How I overcame my Astronomy 101 exam blues

In my first year at U of T, I took astronomy to fulfill my breadth requirements. When the first midterm came around, I studied really hard because the topic was out of my liberal arts comfort zone. I reviewed the lectures and the reading notes and made flash cards, and I felt like I was on track. I went to the midterm early, flashcards in hand. Looking around, everyone seemed nervous and stressed, and I was overhearing people quizzing each other with questions I didn’t know the answers to and started to panic. I put in my earphones and listened to some music and tried to take deep breaths.
Stacks on stacks (of flashcards). Image by benjamingolub via Flickr.
Stacks on stacks (of flashcards). Image by benjamingolub via Flickr.

Warm Tea, Warm Company: Unplugging at Hart House’s Tea Social

Step aside, Ms. Trelawney.  Disney is the new fortune teller of the future. Didn’t they create “It’s a Small World,” the infamous ride where dolls sing about how small the world is, years ago? Their prediction came true. Now I can talk to all my friends—from someone living a couple of doors down from me to someone in the Philippines—with the power of one device: my phone. However, with every blessing comes a curse, and I didn’t realize the curse of constantly using social media as a means to talk to people until I decided to try out the #unplugUofT trend—where students try to ‘unplug’ from their devices and social media accounts for a little while—and met up with some friends not through a social media platform, for once. Where did I go? Well, I’m sure some of you know by now I have an intense obsession with tea. So of course I asked one of my friends to go to the Tea Social with me—a weekly event hosted at Hart House’s Reading Room every Tuesday. As promised by the title, there was glorious tea. Two big teapots filled with black tea, plus some granola bars set up on a side table.
Two pots of black tea.
Tea - the ultimate form of temptation.