{"id":29089,"date":"2016-10-06T11:51:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T15:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=29089"},"modified":"2016-10-06T15:49:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:49:46","slug":"a-little-help-goes-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/10\/06\/a-little-help-goes-a-long-way\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Help Goes A Long Way"},"content":{"rendered":"Confession time \u2013\u00a0I'm a third year student at UofT, and up until now, I haven't really used any of the university services that were specifically designed to\u00a0guide students towards academic success. It\u2019s time to change that.\r\n\r\nGrowing up, I have always had the \u201cI can do it myself\u201d mentality. This attitude held me back from reaching out to university services. But recently, I came to a realization that I should have taken advantage of these services.\r\n\r\n
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I denied my friend's offer to help me open this carton because \"I could do it myself!\" Clearly, I couldn't.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo what led to this realization? This year, I am a peer mentor for the first\u00a0year students in my discipline. As a mentor, it is my job to answer any general questions about our program and its courses, workload, and events. So far, my mentees have asked for advice on course selection strategies, tips on time- and workload- management, and they have even asked for recommendations on the best food places around campus.\r\n\r\n
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Speaking of best food places around campus, Wafflian is my favourite place to get waffles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWhat do all these have in common? These are all things I wish I had known\u00a0in first year.\r\n\r\nHowever, \u201cfirst-year Slesha\u201d didn\u2019t sign up to get a mentor because she believed she could easily navigate university life on her own. Unsurprisingly, \u201cfirst-year Slesha\u201d was wrong. There are times when you may think you don\u2019t need\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>any help \u2013 and maybe, given enough time, you could figure things out on your own \u2013 but having help would certainly make your life much, much easier.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nTake this analogy for example. Suppose you have to travel 5km to get from\u00a0Point A to Point B and you can either walk or take a car. Technically, you could just walk there. However, walking becomes harder in the face of adversity (rain\/heat\/wind\/etc.). What if you took a car? You\u2019d get from Point A to Point B much faster and with significantly fewer\u00a0hardships. Let\u2019s look at that same analogy from a different angle. Point A is where you are today in your academic journey. Point B is where you want to be. The 5km journey is the progress you have to make to reach your goals. The car represents the services at UofT that were put in place to help you succeed by helping you overcome obstacles hindering your progress.\r\n\r\n
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Let UofT services be your \"car\" in the \"journey\" of reaching your goals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nMy point? Having help enables you to reach your goals more efficiently.\r\n\r\nWith that said, I decided to take advantage of these services this year \u2013 but first, I researched what was available. To start off my research, I explored what the Academic Success Center (ASC) had to offer. Here are some of my findings:\r\n