Whether this is your first year at UBC or your fifth you deserve to have the best year of your life. You deserve to learn new things, have new adventures and make memories in the moment. Laugh until you cry, mess up horribly, don’t let others govern how you live your life and most importantly BE YOURSELF. Here’s how to get there:
1) Stop Settling. It’s easy to get stuck, to fall into a routine and never break free. University shouldn’t be about routine, it should be the time in your life where you verge from the norm, try new things and create new and interesting paths on which to travel. At UBC you are surrounded by hundreds of clubs, dozens of sports leagues, thousands of classes, and an infinite amount of people with unique stories, experiences and histories. Don’t allow yourself to settle for just going to school. UBC is home to countless ways to get involved, ways to leave your comfort zone and ways in which you can design your own unique paths.
2) Say No. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed, especially in university. There are times when we say ‘yes’ to too many things and as a result have no time for ourselves. There’s a saying that university consists of three things: school, sleep and a social life, you can only do two of them well at any one time. Sometimes it’s necessary to say ‘no’. Don’t feel guilty about taking a night to hang out in your pajamas and watch movies rather than going out with friends. Know your limits and don’t let yourself get to your breaking point. Saying ‘no’ is tough, but ultimately it’s an essential word to avoid exhaustion.
3) Don’t Think Long Term. Every day is full of little challenges. We don’t live in a perfect world and things are not always going to go our way. Although having long-term goals are great they force you onto a conveyer belt. When you set your mind on something that is still five years away you set your life onto a five-year plan. Five years down the road how do you know that that goal is still going to be what you want? What if you’ve just wasted five years striving for something that no longer compliments who you are? Instead make small term goals and celebrate every time you complete one of them. Eat breakfast every day for a month, learn to run 5 km, study for an hour every night. Being able to have small victories allows you to appreciate those moments of accomplishments, and they will help you learn where your passions are. All of your little successes will eventually build up and take you to exactly where you need to be.
4) Allow Yourself to Fail. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to not be able to do everything exactly the way you were expecting. It’s okay to not be perfect. Being able to recognize defeat and accept failure is an easy thing to do, it’s what comes next that is difficult. Getting up and trying again, asking for a second chance, starting from the beginning, those are the things that are truly challenging. It takes courage to keep on going even after you’ve failed. Failure is part of life, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s what makes us human, and we learn the most about ourselves from how we deal with defeat. It’s okay to allow yourself to fail; it’s not okay to allow yourself to give up. So keep trying, be tenacious, fight for what you want and don’t ever stop believing that your can accomplish whatever you put your mind to.
5) Be Scared. Eleanor Roosevelt once said you should do one thing every day that scares you. Some of our greatest achievements can come from accomplishing something that absolutely terrifies you. Whether it’s bungee jumping, learning to dance or saying “I love you”, our fears should not hold us back. The most memorable moments come from looking back on those moments of fear that we were able to overcome. So take time this year to figure out what you’re scared of, allow the fear to wash over you and then do it anyways, the view from the finish line is worth it.
by Kaitlin Flemons