until next time, I’ll be enjoying my hot chocolate at Tim Hortons. Cheers!

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