I don’t know if anyone else feels the same way but coming back to a hybrid schedule has completely uprooted my routine, learning style and in some ways - my life. Last year during midterm season, I didn't have to…
With midterms coming up, I have been preparing by organizing my time and registering for my test accommodations. In high school, I prided myself in getting work done even at the expense of my health, which is sadly not a…
By the end of last week, I was exhausted from studying. It felt like all I’d been doing lately was problem set after problem set, assignments, and readings. “I feel like I’ve been studying even more than I used to…
Midterm season is upon us, which inevitably brings with it stress, anxiety and way more things to study for than there are hours in the day. During the busier times of the semester, I often find myself slipping into old…
Running around campus, trying to manage 5 classes, clubs, work, and professional development leaves little time for leisure as it is. Throw midterms into the mix, and I'm bound to max out by the end of October. Two years of…
Last night I slept for 8 hours… …and I didn’t feel guilty! Sleep has not been an easy thing to for me to do these past couple of weeks. Not because I can’t sleep, but because I have to stay…
When I was a kid, my parents used to have the hardest time trying to put me to bed. I was a night owl. I had an arsenal of tactics that I would use against my war with bed time. I was definitely no stranger to the ‘five more minutes’ argument, nor was I shy about feigning ignorance and claiming ‘I didn’t hear you’ while putting on my best pout. I think my favourite strategy was hiding from my parents as soon as I knew bed time was coming. It was like getting to play a game of high stakes hide and seek with opponents who had a deep hatred for the game, oh the adrenaline. It was such a bonus: I got to force my parents into a game of hide and seek AND stay up later than my bed time, especially if I found a really good place to hide. My antics definitely did not go unnoticed by my siblings. I was the poster child for bad bed time influence. Looking back, it surprises me how many sleepovers I was able to secure in my childhood.
Me not getting sleep. #nofilter #blessed
The way I see it, university is mainly about two things: reading and writing. Obviously this is an oversimplified view of what it means to be a student at University of Toronto, but one can hardly deny that outside of lectures and tutorials, the majority of student life is spent with either your nose in a book, or your fingers frantically typing away at an essay. I acknowledge that for some programs, essay writing isn’t a big component, but if you replace essays with problem sets or lab reports, the amount of writing that needs to be done for those are probably at par with writing essays.
I mention this because last Friday, I attended a critical reading seminar at E.J. Pratt Library and so I thought, why not write about what I learned at the seminar. Earlier this year, I wrote a post about going to the Writing Plus workshop offered by the Writing Centre. I was surprised by what I took away from the workshop so I thought to myself, lets see what I can take away from a critical reading seminar. Much like the Writing Plus workshop, I really wasn’t expecting to walk away from the seminar with very much in the way of new insights, but unsurprisingly, there were significant nuggets of wisdom that I thankfully was able grasp!
I live alone.
I chose to live alone, and for all intents and purposes I truly enjoy living without a roommate. I have the freedom to walk around in my boxers as I please while singing nineties pop songs at the top of my lungs. On a more practical level, I thought that living alone would allow me to live in a haven of focus and concentration. A space where I could hide away and focus on my studies without distraction. It turns out that my apartment will probably never become a distraction-free study space.
super meta, I know!
But to compensate for the bounty of distraction that I face in my apartment, I have learned the value of essentially living in various libraries, and by various, I mean three different ones. So I thought I would write about them.
