Counting Down the Final Days

                                                                 

                                                                                                           

Image courtesy of
http://varsitybreakout.com/2012/11/15/how-to-beat-exam-stress/

With just two weeks left for the end of the semester every second of my life is chained to an endless string of tasks to complete. * I need sleep. Lots of it...

On any given day I wake up and scamper from classes to work or to my internship.Meanwhile my finals and assignments loom menacingly around the corner like the "Boogie Man".

There's something about the end of a school year which sees you puttering to the finish line with almost deflated enthusiasm. It's like an anti-climatic plunge after you've reached your intellectual peak. I've always found this strange since, logically, this should be the time when you're most excited to get the job done and move on.

While in my Marketing class last Tuesday this became most evident. By mid lecture, many of my classmates had already given into an hour's battle with sleep while I contemplated wedging my pens like tent posts under my own collapsing eyelids.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

I've found that a good pick-me-up for the end-of-year blues is to break the monotony. A quick five minute stretch or my self-taught Salsa always seem to do the trick (o.k, the Salsa bit never leaves this blog).

And for those who'd rather be entertained (than to entertain themselves)-there's never a dull day on campus. Just last week I was drawn to the pulsating rhythms and Bollywood style festivities of Indian revelers in the college's Student Centre.

In that brief moment, and without recognizing it, I'd lost myself in the euphoria; forgetting all deadlines. I'd finally stopped counting down the days and learnt to relish the moment.

  

 Next Week

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Should I Go...or Should I Stay?

                                                                
                                                                             


By Kimberly Lowe



 

I tore the Humber envelope with bated breath and  hands visibly trembling. Did I? I didn’t? “Yes, I got in!” I shrieked. The mauled envelope was, by now, on the floor while I held my future ( in bold prints) in my hands. 

It’s been two years since I’ve been at Humber in the Media Communications program. I started in 2011, wide –eyed and with great expectations. I arrived the summer before I started and began making preparations for the new term by creating my own personal ‘game- plan for success’. This included taking a tour of the campus, mapping out my route and meeting with the coordinator of my program.

As the summer wound down and the semester started I felt confident that I had crossed the awkward hurdle of getting familiar on the first day. Orientation went by like a whirlwind and I hoped I’d remember at least one of the people I met during ‘Meet and Greet'- (I never remember names!). I also used the opportunity to introduce myself to the staff of the International Centre as a future student and a possible work-study candidate. It worked! I landed a job shortly after as an Ambassador.

Home Sweet Home…

You’re never quite prepared for the roller coaster of experiences (or emotions) that come with being an international student. Early adapters learn quite quickly that the key to surviving in Canada, and in any foreign country is finding a strong support base and relationships that count.

I’ve often wondered if I’m alone in my struggles to adapt. I’m still peeved by old man winter pinching my cheeks with his frosty fingers; the layers of long johns, trousers, blouses, jackets and boots I straddle myself with and then peel off…exhausted. And, the evenings I go home after a long day of school and work to a miniature room with a bed and all my belongings crammed into a corner.

Behind the pictures with the wide grins and proud poses in front of the CN Tower, Wonderland…and (even) Walmart lurks a longing for the things that are familiar. Home.

Of friends and acquaintances…

I’ve met some of the most remarkable people at Humber from which I’ve drawn motivation and inspiration (and a few I may have to perform exorcisms to forget). The International Centre’s Diane DuChemin and my coordinator, Lynne Thomas, have both impacted my life profoundly with their unbridled compassion for others and love for what they do. I could always rely on them to put out the fires that flared up occasionally during the semesters.

Over the two years I’ve also found lasting friendships with my classmates, Gina and Seine who’ve made learning more than a classroom experience.

 I’ve skipped through hoops, hurdles and some near misses …and still kept the grades up. Some I’ve attributed to luck but for the most part it’s been sheer hard work and determination. As with any major mete you do get out what you put in! Now that I am nearing the finals, I look back with a greater sense of achievement and appreciation for the struggles that have made this  uniquely my Humber experience.So will I stay or will I go? Keep reading or you'll never know...