The End of My Semester Abroad

I have just finished my classes in London and cannot begin to explain how overwhelmed I am by nearing the end of my study abroad. As I write this post, I can't promise that I'm not crying onto my keyboard. It is hard to accept that the best 3 months of my life are coming to an end... but as they say, as much as they do say it, "When one door closes, another door opens." In this post, I am going to share a few of my most faourite memories from my study abroad experience, my next chapter, and some of U of T's options for international experience.
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I will definitely miss the views of walking through Sommerset house to my classes everyday.
Annette is shown in three poses on aerial silks.

Taking stock of the semester: what is there to celebrate?

If you’re as prone to self-deprecation as I am, the end of the term may inspire some troublesome realizations and painfully remind you of all the goals you set in September. As the year winds down but exams wind way, way up, it’s hard not to take stock of the past few months – if only to procrastinate. It’s really easy to identify the goals we didn’t realize and the plans we didn’t follow through with, and the associated negativity is not something any of us needs right now. So, I’m looking back and while I can’t ignore my “areas for improvement” I am sandwiching my criticisms of myself with silent celebrations of all the things I did well and accomplished.
Annette is shown in three poses on aerial silks.
As well as some flashy, Instagram'ed celebrations.

Overcoming my Fear of Networking

Several stick figures branching off from one central stick figure so that they look like a web
This could be me one day. Photo by Peggy Margo via Pixabay
Networking makes me uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I try to do it as infrequently as possible. That’s why I decided to attend the Career Centre’s Talking to Professionals workshop to learn more about how to network, and how to become more comfortable doing so. Since networking can sometimes be just as important in finding a job as your actual resume, I decided that it was time to overcome my fear.
Totem poles, different angle

Developing Those Intercultural Skills, Pt. 2: An Outing to the ROM

As I had mentioned in a previous blog post, I'm participating in something called the Intercultural Learning Program (ILP) this year. Apart from the introductory workshop which I talked about in that post, I was definitely looking forward to the experiential outings part of…