Tuesday 13 May 2014

The Return of Shana

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I last posted anything on here. I keep meaning to write and tell of the glorious adventures I’ve been on and some interesting and quirky places I’ve seen, but then life gets in the way, things get crazily insane, and every good intention flies out the window along with my very rare thread of sanity. But I have finally resolved to stop meaning to do things and actually start doing them. I am going to become a woman of action.

Since I last wrote I’ve begun an adventure of a whole different kind, some regard it as a willing form of prison meant to inflict untold amounts of torture upon young minds. To other unknowing mortals this institution is known as college.


My life at college began during a time of great change last summer. I was finally moving away from being just an au pair and evolving into a creature that roams the halls and courtyards of a college campus. That first summer as a student was thrilling and, as all things in life should be, something that wowed my mind with enticing new facts. As a class we spent hours debating the hidden symbols in movies such as Silence of the Lambs, seeking out mirror scenes in Forest Gump and admiring the use of camera angles in age old classics like Notorious. It was during that time that I eagerly began to anticipate the start of the coming school year, of opening text books and learning even more of the grand secrets this world held about all kinds of weird and wacky things.

But a class held in the summer months during the relaxed days of warm weather, burdenless workloads, and an entire culture of fun is universally different from fall and spring sessions. And boy have I come to realize that surprising fact.

Today I have finally finished my first year as a full time American college student and it’s been one rollercoaster ride of a journey. I’ve met people that inspire me to do wondrous things with their buck loads of passion for things as simple as food, to greater realms of making changes in the lives of those less fortunate then themselves. I’ve bumped into old and young alike on this college campus that foregoes the discrimination of age and welcomes with open arms anyone with a mind open to learning and a heart willing to achieve. And then I’ve met those unusual characters that make me wonder if eccentricity should be a class group all its own. But then again they probably think the same of me.


Sitting outside in the sunshine now after what seems like a long and almost never-ending road, I’m glad I found my light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve enjoyed debating about the philosophies of Socrates and Plato with a professor sporting the coolest head of hair I’ve ever been fortunate to behold. Learning of the intricacies of the computing world put my head in a spin, but thankfully I had my psychology lessons all geared up to inform me of the exact state my mind was in, and how to go about being somewhat less crazy. I held a spot in an English class with a professor that, to say the least, was one I will never hold similar views on regarding anything and that’s okay. But thank goodness I was learning some terrific moral lessons in ethics because my attitude in that class could have been very immoral indeed.

And so as I sit here contemplating my journey I would like to share with you three of the most important lessons I’ve learnt throughout this year:

1.     1. Daily planners were created for more than just creative ways to use trees and kill the forests. It is in actual fact a very necessary tool needed to ensure your imminent success as a student. Because trying to remember the million things you need and the gazillion places you need to be cannot all be crammed within a head that is being used to store an infinite amount of new facts. And when you’ve finally decided to dust it off, doodling is an extra benefit but not the main purpose of this useful tool. Hint: try writing down the necessities of what needs to be done.

2.    2.  Remember those times you thought those monsters known as adults had forced you to shut your eyes and catch a few winks, and you’d obsessively sworn they were evil aliens out to eliminate all the goodness in your life? Well I’ll let you into a secret here. These alien adults knew that in a few short years they’d be ushering you off to college and your days of sleep would be a thing of the past. Come to think of it, sleep will be something only defined in a dictionary and seldom, if ever, practiced in the regions of real life. Welcome to the world of the walking dead fellow zombie, I am pleased to be meeting your unsleepful acquaintance.

3.     3. Just because you may be living in the comforts of home with mom and dad still hovering about to take care of your every need (if you’re that lucky), college is a time when you have the very rude awakening that you’re now all grown up. Be ready to welcome in grown up responsibilities like work and paying for stuff (like wine because mommy and daddy don’t think this juice does much for the revitalizing of your brain cells, and you’re going to need it). You now have to juggle responsibilities and, I say this as tears stream down my face, forego those parties with the uber hot swimsuit models in favour of maintaining the grades that keep you in good graces with wiser folks of humanity. It’s almost like being a parent with the amount of juggling you’ll be doing thankfully minus the tiny, screaming humans that are the hardest creatures on earth to attempt pleasing for more then 2 mere minutes at a time.

And so I am closing off this chapter as a first year, full time college student and ecstatically rushing out to greet the much-anticipated return of summer. The winter was grueling, the snow frostbitingly atrocious, and the cold utterly heartbreaking. But better things await us all when the sun comes out to play and the professors take a break from the institution of torture for young minds.

Have a great week and I look forward to telling you more great tales soon.
Safe travels!