Tackling My First Reading Week

Reading week is a great time to take a breather after a flurry of midterms in the weeks prior. I’ve heard from friends who joined one of the multiple organized trips to Montréal, and even those who flew back home for the week. For the laz — er, I mean, studious members of the community, staying around may have been the more appealing choice. At the end of the day, for whatever reasons may have come about, we’re still in downtown Toronto, so we might as well make the most of it...right? The weather didn’t exactly provide a great start to the break, but just the feeling of being away from it all for a few days made up for the frigid atmosphere. This past Saturday was easily the coldest day I’ve experienced in Toronto thus far - but I was really craving a pie. I remembered a place called Pie Commission being pretty solid when I went back when t-shirts and shorts were the apparel of choice (*sighs nostalgically*), and immediately made the decision to grab a few pastries to tide me over for the next couple of days. The only problem was, Weather Network told me it felt like ~ -30° outside, and Pie Commission was a half-hour walk straight down Dundas. Had this been a regular semester weekend, I’d have chuckled and retreated further into my dorm room (as if that were possible). But, against my better judgement, I made the trek out into the frigid environment and got myself some delicious Rocky Road and Banana Choco Whip pies. In fact, the only downside was having to defrost my face for a solid 15 minutes with a hair dryer. All in all a successful venture *sniffles*.

In all seriousness, the past few days have been a godsend. Not having a midterm/term test of immediate concern, and being able to spend entire days in a procrastination-induced coma has (questionably) done wonders for my personal health. Waking up late and not having missed a class or vital cramming time is a great feeling. Actually having the time in my admittedly empty schedule to go watch a movie again is also a plus for morale. As you can probably imagine, this hasn’t exactly resulted in the most academic use of the sudden excess of free time available. As enticing as re-re-re-watching Grease: Live is, the past week hasn’t been just binge-watching, eating, and sleeping. Assignments were due during the break that have been, somewhat reluctantly, completed, and I know that getting some studying done will end up being a deciding factor in my success for the rest of the semester.

At the start of the semester, I was already counting the days until this week would finally arrive. Now that we’re nearing the end, I’m slowly accepting that this time next week, I’ll be sitting in a lecture hall again. I’m definitely going to enjoy these last few days in what’s been a satisfying first reading week here at U of T.

"Entertainment Show them what you do with me When everyone here knows better What I once refused to be Is everything they long together I’d rather be alone" - 'Entertainment', by Phoenix