Reflections

Despite the axiom all high school students are familiar with, I found university much less difficult than expected. The first few days of school, I did find the environment a tad intimidating, with lecture halls packed with over 2000 students. The change from a class of 30 or so people to a mass of students no younger, but some definitely older than me made me feel insignificant. A mere drop of water in a pond. I scribbled down everything I heard during the lectures, which often left me with an aching hand. On Tuesdays between my two classes, a 3 hour break from 11:30 to 2:30, I would wander around campus aimlessly, because I had no friends.

But it did not take me long to adjust to the new life. The torrents of students that flowed through the halls no longer fazed me. I started relaxing during lectures rather than copying every word down incessantly. It allowed me to absorb the lesson with a more focused mind. There were times when I even left without any notes for the lesson. At times I even napped. I don't encourage this sort of thing for you grade 12s out there, but if you can pull it off and get great grades, a nap here and there can't hurt much. On Tuesdays, I no longer walked around campus like a lonely idiot because none of my friends had the same break as I did. I skipped the last lecture and went home at 11:30. Again, I don't encourage this kind of behaviour, unless the course is NATS 1960 and your "professor" is Jan Sapp. To you prospective and current York students, stay away from Sapp's Evolution course. A waste of time and money. I did well on the course, so I could afford to miss the lecture for more important things in my life. (By the way, I know this layout of text is not visually pleasing to the reader, but just bear with me. I'm too lazy to make this screen-user-friendly.)

University assignments did somewhat live up to its hype, however. The tasks were more complicated and lengthy, but still manageable. Although difficult to complete, the number of assignments through the entire year was small overall. That decreased my stress level for sure. Not that I get stressed easily. I have stayed up late on several occasions to finish my work, but the only reason I had to was because I procrastinated.

(As those who have checked my blog recently can see, this entry was not posted the day I wrote it. I planned to finish writing this on another day, but I don't feel like it anymore. I'll leave this as is.)