As of last week I'm officially done school for another year, so that's pretty exciting. I haven't actually found a summer job yet, so I've got some free time on my hands at least for the next little while.
So far I've been using the time mostly to read and clean. One of my first priorities the day after my last exam was to go to the library (beaten only by sleeping in, and finally seeing The Hunger Games), so I have a good stack of books that I'm working my way through. My ultimate goal is to read books off of my to-read list faster than I can add more to it, but I never seem to be able to maintain that pace long enough to put a significant dent in it.
As for cleaning, I got hit by the spring cleaning bug a few weeks back and was actually antsy to be cleaning things all the way through exams. I'm about 90% finished with my room now, so after I finish up the last few touches tomorrow I can move on to the rest of the house. Freshly cleaned things just make me so happy, having basically my whole room be clean all at the same time is so refreshing and wonderful.
I also went home over the weekend to visit my parents. It was nice to see them, and to get out of the city for a little while. Also my dad showed me how to do my taxes, which is one of those things that I've sort of always had on the list in my head of things that will make me "a real grown up." But it was actually pretty straightforward, and I don't really feel any more grown up than I did before.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to summer. I have a lot of things I want to do this summer, although I always do at the beginning of summer, and I never seem to get them all done. But I want to get back on a regular exercise schedule, experiment with cooking new things, read a lot of books, do some writing, finish knitting a sweater I've been working on for four and a half years, start learning a new language (maybe Spanish?) through LiveMocha, get caught up on learning computer programming through Code Year, and maybe start a small garden in planters on my deck. And, you know, hang out with friends, go to the beach, eat lots of ice cream, and all the other normal summer activities. I don't know whether I'll actually be able to fit all that in, but hopefully I can at least do some of it.
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Some Musings on Exams
I'm going to come clean about something here: I enjoy writing exams.
I hate everything leading up to them. I hate the studying. I hate all the stress. I hate the pressure of having most or all of my mark come from a single evaluation. I hate not knowing what's going to be waiting for me in the exam room.
But once I get there, that all fades away. It's just the right amount of pressure to push me to an ideal mental state. When it comes down to just me and the exam, it's nothing but a fun academic puzzle that I get to sort out. I love it.
I'm especially enjoying exams right now because most of my classes are 100% finals, so I haven't had many opportunities to test my knowledge over the course of the term. But now, when I went in to write those exams, I had the sudden, whooshing realization that I actually did learn a lot of stuff this year. It was really satisfying, especially since I've been questioning all year whether law school was the right decision, and that realization went a long way toward making the decision feel justified.
I also had this moment while I was in the exam room where I just became very aware of everyone around me and how hard all the 100 or so people in the room working at that moment. Everyone, at the same time, pouring their knowledge onto the page, answering the same questions, seeking the same answers. Even though it is a competition, even though everyone hopes at least a little bit that everyone else does poorly to push themselves higher up the curve, at that moment it really felt like we were all in it together. Whatever differences we had throughout the year, whatever anyone thinks of anyone else, when we were in that exam room, we were all on the same team, we all wanted the same thing. It was a really powerful and positive feeling and I wish that education, or even just life, could have moments like that more often.
I hate everything leading up to them. I hate the studying. I hate all the stress. I hate the pressure of having most or all of my mark come from a single evaluation. I hate not knowing what's going to be waiting for me in the exam room.
But once I get there, that all fades away. It's just the right amount of pressure to push me to an ideal mental state. When it comes down to just me and the exam, it's nothing but a fun academic puzzle that I get to sort out. I love it.
I'm especially enjoying exams right now because most of my classes are 100% finals, so I haven't had many opportunities to test my knowledge over the course of the term. But now, when I went in to write those exams, I had the sudden, whooshing realization that I actually did learn a lot of stuff this year. It was really satisfying, especially since I've been questioning all year whether law school was the right decision, and that realization went a long way toward making the decision feel justified.
I also had this moment while I was in the exam room where I just became very aware of everyone around me and how hard all the 100 or so people in the room working at that moment. Everyone, at the same time, pouring their knowledge onto the page, answering the same questions, seeking the same answers. Even though it is a competition, even though everyone hopes at least a little bit that everyone else does poorly to push themselves higher up the curve, at that moment it really felt like we were all in it together. Whatever differences we had throughout the year, whatever anyone thinks of anyone else, when we were in that exam room, we were all on the same team, we all wanted the same thing. It was a really powerful and positive feeling and I wish that education, or even just life, could have moments like that more often.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Catch-up
Well, since I didn't post the last time we had a free week, I guess I'll do a little update on my life in the past few months.
Law school got a lot harder this semester. Apparently after first semester we're supposed to "get the hang of it" and be able to do more work in the same amount of time, but that's just not how things work. Yes, I've gotten used to reading cases and can work through them a little bit faster than when we first started out, but it's not a significant enough difference to make up for the amount of extra work they've piled on. It does help somewhat that everyone else seems to be just as overwhelmed and stressed out as I am, so at least we're all in it together.
This semester we have to do a "moot court," which is basically a fake court exercise where we're the lawyers and one of our profs is the judge. I'm really nervous about it, but at the same time it's nice that we're getting at least a bit of a taste of what it's actually like to be a lawyer. At the moment, though, it's mostly just stressful, because the written part of it is due on Friday and I'm not nearly as far along as I should be.
Other than school, I haven't been up to a whole lot. A few weeks ago I went out of town for a few days to go to a friend's housewarming party. He's 22 and has been out of university for less than a year, so I'm super impressed that he has a house already, and he's the first one in our group of friends to buy a house, so it seemed like a big enough occasion to justify the trip.
Next week is my reading week and I'm really excited. It turns out that a bunch of my friends at different universities all ended up having our break at the same time, so a few of them that are normally in far away parts of the country are coming home for the week, and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Plus I'm pretty keen on the chance to get caught up both on school work and sleep!
Anyway, I guess that's it for me. I hope everyone is doing well, and that you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.
Law school got a lot harder this semester. Apparently after first semester we're supposed to "get the hang of it" and be able to do more work in the same amount of time, but that's just not how things work. Yes, I've gotten used to reading cases and can work through them a little bit faster than when we first started out, but it's not a significant enough difference to make up for the amount of extra work they've piled on. It does help somewhat that everyone else seems to be just as overwhelmed and stressed out as I am, so at least we're all in it together.
This semester we have to do a "moot court," which is basically a fake court exercise where we're the lawyers and one of our profs is the judge. I'm really nervous about it, but at the same time it's nice that we're getting at least a bit of a taste of what it's actually like to be a lawyer. At the moment, though, it's mostly just stressful, because the written part of it is due on Friday and I'm not nearly as far along as I should be.
Other than school, I haven't been up to a whole lot. A few weeks ago I went out of town for a few days to go to a friend's housewarming party. He's 22 and has been out of university for less than a year, so I'm super impressed that he has a house already, and he's the first one in our group of friends to buy a house, so it seemed like a big enough occasion to justify the trip.
Next week is my reading week and I'm really excited. It turns out that a bunch of my friends at different universities all ended up having our break at the same time, so a few of them that are normally in far away parts of the country are coming home for the week, and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Plus I'm pretty keen on the chance to get caught up both on school work and sleep!
Anyway, I guess that's it for me. I hope everyone is doing well, and that you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Agony Aunt-ing
I'm going to try to give answers to two of these questions. I didn't really have good answers to many of the others, and these two sort of go together a bit, so hopefully there's something here that might be helpful.
How do you stop procrastinating?
I really only have one piece of advice for this one, and it will only help if you have the same type of procrastination problem as I do, but this is actually the only thing I've found that really works for me. Sometimes I procrastinate by reading or watching TV or deciding that I desperately need to reorganize my closet, but most of the time my problem is the internet. I use site-blocking software to prevent me from accessing the sites that I waste the most time on. The program I use is a piece of free software called Cold Turkey. It's Windows-only, but I know there are similar programs out there for Mac. You just type in the sites you want to block, and set how long you want them to stay blocked. Once you hit go, you can't get on those sites until the time is up. I find that the benefits from this are two-fold: obviously, it prevents me from actually wasting time on those sites, but knowing that I can't get on them also shuts off that nagging voice that says things like "I wonder if anyone's tweeted anything interesting" or "I wonder if any of my subscriptions have uploaded new videos," so that I can focus better on whatever I'm actually supposed to be doing.
Do you have any tips for good studying habits?
Create a designated study area. Do all of your studying there, and when you're doing things other than studying, go somewhere else. This helps make sure that you stay focused while you're studying.
Where applicable, review past tests/exams/assignments to identify your problem areas so that you know where you need to focus the most attention.
Condense your class notes into study notes. Only go through your full set of notes once, in order to create a shortened version of the absolute most important points. After that, read through the shorter notes as many times as you can. Try to use the important points to remind you of the smaller details, and only refer back to your longer notes if you need to refresh your memory on something. For one thing, going through 15 pages instead of 50 feels like a lot less work, and you can cover the same amount of material more times. Plus, if you can teach yourself to remember things in those sorts of chunks, you only need to memorize the bigger things to bring the details to mind, rather than trying to memorize every little thing in your notes separately. If you're super-keen and have enough time, try to make condensed notes as you go along, once you've finished a topic, rather than waiting until you have something to study for, because it will save time later and make studying seem less daunting so that it's easier to get started. It also lets you make sure you understand a topic while it's still fresh in your mind, and help get your brain into that connection-making mindset.
Take breaks every few hours. If you study too much at once your brain will just get tired and start jumbling things up. Try to use your breaks to do something that will help refresh you, like going for a walk, having a snack, or taking a nap. This will help you hit the ground running when you do start studying again, and it will also feel more like a break if you get up and move around and change gears completely, rather than just sitting down and logging into Facebook.
I sort of feel like I just regurgitated one of those 'study tips' emails that my university sends out every exam period, but these really are all things that I actually do, and they have helped.
How do you stop procrastinating?
I really only have one piece of advice for this one, and it will only help if you have the same type of procrastination problem as I do, but this is actually the only thing I've found that really works for me. Sometimes I procrastinate by reading or watching TV or deciding that I desperately need to reorganize my closet, but most of the time my problem is the internet. I use site-blocking software to prevent me from accessing the sites that I waste the most time on. The program I use is a piece of free software called Cold Turkey. It's Windows-only, but I know there are similar programs out there for Mac. You just type in the sites you want to block, and set how long you want them to stay blocked. Once you hit go, you can't get on those sites until the time is up. I find that the benefits from this are two-fold: obviously, it prevents me from actually wasting time on those sites, but knowing that I can't get on them also shuts off that nagging voice that says things like "I wonder if anyone's tweeted anything interesting" or "I wonder if any of my subscriptions have uploaded new videos," so that I can focus better on whatever I'm actually supposed to be doing.
Do you have any tips for good studying habits?
Create a designated study area. Do all of your studying there, and when you're doing things other than studying, go somewhere else. This helps make sure that you stay focused while you're studying.
Where applicable, review past tests/exams/assignments to identify your problem areas so that you know where you need to focus the most attention.
Condense your class notes into study notes. Only go through your full set of notes once, in order to create a shortened version of the absolute most important points. After that, read through the shorter notes as many times as you can. Try to use the important points to remind you of the smaller details, and only refer back to your longer notes if you need to refresh your memory on something. For one thing, going through 15 pages instead of 50 feels like a lot less work, and you can cover the same amount of material more times. Plus, if you can teach yourself to remember things in those sorts of chunks, you only need to memorize the bigger things to bring the details to mind, rather than trying to memorize every little thing in your notes separately. If you're super-keen and have enough time, try to make condensed notes as you go along, once you've finished a topic, rather than waiting until you have something to study for, because it will save time later and make studying seem less daunting so that it's easier to get started. It also lets you make sure you understand a topic while it's still fresh in your mind, and help get your brain into that connection-making mindset.
Take breaks every few hours. If you study too much at once your brain will just get tired and start jumbling things up. Try to use your breaks to do something that will help refresh you, like going for a walk, having a snack, or taking a nap. This will help you hit the ground running when you do start studying again, and it will also feel more like a break if you get up and move around and change gears completely, rather than just sitting down and logging into Facebook.
I sort of feel like I just regurgitated one of those 'study tips' emails that my university sends out every exam period, but these really are all things that I actually do, and they have helped.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
There are a lot of things that I know I should do, but I don't.
Some of them I don't do because I'm just plain lazy.
I know that I should get more exercise, both for the health benefits, and because the endorphins will help increase happiness and reduce stress, which would probably make some of the other things on this list easier.
I know I should start doing homework (especially major things like studying for exams) ahead of time so that I don't end up scrambling at the last minute, but I just have a really hard time motivating myself to start things when it feels like I still have lots of time left.
Other things I don't do because I'm too busy.
In this category, mostly I don't spend enough time with my friends. I know I should see them more, and I'm always happy when I do see them, but I have a hard time justifying taking the time off when I always seem to have a massive to do list hanging over my head.
There are a lot of things that I don't do because I'm too scared.
Fear gets in the way of my social life a lot. I eat lunch quietly in the atrium before rushing into the library, instead of going to the student lounge to hang out with everyone else. When I go into classes I tend to sit down in the first empty seat I see, rather than looking around to see if there are any seats near the people that I know and sometimes hang out with. And I don't like to go to any of the big social events organized by the school because they all tend to be the loud-noisy-crowded-drunken-mingly type things and I get too worked up about people being in my personal space and I worry that I won't know anyone there or that the people I do know will have more interesting people to talk to and that somehow I'll end up hovering around awkwardly by myself. So that's probably something I should work on.
There are also things that I avoid doing for all three of these reasons.
Mainly, this is creative things, like writing. I really love writing and I enjoy doing it and in my idealistic dream world I would be able to make a career of it someday, but I really don't do it very often. Partly I'm too busy and always prioritize my schoolwork first. Partly I'm too lazy and just don't write because it's so much easier to use my downtime to watch TV. Partly I'm too scared that I'm never going to be good enough and I'll never make it as a writer and so I just don't do it because that way I'll never have to confront failure.
Okay, I feel like my post was angsty too. Maybe this is just a really angsty theme.
Some of them I don't do because I'm just plain lazy.
I know that I should get more exercise, both for the health benefits, and because the endorphins will help increase happiness and reduce stress, which would probably make some of the other things on this list easier.
I know I should start doing homework (especially major things like studying for exams) ahead of time so that I don't end up scrambling at the last minute, but I just have a really hard time motivating myself to start things when it feels like I still have lots of time left.
Other things I don't do because I'm too busy.
In this category, mostly I don't spend enough time with my friends. I know I should see them more, and I'm always happy when I do see them, but I have a hard time justifying taking the time off when I always seem to have a massive to do list hanging over my head.
There are a lot of things that I don't do because I'm too scared.
Fear gets in the way of my social life a lot. I eat lunch quietly in the atrium before rushing into the library, instead of going to the student lounge to hang out with everyone else. When I go into classes I tend to sit down in the first empty seat I see, rather than looking around to see if there are any seats near the people that I know and sometimes hang out with. And I don't like to go to any of the big social events organized by the school because they all tend to be the loud-noisy-crowded-drunken-mingly type things and I get too worked up about people being in my personal space and I worry that I won't know anyone there or that the people I do know will have more interesting people to talk to and that somehow I'll end up hovering around awkwardly by myself. So that's probably something I should work on.
There are also things that I avoid doing for all three of these reasons.
Mainly, this is creative things, like writing. I really love writing and I enjoy doing it and in my idealistic dream world I would be able to make a career of it someday, but I really don't do it very often. Partly I'm too busy and always prioritize my schoolwork first. Partly I'm too lazy and just don't write because it's so much easier to use my downtime to watch TV. Partly I'm too scared that I'm never going to be good enough and I'll never make it as a writer and so I just don't do it because that way I'll never have to confront failure.
Okay, I feel like my post was angsty too. Maybe this is just a really angsty theme.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Where I'm At
As of the beginning of September, I moved back out of my parents' basement and returned to Halifax. This is a good thing. I love my parents, and it's not like they're strict or even tried to control my life in any way at all, but after being independent for several years, moving back in with them was kind of brutal. So I'm glad to be back out on my own.
Most of friends graduated with me last year, and have moved away to jobs/further education in other parts of the province/country/world, including both of my roommates. And all of the friends who did stick around kept the same living arrangements as they had before, which left me kind of stuck for housing options. I considered living completely on my own, and that was always the back-up plan, but I'm scared that if I lived alone I would just become a complete hermit, and never leave home except to go to class, and talk to myself all the time, and fall out of touch with all of my friends, and just generally not be in a good state of mental health. So instead I moved into a house where all the rooms are rented out separately, meaning that I now live with three total strangers. Well, I guess they're not entirely strangers any more, since we've lived together for a few weeks, but it's still weird. They're all really nice, but it still seems odd to be living with them. Living with strangers is just a completely different way of life than living with friends (or parents).
I love the house, though. It's bigger than my old apartment, and it's above ground instead of in a basement, so having enormous windows in my room feels like such a luxury and I love it. Also there's a nice backyard with a deck, and the "furnished downstairs" includes a PIANO in the dining room, which is really exciting. Plus it's closer to campus than my old place, which is nice (and will be even nicer once winter hits, I'm sure).
Of course, the reason I'm back in Halifax at all is because I've just started law school, which is also weird. I can't even decide yet whether or not I like it. It's just all so completely different than anything I've studied before that it's hard to get my head wrapped around it. On the bright side, I was sort of expecting the profs to be strict and stern but they're totally just regular profs, and the other students aren't as competitive and snobby as I was afraid they would be, so that's all good.
Other than that, at the end of summer my friends and I went on our annual backwoods camping trip, which was excellent, and we went for five days instead of just three like we usually do, so it was extra-excellent. This past weekend I went rock-climbing for the first time, which was fun but also difficult and somewhat frustrating. I would really like to go again, because by the time I felt like I was starting to figure out the strategy and technique side of it, I was getting too physically tired to actually do it. Also this weekend I went to the Word on the Street Festival and appreciated all the books and all the book/writing/literacy related organizations and all the people being interested in and excited about books, and I picked up a copy of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which I'm really excited to start reading.
I think that is everything important (and a bunch of things that aren't).
Most of friends graduated with me last year, and have moved away to jobs/further education in other parts of the province/country/world, including both of my roommates. And all of the friends who did stick around kept the same living arrangements as they had before, which left me kind of stuck for housing options. I considered living completely on my own, and that was always the back-up plan, but I'm scared that if I lived alone I would just become a complete hermit, and never leave home except to go to class, and talk to myself all the time, and fall out of touch with all of my friends, and just generally not be in a good state of mental health. So instead I moved into a house where all the rooms are rented out separately, meaning that I now live with three total strangers. Well, I guess they're not entirely strangers any more, since we've lived together for a few weeks, but it's still weird. They're all really nice, but it still seems odd to be living with them. Living with strangers is just a completely different way of life than living with friends (or parents).
I love the house, though. It's bigger than my old apartment, and it's above ground instead of in a basement, so having enormous windows in my room feels like such a luxury and I love it. Also there's a nice backyard with a deck, and the "furnished downstairs" includes a PIANO in the dining room, which is really exciting. Plus it's closer to campus than my old place, which is nice (and will be even nicer once winter hits, I'm sure).
Of course, the reason I'm back in Halifax at all is because I've just started law school, which is also weird. I can't even decide yet whether or not I like it. It's just all so completely different than anything I've studied before that it's hard to get my head wrapped around it. On the bright side, I was sort of expecting the profs to be strict and stern but they're totally just regular profs, and the other students aren't as competitive and snobby as I was afraid they would be, so that's all good.
Other than that, at the end of summer my friends and I went on our annual backwoods camping trip, which was excellent, and we went for five days instead of just three like we usually do, so it was extra-excellent. This past weekend I went rock-climbing for the first time, which was fun but also difficult and somewhat frustrating. I would really like to go again, because by the time I felt like I was starting to figure out the strategy and technique side of it, I was getting too physically tired to actually do it. Also this weekend I went to the Word on the Street Festival and appreciated all the books and all the book/writing/literacy related organizations and all the people being interested in and excited about books, and I picked up a copy of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which I'm really excited to start reading.
I think that is everything important (and a bunch of things that aren't).
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Got to get you into my life
I've tried very hard not to make all of the things on this list the opposites of the things I said last week that I wanted to eliminate; I think I managed to succeed at least somewhat.
1. Passion. I've noticed over the last few years that I don't really have anything that I'm passionate about any more. I'm not sure why, I just haven't found anything that truly interests me enough for me to feel strongly about for a long time. I'm not sure how to make passion a part of my life. I guess I just have to keep trying new things until I find something that works for me.
2. Direction. This is pretty related to the above issue, but I don't really know where I'm going with my life. I know I'm only 21 and I still have tons of time to figure it out, but last year when I was graduating it just felt like so many of my friends knew what they were doing at least for the immediate future, and I'm still not really sure. I mean, I'm going to law school and all, but I really have no idea whether that's what I actually want to be doing. I feel kind of lost. Again, I really don't know what I can do to fix this.
3. Creativity. I feel like I've been a little creatively stifled lately. Part of this is because I don't make enough time for it. Also, most of my IRL friends are not really creative types, so I don't have people to bounce ideas off of and brainstorm with and collaborate with, or any of that stuff. I'm going to try really hard to make time to be creative, even if it's only half an hour a day, that would be better than the zero hours I do now. I've also been trying to get involved in some creative projects online, although Your Pants being down again has put a lot of that on hold.
4. Fitness. I'm really not in the best shape, and I know that physical activity helps reduce stress and increase energy and improves sleep quality and all of those wonderful things, so I know I should do it more, but it's just really hard to actually do it. I took up running this summer so that I could get in shape and then going for a run or something when I was busy wouldn't seem like such a hardship, but I wasn't very motivated about it, so I only made minor improvements. I should probably join one of the free fitness classes at the university gym, I guess.
5. Sleeeeeeeeep. Okay so this is actually mostly a lazy cop-out because I'm tired and I had a really long day and so sleep is something that I want right now but not necessarily in general. However, with another year of university starting up, I can't help but feel that this will be all too true in the very near future. I will get this thing in my life by going to bed! ...soon.
PS - Mentioning Your Pants in this post made me remember that we still haven't done anything about getting a new Thursday person. Obviously this isn't a good time for it, seeing as Your Pants are down, but yeah. Just thought I'd bring that up.
1. Passion. I've noticed over the last few years that I don't really have anything that I'm passionate about any more. I'm not sure why, I just haven't found anything that truly interests me enough for me to feel strongly about for a long time. I'm not sure how to make passion a part of my life. I guess I just have to keep trying new things until I find something that works for me.
2. Direction. This is pretty related to the above issue, but I don't really know where I'm going with my life. I know I'm only 21 and I still have tons of time to figure it out, but last year when I was graduating it just felt like so many of my friends knew what they were doing at least for the immediate future, and I'm still not really sure. I mean, I'm going to law school and all, but I really have no idea whether that's what I actually want to be doing. I feel kind of lost. Again, I really don't know what I can do to fix this.
3. Creativity. I feel like I've been a little creatively stifled lately. Part of this is because I don't make enough time for it. Also, most of my IRL friends are not really creative types, so I don't have people to bounce ideas off of and brainstorm with and collaborate with, or any of that stuff. I'm going to try really hard to make time to be creative, even if it's only half an hour a day, that would be better than the zero hours I do now. I've also been trying to get involved in some creative projects online, although Your Pants being down again has put a lot of that on hold.
4. Fitness. I'm really not in the best shape, and I know that physical activity helps reduce stress and increase energy and improves sleep quality and all of those wonderful things, so I know I should do it more, but it's just really hard to actually do it. I took up running this summer so that I could get in shape and then going for a run or something when I was busy wouldn't seem like such a hardship, but I wasn't very motivated about it, so I only made minor improvements. I should probably join one of the free fitness classes at the university gym, I guess.
5. Sleeeeeeeeep. Okay so this is actually mostly a lazy cop-out because I'm tired and I had a really long day and so sleep is something that I want right now but not necessarily in general. However, with another year of university starting up, I can't help but feel that this will be all too true in the very near future. I will get this thing in my life by going to bed! ...soon.
PS - Mentioning Your Pants in this post made me remember that we still haven't done anything about getting a new Thursday person. Obviously this isn't a good time for it, seeing as Your Pants are down, but yeah. Just thought I'd bring that up.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
What I've been doing and what I will be doing
Good evening Nerdsisters!
Today was the last day of my undergraduate degree. It hasn't really sunk in yet, but at this point it feels weird more than anything else. Actually at this point it mostly feels like any other semester where I'm just glad to have survived end of term madness and have a bit of a break.
I passed in my very last paper yesterday, and today I had to defend my honours thesis, which is probably the most stressful thing I've had to do in the entire four years, but I think it went okay. A bunch of my friends and I went minigolfing to celebrate being done. We are the coolest kids. But it was super cool minigolf with black lights and everything is painted in glow-in-the-dark paint, so that has to count for something.
As much as I'm glad to be done for now, the next few days are going to be really hard in a completely different way. It's time to say goodbye to people, some of them probably forever, and that's really tough. One of my roommates moved out on Sunday, and I haven't been handling it very well. We've known each other since we were six and been close friends since junior high, and now he's just... gone. I know we'll see each other maybe once or twice a year because we'll both go home for Christmas and such for a while yet, but it's just so weird that I've seen him on a daily basis for most of the past 16 years, and now we're going to live in different provinces. I think the very worst part, though, is that it's not like everyone leaves at the same time. People trickle off one by one and every time I turn around someone else is leaving and breaking my heart all over again.
Well, that was a depressing paragraph. On a more positive note, I'm moving back home for the summer, and I'm kind of excited. I like Halifax, and I like being able to walk to everything and I like it in the summer when you can go to restaurants and sit on the patios and when you can just go out for ice cream or grab fish and chips from the chip truck on the way home from work and all those delightful summery city type things. But I also really like being at home for the summer. I like having a deck, and my dad built this amazing outdoor fire circle place last summer that I absolutely love, and I like driving on the highway with loud music, and more than anything else I like having easy access to beaches. Also the lake that's insanely deep and has a raft and a rope swing and we always stay there way too late and stargaze from the raft. Also camping. So yeah. Excited about going home.
I have the next week and a half off completely, and I'm going to spend it reading and catching up on TV and movies and finishing my screenplay for Script Frenzy and I've decided I'm going to take up running. That should be, erm, interesting. After that, I'm going to be working at a Service Canada Centre for Youth for the summer, which basically means that I'll be helping other people find summer jobs and make resumes and cover letters and all those fun things. It's really different from any other job I've had before but I think it should be interesting and I'm excited to get started. Also it's only a 14 week position, so I'll end up with almost a month off at the end of summer, and I'm really excited about that!
Anyway, I guess that's it for me... especially if I want to get this posted before midnight! :)
Today was the last day of my undergraduate degree. It hasn't really sunk in yet, but at this point it feels weird more than anything else. Actually at this point it mostly feels like any other semester where I'm just glad to have survived end of term madness and have a bit of a break.
I passed in my very last paper yesterday, and today I had to defend my honours thesis, which is probably the most stressful thing I've had to do in the entire four years, but I think it went okay. A bunch of my friends and I went minigolfing to celebrate being done. We are the coolest kids. But it was super cool minigolf with black lights and everything is painted in glow-in-the-dark paint, so that has to count for something.
As much as I'm glad to be done for now, the next few days are going to be really hard in a completely different way. It's time to say goodbye to people, some of them probably forever, and that's really tough. One of my roommates moved out on Sunday, and I haven't been handling it very well. We've known each other since we were six and been close friends since junior high, and now he's just... gone. I know we'll see each other maybe once or twice a year because we'll both go home for Christmas and such for a while yet, but it's just so weird that I've seen him on a daily basis for most of the past 16 years, and now we're going to live in different provinces. I think the very worst part, though, is that it's not like everyone leaves at the same time. People trickle off one by one and every time I turn around someone else is leaving and breaking my heart all over again.
Well, that was a depressing paragraph. On a more positive note, I'm moving back home for the summer, and I'm kind of excited. I like Halifax, and I like being able to walk to everything and I like it in the summer when you can go to restaurants and sit on the patios and when you can just go out for ice cream or grab fish and chips from the chip truck on the way home from work and all those delightful summery city type things. But I also really like being at home for the summer. I like having a deck, and my dad built this amazing outdoor fire circle place last summer that I absolutely love, and I like driving on the highway with loud music, and more than anything else I like having easy access to beaches. Also the lake that's insanely deep and has a raft and a rope swing and we always stay there way too late and stargaze from the raft. Also camping. So yeah. Excited about going home.
I have the next week and a half off completely, and I'm going to spend it reading and catching up on TV and movies and finishing my screenplay for Script Frenzy and I've decided I'm going to take up running. That should be, erm, interesting. After that, I'm going to be working at a Service Canada Centre for Youth for the summer, which basically means that I'll be helping other people find summer jobs and make resumes and cover letters and all those fun things. It's really different from any other job I've had before but I think it should be interesting and I'm excited to get started. Also it's only a 14 week position, so I'll end up with almost a month off at the end of summer, and I'm really excited about that!
Anyway, I guess that's it for me... especially if I want to get this posted before midnight! :)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
This post is boring.
So I'm going to follow Sarah's lead and write about what I've been up to lately. Unfortunately for you guys, that means this post is going to be incredibly boring, because all I've really been up to lately is school work. It's end of term here, so this week is insane with tests and exams and papers and things.
Mostly what I've been working on is my honours thesis, which is about missionary work in seventeenth-century New France. I'm looking at how improvements to the methods of communication between the missionaries and the indigenous peoples were related to increases in the amount of conflict between the two groups (because better communication = more successful conversion/assimilation = more sources of conflict). It's actually a really interesting subject, but I've been working on it for eight months now, and I'm just bored of it at this point. It didn't help that my main source were the Jesuit Relations, which are literally tens of thousands of pages long, which I had to slog through.
Fortunately, I'm almost finished! The final version is due on Friday, so I'm into final edits at this point. Currently I'm working on re-writing the conclusion, where I look at how themes of communication and violence continued into the present day. It's sort of brutal because conclusions are my least favourite parts of papers, and editing is my least favourite step of the process, so editing the conclusion is a double-whammy of things I dislike. But, once I get through it, I've just got to edit for clarity, style, and grammar, and I'll be done! I'm really excited not to have to work on it any more, but also to be able to say that I've completed a real, serious piece of academic work.
Anyway, so that's what I'm doing right now. Once I get through my thesis, I've just got a few exams, one more paper to write, and then my thesis defence (ugh, I don't even want to think about that part), and then I'll be done for the year and hopefully will have exciting summery adventures to tell you guys about instead of writing awful posts like this. I promise to never write about school work ever again, okay?
Mostly what I've been working on is my honours thesis, which is about missionary work in seventeenth-century New France. I'm looking at how improvements to the methods of communication between the missionaries and the indigenous peoples were related to increases in the amount of conflict between the two groups (because better communication = more successful conversion/assimilation = more sources of conflict). It's actually a really interesting subject, but I've been working on it for eight months now, and I'm just bored of it at this point. It didn't help that my main source were the Jesuit Relations, which are literally tens of thousands of pages long, which I had to slog through.
Fortunately, I'm almost finished! The final version is due on Friday, so I'm into final edits at this point. Currently I'm working on re-writing the conclusion, where I look at how themes of communication and violence continued into the present day. It's sort of brutal because conclusions are my least favourite parts of papers, and editing is my least favourite step of the process, so editing the conclusion is a double-whammy of things I dislike. But, once I get through it, I've just got to edit for clarity, style, and grammar, and I'll be done! I'm really excited not to have to work on it any more, but also to be able to say that I've completed a real, serious piece of academic work.
Anyway, so that's what I'm doing right now. Once I get through my thesis, I've just got a few exams, one more paper to write, and then my thesis defence (ugh, I don't even want to think about that part), and then I'll be done for the year and hopefully will have exciting summery adventures to tell you guys about instead of writing awful posts like this. I promise to never write about school work ever again, okay?
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