Branded: Non-Graduating 4th Year

It’s 6:00am, the alarm clock rings for the new day. Begrudgingly you get up, remembering that you stayed up until late at night trying to finish a 10 page paper that you only started the night before. As you get up, you decide to sleep for what you thought was just another 15 minutes. You wake up and you see that it’s 5 minutes before your first class of the day. You get up, rushing and making your way through your room, collecting your stuff, taking a shower, getting dressed and going through the rest of the morning routine, all the while cursing the man who invented the snooze button. You grab a coffee, as you leave your home, getting by knowing that caffeine is the breakfast of champions. As you perk up, you realize that class is over, not grasping a single word that your professor just said, but remembering that this person broke up with so and so on Facebook, that there’s a sale on shoes in the mall, beat the boss on the last level of your vide game and you’ve already checked your email 4 times this morning.

You go through your day asking yourself where the light of day went. It seems like being in school is like living at home and your house seems like a momentary Shangri-La, never really reaping the benefits. You put in some volunteer work and go to your part-time job, hoping to boost your resume to prepare you for work the next summer and paying off tuition or the random out of town trip. Summer seems like work, taking Spring or Summer courses to catch up the ones your dropped the previous semesters because of too much procrastinating and partying. You read the textbook for the first time, just recently unwrapped, the night before your final. You don’t sleep, relying solely on the magic of Red Bull to keep you awake throughout your 3 hour final. You survive on a diet of microwavable dinners, fast food, Chinese and KD, temporarily giving you energy and also giving just cause to tell yourself you need to lose weight.

Finally, you reach your last few courses to complete that elusive 40 course minimum, asking yourself where all this time had gone. You start to doubt where you’re going, if success is at hand, and what’s going to happen for the rest of your life. You’ve worked so hard, made lasting and not so lasting relationships, gone through days without sleep, cramming to get a letter on a piece of paper you call a degree. Sound familiar? If not, welcome to the world of a post-secondary student.

Truth is: There are few things that satisfy in life. The most satisfying ones are the ones you’ve worked hard for the longest. I’m not graduating this year but I don’t care. An extra semester is not a defining moment in a person’s life. I did not fail. No 4 year guarantee plus cash award will make me regret this decision. How many people have gone and done the same things I have? How many friends have I made and how many times did I eat to satisfy my distaste for this $500 a class joke that will lead me to a good livelihood? Pressure is just something that should motivate, not ridicule and promote fear. If you ever struggle with post-secondary, ask yourself if you’d trade your experiences given by the life-long relationships you’ve built. It’s okay to take 4 courses a semester and graduate a year later, taking internships, volunteering abroad and other things that enhance your university experience. It’s supposed to prepare the person for the professional life, for the life ahead. It’s hard to do, but we move along and curse that alarm clock the next day.

93 = B+ Addendum

Truth is: Block Weeks are a necessary evil. Look at it this way: By taking one course for one week, you only have to do between 2-4 courses in the actual semester. That means: one less final to worry about, one less paper to cram the night before, one class out of the way and one class closer to getting a degree.

 

As a result you have more time to hang out with friends, do stuff you actually want to do and pursue far greater interests. I can work out during times when I don’t have class; go home earlier or have more time to focus on my other classes. I also think that being immersed in such an environment is like working full time. Whenever I have a pile of work to do, I just do it strategically and budget my time well. I can multi-task without actually multi-tasking.

 

Summing it up with an equation:

 

Taking a Block Week = one semester (16 weeks) – one week + more time – stress – one course to do + getting real work skills – cramming

93 = B+

Yes, that’s my mark. When you think about Block Weeks, you’d think that they’d curve the marks lower since the pressure is way high. That, however, is not the case. It doesn’t really work that way. BWs are different and each one, like every single class in the University is marked differently. Angela says all of RMC (her school) has the same grade distribution for all classes. I didn’t luck out. I wish U of C had the same system.

 

For those not in the know, Block Weeks are courses that a student can take for a week. In essence, it’s a semester’s worth of work, lecture and studying crammed in just a week. 4 months = 1 week. I never actually thought that a course over a semester is only 40 hours in a week, 9 – 5 or something like that. My class was Entrepreneurship. It’s dubbed the Academic Apprentice and for good reason, it’s like the show.

 

On the first day, we had two hours to prepare for a interview that was assigned to us at 9:00am. We then had to make a video presentation after the interview and prepare it for class at 8:30 am the next day. Our other tasks include doing a marketing campaign for this non-profit conference and sell a product of our choosing at the Farmer’s Market for the weekend. I’m tired and I pretty much slept most of the day on Sunday. We were up for more than 18 hours and the work spanned more than the prescribed time. Did I have fun? The answer is yes, I did have fun.

Truth is: School in this sense can be just as tiring. It’s a shortcut for students who want to get one class out of the way. This is my second and hopefully last Block week course that I have to take. My advice for those taking Block Weeks is to prepare for it ahead of time. It’s a lot of work and those with papers required only have one week to do. I never expected group work in this one but it worked well in the end. I do not wish the pain and exhaustion of taking BWs on anyone, but it’s a necessary evil for a lot of people.

P.S. Sorry to bore people about an academic blog. I’ll get something insightful soon.

Finals Diaries Part II – Can You Say Three?

I have tasted it, freedom that is, and it tastes good. There is always a reason to celebrate when you leave your last final, shaken, berated, always wanting to celebrate that you’re done school for a number of months. Then, you shake of that feeling and go home, get some sleep. It’s never a dull moment with post-secondary students – only tired, sleepy and very fatigued ones.

 

I came home from my last final on Wednesday thinking to myself, “There’re a lot of things to look forward to in the summer.” I’m going to Australia for a month. I get to see the pope, cuddle with koalas and go home saying “mate” to everybody. I’m going to my last conference as YFC. I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time in this organization, and I am glad to part with it when C4 is completed. That 20 000 is, I know, a very long and treacherous road, but my C4 promise has been fulfilled.

 

I’m also going to work. As fun as that sounds, at least I have a job to return to and one that can really set off that giant student load debt off so that I could pay it soon. Can you say 1.5 years? I’m also starting a new business with some of my buddies. It’s going to be a challenge: money’s going to be thrown everywhere and I hope Herbert can check where they’re all going. I think they should be well spent. The last thing I’m looking forward to is training my replacement, whom God will send for when the time is right. I have some ideas but I haven’t heard God out yet.

Truth is: Despite all this, fourth year will be a somber one. I promised myself and few people that I won’t be doing as much. I will achieve a good balance by not being so involved. There are so many things that God has in line for me and I have to keep myself available to realize those things. I can never appreciate enough the impact that the experiences I had in school will ever bring to my life: I learned to love and be loved by coffee. I got back into Bake Chef subs and loaves. Late nights are nothing and 17 page papers can just get shredded. Sleep is a luxury and A’s are a rarity (for me, that is) Can you say three? That’s how long it’s been since I slept decently.