It’s tough to feel confident when you’ve had setbacks. Very few of us can immediately bounce back after some kind of a failure without feeling burned for a little while.
For me, returning to school after a few years away proved to be a bigger challenge than I had thought it would be. I bit off more than I can chew in an attempt to make up for lost time and ended up paying the price for it—academically, mentally, physically.
But what good is it wallowing in past failures? Starting this school year as a full-time student again, I try to keep in mind the things that I learned from my disappointments and the mindset and new habits I want to try to stick to going forward. Here, I present some of the “tokens” of my learned lessons.
Hello new semester! Don’t you just love the buzz around campus this time of year? You know, its that time in the semester where midterms haven’t taken over life yet, the weather is still amazing and you have a whole new batch of stationary to play with. Okay, that last one only applies to me and a handful of very cool people.
It’s also that time of year where I usually make tons of new goals and try extra hard to get this whole studying thing right.
Hey everyone – welcome back to school!
Whether this is your first year at university or you are a returning UofT student, this year is bound to bring many wonderful changes. You’ll inevitably learn new information, meet new people, and experience new adventures you haven’t even thought about yet!
Before I continue, allow me to formally introduce myself – I am Slesha, your new Academic Success and Equity blogger. I’m currently in my third year of computer engineering studies. I love photography, naps, and drinking tea. Also puppies … I love puppies! But you know what I really don’t love? Stressing about school.
Look at how comfy those red couches in the University College Junior Common Room look... Photo courtesy of the University College Literary and Athletic Society
I’ll be honest: initially, my blog post this week was going to be on my favourite places to nap on campus. With the first week done, I’ve already found myself drowsy at 2PM and in need of comfy couches, admirable armchairs, or soft sofas. But while I was sprawling myself out on one of the luxurious red couches in the University College Junior Common Room (preparing myself to write the blogpost), instead of thinking about reaching a level of Zen to start snoozing away, I began thinking of my school-extracurricular balance and how nervous I was about it. I was thinking about the wave of events and commitments and academic craziness smothering me for the school year, and suddenly, I couldn’t fall asleep.
Definitely not nap inducing.
Front campus, in all its glory
It was my first day of classes at the University of Toronto, and I stepped onto the trampled turf of front campus with a pair of juvenile—and, admittedly, cliché—Converse and a backpack-sized collection of goals for the incoming year. I was brimming with a plethora of productive emotions, such as anxiousness, homesickness, and—probably the most helpful one—fear.
Luckily, I made it out first year alive, and with zero regrets. Zero regrets, that is, except for one.
Usually, I’m a morning person. Usually, I love waking up to the dawn breaking over the horizon. There’s something invigorating about how the smell of fresh coffee curls around the cool and slightly damp morning air. I can’t help but fall in love with it over and over and over again. BUT there are some mornings when just the thought of leaving the soft warmth of my pillow conjures feelings of fear and dread right in the deepest and darkest crevices of my soft heart and fragile mind. Monday morning was one of them.
Hello U of T!
I'm Liana and I'm writing for the Community Crew this year as the CTSI (Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation) Blogger. I'm a born and raised Torontonian, a first generation student, and in my third year double majoring in English and Book & Media Studies. You'll come to learn throughout the year that I really love writing and reading..if that weren't obvious from my choice of majors.
Me on a trip to Seattle last year!
There's one more week before the school year begins. Around this time, I often have mixed emotions that range from excitably happy to anxiously stressed. I imagine these feelings probably are common to many students. I like to explain my experience of these pre-school-year jitters as my body anticipating and preparing for the pendulum-like emotional rollercoaster that is the school year.
This year these feelings are coming on a little stronger. I think it’s because I’ve finally reached the end of my degree and so I’m putting more pressure on myself to raise my personal bar a lot further than I’ve already raised it. Most likely, I am psyching myself out. The school year will go by just as others have, and at the end of the year I'll have a new bag of mixed emotions to deal with, but it’s hard to not focus on the here and now.
September brings out all sorts of feels in the student body. If you’re like me, just the anticipation of the first week of September takes out way more energy than when I’m actually living it. The only thing that can take my mind off of the anxiety/excitement is trying to enjoy my last week of freedom.
Ah, August. You’re the Sunday night of summer; I hate that you’re here but at least I can use you to do the fun, summer things I promised myself I would do this time around. Let’s take a look at how I spent my last full week of August, shall we?
The year when I was a frosh! Photo courtesy of University College Literary and Athletic Society
It’s been one heck of a summer. I feel like I’ve really grown as a person, whether it growing comfortable with my faults and recognizing insecurities as insecurities, or whether it being more confident in who I want to be. As September rolls in and new students start planning their move-ins or their commuting schedules, I find myself comparing freshman me to now; freshman me being not too confident, a little unsure, and a whole lot of nervous. One thing though that helped me get on the right foot was Orientation, which I did with University College. And particularly, my orientation leaders who helped me stumble out of my shell and transition to a new chapter in my life. Fast forward a couple years, and I’m now a frosh head leader for this upcoming University College Orientation, but one feeling from the past still holds strong.
Once again, I’m super nervous – though the reason has changed. I’ve got the pre-Orientation leader jitters.
It’s tough to feel confident when you’ve had setbacks. Very few of us can immediately bounce back after some kind of a failure without feeling burned for a little while.
For me, returning to school after a few years away proved to be a bigger challenge than I had thought it would be. I bit off more than I can chew in an attempt to make up for lost time and ended up paying the price for it—academically, mentally, physically.
But what good is it wallowing in past failures? Starting this school year as a full-time student again, I try to keep in mind the things that I learned from my disappointments and the mindset and new habits I want to try to stick to going forward. Here, I present some of the “tokens” of my learned lessons.
