Just a little update on how things are going.
I've spent a couple of days reading the blog of a very interesting blogger. I won't go into details right now, and I'd rather not send the two people I'm sure read this over there. Reading some of her material though is very... Enlightening. In a way, I guess.
Also, tomorrow I'm going to be going out to lunch with other graduates from my class. So, that's bound to be interesting to some degree. The biggest challenge will be making it down there in time for lunch. I'm not really a morning person and with my parents out the house is basically silent until the afternoon unless I get up early. So wish me luck.
I was thinking about writing a few things that are a little revealing and pretty depressing for myself, but I'm not quite sure of if I should bother again. This technically being my second blog, I'd like to try to escape from the ranting and bitching that was predominant on the first one. It also has a lot to do with the past, something I'd be a little happier to leave there.
Anyway, I hope all of you are without insomnia and doing well. That's all for this update.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
High on (someone else's) life!
It was always an interesting situation that I had arise from the depth of my school days. I didn't have a lot of friends, though early on it was tough not to. People just gathered together and the people they talked to at recess or during lunch break were their friends. The one thing I remember about my late years in elementary school was that 90% of my 'friends' were girls. And they loved to talk to me about their problems.
I don't have any idea how it started. My class would have been filled with mathematical, scientific, artistic and literary geniuses. Some of them had no problem picking up French, going to city-wide geography competitions and had expansive projects during science. Yet I always seemed to be steady, mature and completely entrenched in hard logic.
When I got older and I met the 'normal' kids, I just got everything, intellectually. I looked like a genius, even if I didn't know all that much. They wanted me to solve problems and give opinions.
This really shone through during my highschool years. People have to make decisions about you at first glance, after all. I didn't want to talk to anyone in class, I asked questions to the teacher afterwards as if I was equal to them, and I was able to keep to myself and read during any break. The only people who I saw most often were the ones that had problems. Often girls. It figures with my luck in life that I'd attract the most troubled girls who just wanted to talk to me to make themselves feel better. I was like the psychologist for the school. By the time I was in my last year, people suffering from life issues and depression were referred to me. It was like having advertisements around the school.
So I talked to a lot of people. I'd like to think that I helped some of them. People would still come to me to ask what I thought about all kinds of things. Legalization of marijuana, political issues, religious issues. Whatever. I was even interviewed for a small-scale school newspaper. I held no position in the school except for being some kind of incredible logical genius who absolutely hated the school.
Anyway.
I've slowly started to realise that I really enjoy hearing things about people. Nice things, bad things, life-threatening things, dirty things - It doesn't matter. I don't get the feeling that I'm living vicariously though others so much as I'm watching stories unfold. They're not always interesting, my life story certainly isn't, but I really get connected to people and want to hear more and more, and I want to help them be happy.
Sometimes I hear about something kind of creepy and kind of weird, but it's all worth a laugh. I'm not going to come down on someone like a ton of bricks just because they're saying something strange.
Sometimes I hear things that really put me in a corner. I get connected to people and I don't want to tell them my truth. I won't lie to them about the facts as I see it, but it's hard telling someone when they need to better understand what they're trying to follow. Nothing is ever completely right, and that means that sometimes certain things are wrong.
Sometimes, I get so sick of hearing about a person's problems. The only thing I can't stand is when things are going well and someone has to throw a wrench into their own life just to bitch. Worse yet, when they decide that acting vapid and shallow is a response to important moments in their life that mean lots of responsibility.
Sometimes, I hear things from a person and talk back to them, and I feel closer to them. Just knowing them and relating back, it's a real high for me.
I'm in a really good mood today, and it's because I love being close with friends and getting to hear about them. It's even better online, because I can meet people who can be comfortable with me without their secrets ever having a chance of getting spread. Maybe this is just my addiction, or my personal misunderstanding of what a friendship is. All I know is that it makes me happy, it makes me sad, and it makes me feel needed.
That's all for today. I'll probably actually DO something this weekend, so maybe I'll have something interesting to chat about. That is all.
I don't have any idea how it started. My class would have been filled with mathematical, scientific, artistic and literary geniuses. Some of them had no problem picking up French, going to city-wide geography competitions and had expansive projects during science. Yet I always seemed to be steady, mature and completely entrenched in hard logic.
When I got older and I met the 'normal' kids, I just got everything, intellectually. I looked like a genius, even if I didn't know all that much. They wanted me to solve problems and give opinions.
This really shone through during my highschool years. People have to make decisions about you at first glance, after all. I didn't want to talk to anyone in class, I asked questions to the teacher afterwards as if I was equal to them, and I was able to keep to myself and read during any break. The only people who I saw most often were the ones that had problems. Often girls. It figures with my luck in life that I'd attract the most troubled girls who just wanted to talk to me to make themselves feel better. I was like the psychologist for the school. By the time I was in my last year, people suffering from life issues and depression were referred to me. It was like having advertisements around the school.
So I talked to a lot of people. I'd like to think that I helped some of them. People would still come to me to ask what I thought about all kinds of things. Legalization of marijuana, political issues, religious issues. Whatever. I was even interviewed for a small-scale school newspaper. I held no position in the school except for being some kind of incredible logical genius who absolutely hated the school.
Anyway.
I've slowly started to realise that I really enjoy hearing things about people. Nice things, bad things, life-threatening things, dirty things - It doesn't matter. I don't get the feeling that I'm living vicariously though others so much as I'm watching stories unfold. They're not always interesting, my life story certainly isn't, but I really get connected to people and want to hear more and more, and I want to help them be happy.
Sometimes I hear about something kind of creepy and kind of weird, but it's all worth a laugh. I'm not going to come down on someone like a ton of bricks just because they're saying something strange.
Sometimes I hear things that really put me in a corner. I get connected to people and I don't want to tell them my truth. I won't lie to them about the facts as I see it, but it's hard telling someone when they need to better understand what they're trying to follow. Nothing is ever completely right, and that means that sometimes certain things are wrong.
Sometimes, I get so sick of hearing about a person's problems. The only thing I can't stand is when things are going well and someone has to throw a wrench into their own life just to bitch. Worse yet, when they decide that acting vapid and shallow is a response to important moments in their life that mean lots of responsibility.
Sometimes, I hear things from a person and talk back to them, and I feel closer to them. Just knowing them and relating back, it's a real high for me.
I'm in a really good mood today, and it's because I love being close with friends and getting to hear about them. It's even better online, because I can meet people who can be comfortable with me without their secrets ever having a chance of getting spread. Maybe this is just my addiction, or my personal misunderstanding of what a friendship is. All I know is that it makes me happy, it makes me sad, and it makes me feel needed.
That's all for today. I'll probably actually DO something this weekend, so maybe I'll have something interesting to chat about. That is all.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Autumn 2007 @ UofT
So great news, everybody! I got my mark from my Introduction to the study of English literature and was able to uphold my passing average in the 80s! I'm going to the University of Toronto full time this fall!
I've spent a while going over the possible classes for the next semester, so I'll cover some of them here.
Introduction to Anthropology:
This course is pretty self explanatory in nature, but its purpose is a little more complex. While speaking to my professor, he suggested it over classes like Sociology or Psychology for the Social Sciences credit I require for a BA. There's only one class for it, so it's bound to be large, and it's an evening course at that, so it'll be interesting attending.
Introduction to East Asian Civilizations:
This is the requirement for an EAS Major or Minor, both of which are options I'm looking into, depending on my skill in the language course. It's another evening course, with multiple possible tutorials to apply for. I'll have to pick one based on my other courses.
Modern Standard Japanese I:
This is going to be the toughest course of all, from what I hear from students, because language courses are always difficult. I can luckily take this the same day I do Intro to East Asian Civilizations, but there are three tutorials a week taking place at varied hours, so it'll be important to pick from those. If I fail to learn Japanese, I'll switch my major in EAS to a minor and probably pick up a minor in Anthropology, so this is fairly important for further decisions.
Literature for Our Time:
Where my Intro to Lit covered plays, prose and poetry over the ages, this class concentrates mostly on 20th century writers. My professor originally suggested the course due to the professor in charge of it, but sadly that gentlemen isn't listed for the courses at all this semester. It's still the best class possible for what I'm looking to study, literature, so I'm taking it anyway.
The rest...:
Well, taking a Bachelor's Degree means that I need 1 Science Credit, 1 Humanities Credit and 1 Social Sciences credit. Since my area of study will be the Humanities, that's not a problem, and Anthropology will take care of my SS credit. The only thing left is a Science credit, but I know full well that I'm not a great science student. I wouldn't mind taking a course in Geology or Astronomy or whatever, but I doubt I could get into any of the courses due to my lack of high school credits in things like calculus, physics or really anything mathematical or scientific.
The answer is choosing a Science Seminar. They're like beginner's classes on a topic, so broad and simple that you'd be able to understand without being a student of that type. So there are courses for the Sciences like "Time", "Plants As We See Them", "Astronomy on the Frontier" and "Thinking About Planet Earth", to mention a few. All I can do really is pick one that doesn't sound awful, figure out where it goes on my schedule, and then pick up the credit. You see, you can only take one full credit in Seminars, and you're also only allowed to take them as a first-year student. So it's take it now or fight my way through a full course later.
There are two main problems with this schedule, you see. The first is that I'd have two classes on Monday, tutorials Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a seminar on Tuesday (Likely), a class on Thursday, topped off with a final class on Friday. This would leave only my Wednesday evenings free, which will be tough to get used to. The second problem is that I'll be going from a single simple credit with 3 hours of class a week to 5 full credits with maybe 15 hours of class a week. When you count that I'll be taking a language course as well, that's a massive increase of workload. Add in that I'll be commuting to school 5 days a week now... It's a lot to take in. The Autumn is going to be a very tough time of year for me.
I really hope I'm up to it, because I want zero failures, no excuses. Well, that's it for now. I don't even sign up for classes for a couple of months and I'm not attending until September, so I've got a lot of free time I'm trying to fill in with work in the meantime.
I've spent a while going over the possible classes for the next semester, so I'll cover some of them here.
Introduction to Anthropology:
This course is pretty self explanatory in nature, but its purpose is a little more complex. While speaking to my professor, he suggested it over classes like Sociology or Psychology for the Social Sciences credit I require for a BA. There's only one class for it, so it's bound to be large, and it's an evening course at that, so it'll be interesting attending.
Introduction to East Asian Civilizations:
This is the requirement for an EAS Major or Minor, both of which are options I'm looking into, depending on my skill in the language course. It's another evening course, with multiple possible tutorials to apply for. I'll have to pick one based on my other courses.
Modern Standard Japanese I:
This is going to be the toughest course of all, from what I hear from students, because language courses are always difficult. I can luckily take this the same day I do Intro to East Asian Civilizations, but there are three tutorials a week taking place at varied hours, so it'll be important to pick from those. If I fail to learn Japanese, I'll switch my major in EAS to a minor and probably pick up a minor in Anthropology, so this is fairly important for further decisions.
Literature for Our Time:
Where my Intro to Lit covered plays, prose and poetry over the ages, this class concentrates mostly on 20th century writers. My professor originally suggested the course due to the professor in charge of it, but sadly that gentlemen isn't listed for the courses at all this semester. It's still the best class possible for what I'm looking to study, literature, so I'm taking it anyway.
The rest...:
Well, taking a Bachelor's Degree means that I need 1 Science Credit, 1 Humanities Credit and 1 Social Sciences credit. Since my area of study will be the Humanities, that's not a problem, and Anthropology will take care of my SS credit. The only thing left is a Science credit, but I know full well that I'm not a great science student. I wouldn't mind taking a course in Geology or Astronomy or whatever, but I doubt I could get into any of the courses due to my lack of high school credits in things like calculus, physics or really anything mathematical or scientific.
The answer is choosing a Science Seminar. They're like beginner's classes on a topic, so broad and simple that you'd be able to understand without being a student of that type. So there are courses for the Sciences like "Time", "Plants As We See Them", "Astronomy on the Frontier" and "Thinking About Planet Earth", to mention a few. All I can do really is pick one that doesn't sound awful, figure out where it goes on my schedule, and then pick up the credit. You see, you can only take one full credit in Seminars, and you're also only allowed to take them as a first-year student. So it's take it now or fight my way through a full course later.
There are two main problems with this schedule, you see. The first is that I'd have two classes on Monday, tutorials Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a seminar on Tuesday (Likely), a class on Thursday, topped off with a final class on Friday. This would leave only my Wednesday evenings free, which will be tough to get used to. The second problem is that I'll be going from a single simple credit with 3 hours of class a week to 5 full credits with maybe 15 hours of class a week. When you count that I'll be taking a language course as well, that's a massive increase of workload. Add in that I'll be commuting to school 5 days a week now... It's a lot to take in. The Autumn is going to be a very tough time of year for me.
I really hope I'm up to it, because I want zero failures, no excuses. Well, that's it for now. I don't even sign up for classes for a couple of months and I'm not attending until September, so I've got a lot of free time I'm trying to fill in with work in the meantime.
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