It's the day before reading break, and it's been snowing in Vancouver. For a city that normally dances its way around the typical Canadian winter to stay warm, I've only been familiar with the melted kind of snowmen— rain puddles. It's different, but I like it. (I'm scraping pathetic fallacy, I know.)
So after over a year off, I'm back in school. A lot has happened since school has started; let me take your hand.
I've actually been enjoying school, probably for the first time in my life. I've never minded school but I don't think I've ever loved it as much as I do right now. Shifting my mindset from wanting to get good grades, to just wanting to learn has changed the way I see things. It takes the pressure off due dates and exams. Instead of telling myself that I need to understand this for X, I can get there the same way through just wanting to understand one more thing than when I started, recursively. It sounds so trivial, but for some reason, it really didn't feel like it.
Earlier last month, my mother moved to Asia (nothing bad happened, don't worry!). To avoid thinking about how much I would miss the very same cooking I complained about all the time growing up, I have been spending a lot more time away from "home"— I guess home is relative now. I've fallen in love with coffee shops and quiet corners in the library again.
We put on nwHacks 2019. This has been an emotional one. This was my 4th nwHacks and probably my last as an organizer, as we are passing on our hackathon to a very, very promising teammate. It's bittersweet, but mostly sweet because I'm excited to see how our hackathon will evolve.
I've been branching out, media wise. I've been listening to a lot more of what my friends describe as "Mom Rock", but it's really just 70s-80s music. I also realized that I've been snoozing on Childish Gambino, so I changed that. For someone who was a die hard Troy Barnes fan, I am just as disappointed as you. Speaking of Childish Gambino fans, Joseph and I joined UBC Acappella together. I think this has been a long time coming, and I'm glad he gave me the courage I needed to finally do it. 💖 I've also been reading a lot more different genres of books (picture books are hidden nuggets of gold) and films, mostly because I'm trying to learn different writing styles. My world feels bigger because of it. Lastly, I finished Serial, the podcast. Thankfully, Tanha is just as invested in it as I am, so it's been helpful sharing my theories with someone. If you have listened to it / end up listening to it, I would love to exchange ideas about it. (I actually posted about this in my new media course and I've had 0 responses far, so maybe I can delete that post, and recruit discussion group members here instead)
Board game nights. I'm glad those are back.
Most recently, I spent Valentine's day photoshopping pictures of my friends for this Valentine's card tradition that we started maybe 5 years ago. We also had hot pot, my true love.
What's next?
A fellow ex-Slack intern is visiting Vancouver from Toronto during the break, I'm excited to explore the city with them. Then, I'm heading to Boulder, Colorado for HackCU right before the break ends! 🎉
So all in all, it's been snowing a lot but I feel everything but cold, or cool for that matter. 😉
