Summer School Sadness

Hey there, U of T! My name is Api (like happy!) and I’m a going into my third year, in Health Studies and Bioethics. I’ll be one of your Life @ U of T bloggers for the year! I'm a commuter student, a borderline foodie, a lover of all things Toronto and an all around happy person, so the name fits! This is my second summer as a post-secondary student, and I still find it strange that I have four months off. I am an actual, legal adult, with four entire months to do whatever I want! Travel, work, read a book, catch up with friends, binge-watch 7 series of Doctor Who on Netflix, or even just curl up into fetal position in bed and wait for September. So many options, and yet, where did I end up? Summer school. Go figure.

Don’t get me wrong, summer school is great, and I know that now, after having taken it for a month. But the last time I took summer school was in eleventh grade. Apparently taking physics in a small, non-air-conditioned class with 30 other students, in a room that resembled a prison cell will really solidify any dread you have towards summer school. Who knew?! Jokes aside, the spring term does actually have its perks. There are fewer people on campus, so I no longer need to wake up at 7 am or sell my soul (which, arguably, are very similar) to get to my prime study spot on campus. I even bought a poutine from the food truck in record time! And, unlike my Shawshank-esque summer school experience of 11^th grade, the lecture halls are air-conditioned! It’s also a nice plus that the campus gets really picturesque.

So whether it’s the cherry blossoms outside Robart’s Library, or the convocation progressions across King’s College circle, I can assure you, there will be quality Instagram material! My only real demon in summer courses is procrastination. I like to keep busy, because I work best that way, but being “busy” doesn't  justify taking a whole weekend off to take a break. I don’t know if it’s the summer heat, or the combination of two part time jobs and school, but I somehow found myself freaking out and writing a paper roughly 8 hours before it was due, and I ended up somewhere along the lines of this:

But all thing's considered, I'm actually having a great time in summer school. I know I'll have less of a workload during the year, and my courses are actually really interesting (and dare I say, FUN?) I have more time to work, take part in student groups and occasionally, I'll even get enough time to binge watch an embarrassing amount of Doctor Who episodes. So tell me U of T, have you taken summer courses? What have your summer course experiences been like?