Hey U of T!
Recently, I had the phenomenal opportunity to interview Nathan Chan, one of the founders of a group based in Trinity College called PoC@Trin.
Meet Nathan Chan, a third-year physiology specialist and pharmacology major!
If you remember last semester, I shared the story of a recent nursing grad. This semester I hope to showcase students from other professional faculties! My next Q&A session is with a first year physiotherapy (PT) student, Amanda. Amanda completed her undergrad at McMaster where she earned her Honours Bachelor of Science with a major in biology and minor in psychology. Check out all the insight and advice about the PT program!
In my first few years at U of T, I found myself frequently really nervous about any kind of public speaking - raising my hand in class, doing presentations, or even participating actively in group work. I would listen carefully…
They say you can’t go home again. I say that’s 100% false. After four months on exchange and six months away from home, I flew back to Toronto in mid-December. And it was WONDERFUL.
You know that person in tutorial that is so articulate it hurts? They seem to have a rhythm when they speak, they never get lost in a train of thought, and they know how to hold everyone’s attention.Does that person fill your heart, as it does mine, with equal parts envy and admiration? If so, read on.For us, tutorial goes a bit like this:“Should I put up my hand? Oh no, Mr. Perfect is talking now. He’s a tough act to follow; I’ll wait a few minutes. Waiting… Waiting… Oops, now we’re talking about something completely different. Back to the drawing board. Okay…. Okay… Got something… And she just said what I was thinking. No problem, I’ll think of something else. Thinking… Thinking… Blanking… Despairing… Five minutes left. Maybe I’ll talk next week. Oh wait! I have something! Too late now; my voice is weird anyway.”At least, that’s usually how my internal monologue goes. I’m not very good at articulating my thoughts in tutorial-type settings; they make me feel extremely anxious and shy. I’m constantly afraid that I will forget what I meant to say in the middle of saying it, or that I will say something completely off the mark, or that I will forget how to speak altogether when everyone’s eyes turn to me.I like to listen to my peers and I often gain really cool insights from their conversations. Sometimes, I like the way the conversation is flowing so much that I would rather not interrupt it with my own awkward contribution. Unfortunately, however, listening is not usually enough; we have to prove that we’re engaging with the tutorial to get full marks. Like it or not, we have to speak.I don't think having a ventriloquist dummy speak for you counts. Lookin' at you, George. Image courtesy of: http://www-tc.pbskids.org/arthur/i/friends/photos/george2.jpgThat is why I would like to share with you, my fellow Mr. Imperfects, the strategies I use to help me speak up in tutorial:
Like a new year (hello 2016!!), a new semester never fails to get me in the mood to reflect on my goals. Goals forgotten, goals achieved, #goals that I aspire to move from the murky depths of my Pinterest board to real life and goals that are relevant to what I hope the new semester might hold for me. At the beginning of last semester, I spent one particularly quiet night shift at work outlining the academic hopes and dreams that I would ‘surely’ have no trouble fulfilling — the steps that would have me on the road to university success in no time. However, upon revisiting said list, I can now safely say that my list was pretty unauthentic and maybe even impractical. My goal for this semester? Setting realistic goals.
I pray I’ll be able to colour a doll’s eye by the end of the year—specifically, the eye of a Daruma doll. Last summer, when I went to Japan, I saw these dolls sitting on window sills everywhere, and when I asked my relative what they were, she called them Daruma dolls and explained that people used them as good luck talismans and goal motivators. You’d make a goal, colour one of the doll’s eyes in, complete your goal, then colour the other eye in.
One of the smaller Daruma dolls!
I’ve been in school for a while, but I somehow feel like I learn something new about myself every semester (besides the incredible amount of something new I learn in all my classes). I start off every semester thinking I’m…
