That's One More Wrapped Up!

I’m on the coach bus going home now and having a nice time of reflection by myself. I have been spoiled – getting rides from friends and family until now. Finally it’s the end of the term and I’m taking the bus home. This is good, I miss having personal alone time. It gives me time to think and enjoy my own presence.

This term has gone by really quickly. It was only yesterday that I finished my last exam and at that point it seemed like things escalated very quickly. I knew that the term was ending all along, but I had so many back to back final exams that I had no time to waste thinking about my preparations for what comes next. What I would be doing after exams, how I would get home, what I would do during my one week off before I start working.

I almost lost motivation to study for my last exam. It seemed like I wasn't absorbing anything and that everything was going in one ear and out the other. I stressed myself out thinking that I wouldn't be able to retain any information and that made studying even worse. I was studying with my classmates, and they helped me by talking out the concepts with me, bouncing our ideas back and forth. It was good. After that, I went home to study since the building I was studying in closed, and my friends moved their study party to someone else’s place. I ended up just skipping to doing practice exam questions and slept at 3 am. I woke up around 10:30 the next morning and reviewed the concepts, going through the notes I made one last time. Then, I went to my exam at 12:30, feeling ready to face whatever the monster was, trying to put myself in a good calm mood for the exam. It went well, I feel. I knew how to answer most of the questions based on the concepts I learned and the application questions just became logical answers (I hope). And at 3 pm, it was over. No more exams! Our class took a class photo and then we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Then it seemed like everything else started catching up quickly. Was I going to go home that night? Was I going to hang out with some of my closer friends one last time before leaving? Would I have time to say goodbye to my graduating friends? I needed time to cool off and relax from the exams, but I also needed to get organized and figure out my game plan before work started.

So I decided to go home today. Last night I ended up just having dinner and watching a movie with some of my classmates, pretty much the design group I got paired up with this term. It was a good term. This term I feel like I got to know a lot of my classmates a lot better. Instead of just going to class and leaving right away or studying on my own, or hanging out with other people, I spent more time investing in the people in my class. I made some new friends (because of our design project) and I really like them. I am really glad that I got the opportunity to get to know them better, and I can end this term feeling happy. I got closer to my friends that I had made previously, but I also met some cool people and got to know them a bit too. I can’t wait for more. I also can’t believe that this term is over already. I feel like I just got to know my classmates and now we are separated again.

But I feel like that’s the beauty of coop. You don’t get to appreciate your friends and really cherish the time you spend with them until you realize that the time you have together is short. Next term, I am going to go into it strong, and open to meeting the other people in my class. I have been very shy and kept to myself up until now, but I see that there are benefits in making friends with new people. It makes me happy. It makes me like school a bit more. It makes me have hope that our class will become closer as we move up into the later years of our university career. I want to make sure that I graduate knowing that I have friends all around doing different things, and maybe someday I will see them again and see how far they've gone. I love that. Meeting somebody I haven’t seen in a long time. You get to see how they've changed, learn about their life experiences, and just awe at how far they've come. I wonder what we’ll all be doing in 10, 20, 30 years from now. Maybe we will even end up working together, or see each other at conferences and business trips. That’s what will make those events more special - seeing a familiar face. So I will go make friends in hopes that we will see each other where we don’t expect, to create more of those happy-but-unexpected encounters.

I really started to understand that being in the engineering program is mostly all about helping each other out. You can’t get through this program without team work. The best way to make it through is to make it through together. Everyone has the same goals – to pass the course. Everyone has different ways of learning and different perspectives of concepts. Talking about it together helps others to understand. Working together doesn't always mean that it is going to be distracting, or not as productive. It means that everyone needs to participate, that everyone gains from someone else’s strengths. I am going to go to study parties with my classmates next term. I didn't do that much this term because I thought that I’d be okay on my own, but I realized that I am only scraping by and that it’s been really hard doing it on my own. It’s okay to ask for help. I realized that my classmates are more than happy and willing to explain concepts to me as it helps them solidify their knowledge too. I thought that I would be dragging them down and I’d have too many “stupid” questions, but nope. They aren't like that at all and for that I am thankful. It was even good that there were a few things that I could contribute to them too. So it was mutual and I didn't have to feel bad about bothering them.

I’m just really happy right now at how this term turned out. I hope that we all passed the term so that I can see my friends again in four months!

On another note, I am excited for this upcoming term! There are so many things I want to do while I’m finally free from studying and some of my friends are finally coming back so I will get to see them too! Ahh I am going to enjoy university life.