A cartoon of a girl using a foam roller, with the words "This is how I roll" printed above.

Bittersweet January: getting back into courses and back into sport

Everybody hates January. After a well-deserved break from courses, assignments, readings, exams and –for some – the cold commute, we’re back to reality. Thankfully, while reality does include mountains of coursework, commuting in all kinds of weather and a general apathy that comes with the second semester… it also includes campus physical activity programming! I kid you not, if it weren’t for aerial silks and Jiu Jitsu, I don’t know how I’d put my toque and winter boots on every morning to trek to school. I’m hoping you all can also find something to be excited about and to make this semester a little more pleasant!
Annette is shown suspended from aerial silks.
7 more days!
I’m happy to announce that on top of circus and jitsu, I’ll be continuing my ice princess adventure this semester in the Skating Level 1 registered class at Varsity Centre! I’m currently looking for a pair of skates to call my own, but it’s great knowing that rentals are available if I don’t find the right fit in time.

Flying out of my comfort zone

I never imagined myself living a whole ocean away from Toronto; away from U of T, my parents and my comfort zone. In my final summer at U of T, I took a leap of faith and applied for the summer abroad program. This just happened to be the first year that they offered a psychology course and it was a topic that I was extremely interested in. Not to mention, they were offering 1.0 credit in just a month, which also made it easier for me to convince my parents to let me go to England by myself!  
Worcester College Quad!
Worcester College Quad!

Keep calm and skate on: an update

As much as I enjoy putting a mouth guard in and my fists up, I’m a princess at heart. A clumsy princess, but a princess nonetheless.
Annette is shown participating in Jiu Jitsu with a crown drawn over the photo.
That's supposed to be a crown...
Only two sessions remain in my Skating Level I class at Varsity Centre. I’d say I’m going to miss it, but I already know I won’t be able to resist picking up where I left off in the new year. I registered in the class in September because my skating could only ever take me in one general direction and my favourite – and only – way to stop on skates was body-checking the boards. I’m happy to announce I’ve not only developed my skating skills and feel much more comfortable in my skates, but I’ve also gained a new appreciation for figure skating and have enjoyed my chance to be an awkward ice princess.

9-5 Wars: My Journey from full-time student to full-time employee

I lived near campus when I was a full-time student and I still had to rush to just barely make my 10 am classes but lately, I’ve been out of bed by 6:00 am and out the door by 7:00 am. I recently started working full-time while being in school part-time two days a week. I didn't quite feel done with my undergraduate experience when I first got the notification of having completed my credits so I decided to step into the workplace and get the experience but still stay in touch with academia. Before this new position, I had never worked 9-5 every day; I have had summer jobs but all with odd shift hours or 4-6 hours per shift which made sense for me at the time. Now that I have joined the workforce, I am in complete shock of how much more my body is capable of in a full day.
Tim Hortons cup in Sargam's hand
coffee and I, what a wonderful love story
A picture of the app, Forest: there's a timer set to thirty minutes and a count down of thirty minutes happening around a picture of a pine tree

Adventures in Time Management: Finding Time For My Career

A picture of the app, Forest: there's a timer set to thirty minutes and a count down of thirty minutes happening around a picture of a pine tree
Setting up Forest before tackling one of my essays
One of my goals this year—as a Career Centre blogger and as an undergraduate student—is to focus more on my career through exploring different jobs, networking, and building my skills and resume. However, as midterms and essays and extracurricular activities started to pile up during October, I realized I wasn’t contributing as much time to developing my career as I would like. In university, I think it’s just as important to strengthen your employability as it is to get an education. An undergraduate degree is usually just four years. After that, you’re in the work force for most of your adult life. Thinking about this partly motivates me even more to prepare for life after graduation, and partly sends me into a panic. Since October was not as balanced as I would have liked, I decided to try out Forest, a productivity and time management app. It didn’t go quite as well as I thought it would, but it did yield some career insights.

The time I slept through all the fun holidays

My entire blog post can be summed up into this:

*makes elaborate plans for Halloween*

*realizes Diwali falls on the same weekend*

*has to finish all assignments before that weekend*

*is overwhelmed with stress and feels guilty for cancelling plans with friends*

*cancels everything anyway and sleeps through Halloween*