Life Lessons That I Learned From University

Last week I shared a list of the life lessons that I learned from being a piano teacher. It got me thinking about life lessons that I have learned from other experiences in my life, like university. Maybe this will become a bit of a new blog post series on my blog. I probably won't write these blog posts a whole lot but maybe once in a while. We'll see. They'll all be found under the 'Life Lessons' label. Anyway, back to my university experience. If you have read my 'About' page, then you know that I graduated from Laurentian University in June 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in French (as a second language). I therefore also have my bilingualism certificate for French as a second language. Now, looking back at my experience of doing a four year undergraduate degree in university, especially a Bachelor of Arts, I didn't just learn about the subjects that I was studying. I also learned a lot about life and myself. In the following list, I share what I learned.

1) Question everything: Don't understand something? Ask a question. Get answers. Don't like something or believe something or just have a different opinion? Question it. Challenge it. Let your voice be heard.

2) Think for yourself, you're allowed to have an opinion: This is connected to the life lesson above about questioning everything. You are allowed to think differently. You are allowed to have an opinion. You are allowed to be a free thinker. Open up your mind.

3) We have to figure out for ourselves how we learn best: I learned that classroom learning isn't the best option for me since I am a visual learner (as well as a bit of a kinesthetic learner) rather than an auditory learner. I learn better on my own and through online courses. Everyone is different. You just have to figure out how you learn best and use that to help you in future learning.

4) We are always learning: We start learning from the time that we are born and then for the rest of our lives. There is so much to learn, the world is so big, and we experience so many things. Even if you aren't in school, you still continue to learn and that's a beautiful thing.

5) The world is an amazing and crazy place: University is great for showing us how to look at the world differently. Trust me, you'll never see it the same way ever again.

University is definitely an incredible experience! It opens up your mind to new ideas and prepares you to go out into the world and make your own choices about how you want to live your life and how you want to think.

Cheers,
Kay

Finding My Way

Life is tricky sometimes. It can be hard to find one's way throughout their journey of life. I'm 21 years old so I'm at that age where I'm a young adult. I'm officially an adult but I was also a teenager not long ago. As young adults, the world expects us to know what we want to do with our lives. They make it seem that way, anyway, and it sure feels that way. This is all crazy. I don't think that anybody ever really has their whole life planned out.

Since I'm in my 4th year of university, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do next. I'm at a point where I don't really know anymore. I have an idea of what I want to do but I'm stressed out and I feel kind of stuck. I also feel like everything is going too fast. I want to slow down and have time to really think. I want to do some exploring along various paths.

I've realized that I am not someone who fits into "the norm." My life and who I am deep down inside is not what society expects of me (although, society is slowly learning to change and be more accepting). I feel like even in Canada, society expects us to live a certain life: go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, raise kids while working, work until an appropriate age to retire, and then enjoy retirement. This is not the life for me. I already know that I don't really want to get married or have kids and that is perfectly fine. I'm in school so that I will be able to get the job that I want but now I'm not exactly sure what job I want. I'm a creative person; I like music, art, and writing. I also like the outdoors. I want to get away from living the same way day after day. I want some adventure and I want to do something that will expand my mind and really make me think. The way that I feel makes me think of one of my favourite quotations from Doctor Who:

"When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better."
-Elton Pope 
(Doctor Who, Season 2, Episode 10, "Love & Monsters")

It's not just the "What am I going to do with my life?!" situation that is bothering me. I also have health challenges as well. I prefer to use the word 'challenge' as opposed to 'problem' because it's more positive. I have mild Crohn's Disease. I've never talked about it here but I am very open about it in my life outside of my blog. If you don't know what Crohn's Disease is, it's a gastrointestinal disease meaning that it affects the digestive system. Crohn's Disease is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and basically there can be inflammation and ulcers anywhere in the digestive system but most commonly in the small and large intestines. There is no cure for IBD yet.

I have inflammation in the end of my small intestine and in the end of my large intestine and I don't get pain. This is why my Crohn's Disease is considered to be mild. The only symptom that I get is bleeding from the inflammation in my large intestine (in other words, I get blood in the stool). The blood in stools is actually the only sign that I had that something was wrong when I first started getting it in my first year of university (December 2011). I am so grateful that I did something about my Crohn's Disease before it got worse.

Even though my Crohn's Disease is only mild, it doesn't mean that it doesn't bother me. I have to pay attention to my Crohn's Disease and do necessary things like go to doctor's appointments, go for tests, take medication, and watch my diet to ensure that my Crohn's Disease stays mild. Sometimes these things stress me out, which is another thing that I have to watch and try to reduce because stress can make things worse like it can with many health challenges. When there's continually blood, I keep thinking "Will I ever put my Crohn's Disease into remission or at least heal the inflammation in the end of my large intestine?" Inflammation in that location can be difficult to heal because bowel movements always irritate it. Right now I'm trying a combination of methods to try and heal the inflammation. I'm following a low residue diet as much as I can while still eating healthy, taking vitamin C and D everyday, exercising, doing yoga, meditating, and taking my oral mesalazine medication (for the inflammation in the end of my small intestine). I've also started drinking jasmine tea everyday (jasmine tea has many health benefits!) and I put honey in it (which is also very healthy!). So far, something here seems to be working because, when I've had blood, it has been less blood than usual and has actually been quite small of an amount. Sometimes, there's been no blood at all! I'm obviously very excited about this because: 1) My body is healing or at least getting better! and 2) I have found a way to deal with my Crohn's Disease that involves a lot of natural/alternative methods!

"Letting it get to you. You know what that's called? Being Alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now, that's all that counts."

-The Eleventh Doctor

(Doctor Who, Season 6, Episode 4, "The Doctor's Wife")

Letting my Crohn's Disease "get to me" or bother me can be a good thing because it makes me want to do something about it! Also, it reminds me to be grateful for the healthy parts of my body and the ways in which I am healthy. As I mentioned before, when I think of my Crohn's Disease, I think of it in a more positive way by viewing it as a health challenge rather than a health problem. I choose not to view my intestines as bad guys but, rather, as the organs in my body that need more love and attention!

If you want to learn more about IBD and learn about a great organization in Canada that raises money to find a cure for IBD, visit Crohn's and Colitis Canada!

These are the two things that I'm dealing with right now. Of course, there are other things that I'm dealing with too like things going on in my family (mostly health and stress related), getting stressed out with school, and continuing my journey of living a life full of positive energy but figuring out my life and dealing with my mild Crohn's Disease are two of the main paths that I'm on at the moment. I just have to remember to stay positive and remember that I am in control.

"Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it."

-Princess Merida
(Disney Pixar's Brave)

We all go through times in our lives when we become overwhelmed with everything, whether it be things staying the same or too many changes. We just need to pay attention to them in order to learn, grow, and be thankful for the experiences that are building our futures.

-Kaylie

Gratitude List: My Gratitude in Photos!

Lately, I've been really busy with school and the weather has been very dreary. Yesterday, I decided to make the day fun and be very positive and the weather actually ended up being pretty nice! I took photos throughout the day to make a sort of photo journal. I guess it could be a gratitude photo journal! Here we go:

I wanted to start the day off right beginning with breakfast so I had some cocoa puff cereal with vanilla almond milk topped with sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, and cut up marshmallows! It makes me think of a sundae!

I also had mint green tea with my breakfast! The bonus is that both green tea and peppermint tea are super healthy!

I went for a walk with this cutie pie (Finnlegh!) in the morning and then again in the evening!

I had leftover pizza for lunch and found out that although I do not like olives when I eat them all by themselves, they aren't too bad on pizza.

I read a chapter of The Great Gatsby while on the city buses to go to school at the university.

Once I arrived at school, I went up to the reading room in our library (it's really nice and super quiet there!) to continue reading Richard III  which I have been reading and have to catch up on for my Shakespeare class.

I love yoga class and was really thankful for it today after receiving my midterm exam back in my French general linguistics class which I didn't do so well on. There were other students who didn't do so well either and we still have other assignments, our presentations, and the final exam for improving our mark in the class so I'm not letting it bother me. It was a tough exam to study for but now I know what to expect for the final exam! I was happy to get to wear one of my new yoga tops to yoga class today and I'm glad that I wore this tank top because I really worked up a sweat!

In the evening, I made yummy rainbow cupcakes! This happened from around 9PM and onward. I know, who bakes at that time?! Obviously, I do...

I am so grateful for yesterday and I hope you enjoyed looking through my gratitude photo journal! You should try putting together your own! It's super fun!

-Kaylie

Happy Summer! It's been a while...

Happy Summer! I'm so glad that it's finally Summer and that it's warmer and things are winding down. Our winter was pretty harsh this year. The snow took a long time to melt (it just kept snowing!) and then it rained a lot. I finished my university exams in April and I'm happy with my marks. My third year of university is finished and I am looking forward to the fourth year of my undergrad. On Monday, I'm going to be teaching the last piano lessons of the school year and I am excited about that too. I bought cute stickers and pencils for my students. The pencils have erasers on top and there are three themes: animals, bugs, and dinosaurs. I kept a stegosaurus pencil and eraser for myself because that's my favourite dinosaur and I gave a cow pencil and eraser to my brother because he likes cows. The last piano lessons are going to be group lessons and I'm going to get my students to talk about how the recital was for them and what they're doing during the summer. They'll also get to play songs for each other (fun!) and then I might play a song for them (super fun!). The recitals went well and having to play at the several recitals that we had (because of the large amount of students) helped me get over my stage fright a bit so I am really happy about that!

I have clearly been busy with school, teaching piano, and my family has also been moving into what used to be my grandparents' house (right next door, but still, there has been a lot of stuff to move over and a lot of work to do) so I haven't had a whole lot of time for blogging. Also, I have been kind of stuck on what to write about and what to do for the header and layout for my blog. I want to get my header and layout organized before I really start blogging and I have just been procrastinating on everything about this blog. My plan is to therefore organize the layout, make a new header, and then really start blogging again.

Stay tuned for my new plans for my blog!

-Kaylie

Hello again!

First things first, I really need to start posting on my blog more often. I love writing and I really like trying out all sorts of different forms and outlets for writing. I'm going to try and work on my blog a bit this week. I want to change the header so I'll have to work on putting that together. I might change the arrangement of the blog as well. Stay tuned for all of this!
So much is going on right now and I'm just trying to keep on top of everything and not go crazy. I have classes, I joined that free yoga class on Mondays and Wednesdays at my university, I go to the gym with a friend every Wednesday (swimming, jogging, rock climbing), I'm teaching piano two days a week, and I have school work and reading to do around all of that. I'm pretty busy! Plus, I also want to start practicing piano daily and organize my bedroom.
Yoga is really helping during this busy time. It's so relaxing and I feel great after each yoga class! I'll have to write a post about my experience with yoga some time.
Well, this was mainly just an update on what's going on with me and my blog. I hope 2014 has been lovely for all of you so far!
By the way, feel free to comment, email me, or follow me on twitter or facebook. I'd love to hear from you about any comments or suggestions that you have for my blog!
-Kaylie

Looking Towards 2014

Sorry for not posting on here for a while. Life at school and home has been pretty busy. With the new year coming up, I have decided to look back on 2013 and use this year's experience to figure out how to approach 2014. This year has been hard and I'm excited to start fresh!

Firstly, I'm so glad to be finished with the 1st semester of my 3rd year in university. It went by so quickly! It was also kind of difficult. I've been doing some planning and getting organized for next semester so that I can stay on top of things and reduce stress. I loved my classes this semester, except for one, and I'm so excited for my classes next semester! 

I'm also going to have 10 new piano students this semester because another piano teacher is retiring and those students need a new teacher! My total piano students will now be 16 students! I'm so excited to start working with them, especially since they are in different books and are at different levels. I am ready for the challenge! I'm also planning on having a piano practice schedule for myself so that I will practice more and advance more towards the piano exam that I have been working towards for the past few years.

I'm also planning on doing more fitness related things. I love exercising and being active! There's a free yoga class offered at my university two days a week so I'm planning on attending it. I love meditating and stretching so yoga should be fun! I also want to use my university's pool because we have to pay a gym fee in our tuition which gives us access to the gym and pool so I might as well use it! Plus, I like swimming. I also want to start jogging in the mornings and taking brisk walks before class. I love mornings and moving around really wakes me up and helps me concentrate on whatever I need to do. 

Meditation was really helpful during exam time so I plan on meditating more this year too. I want to look into my mind and focus on becoming the person that I want to be. I want to concentrate more on the present and gratitude. All of this will help me towards living a positive life.

As for this blog of mine, I really want to continue it and make it better and better. I've realized that writing these sort of diary entry posts are easier to write so I want to continue writing them. Telling stories is a great way to get a point across so maybe I'll try telling stories rather than simply stating information. It's fun writing a blog and I'm always thinking of new things that I want to post here. I also want to change the look of my blog because I'm getting bored of the way that it looks right now. I'm going to make more of an effort to post here in 2014 and have fun doing it!

Well, here's to a great new year!

-Kaylie

University Life: For Literature and Library Lovers

Here are some links for the following people:
-People who love literature
-People who are studying English literature in school (like me!)
-People who love libraries
-Librarians
-People who dream of becoming librarians

Okay, on with the links!

At The Libraries on mental_floss : At The Libraries is a section on mental_floss where Miss Kathleen shares library and book related links.

Literary Traveler : Literary Traveler is a website where the people who run it explore literature and writing as they travel.

Forgotten Bookmarks : Forgotten Bookmarks is a website where a used and rare bookseller shares what he finds in the books that he buys. Examples include: photographs, recipes, letters, and many more fascinating and strange finds.

Poetry Daily : A new poem every day

Book-A-Minute Classics : Classic books are summarized in just a few sentences. So funny!

The History of English

This is a funny video all about the history of the English language. So good!

-Kaylie

University Life: School Goals 2013-2014

For me, school started on wednesday. I had three classes and there was a ton of people on campus. The first day is always like that, though. All of the first year students are exploring the campus, trying to find their classes, and making new friends. I'm a third year student but I still did a lot of walking around campus. I found some of my friends who are in their first year of university so I hung out with them a lot and answered some of the questions that they still had about university. I also got my agenda that the students association gives out every year and I had to find some of my classrooms because I had only found one ahead of time. It was a fun day!
I have decided to write a list of goals for this school year. After having finished half of my undergraduate program, I now know a lot more about the way that I learn so there are changes that I want to make in order to learn in the best way possible for me. There are also some fun changes that I want to make to make my university experience even more enjoyable. I have split this list of goals into two categories: Learning and Fun.


Learning:

-Keep up with class readings: This is a very important goal. I don't like having to catch up on pages and pages of readings so I want to keep up with the readings and really understand what we are covering in class. So far, I'm doing pretty good. I read the pages that I had to read for my 16th and 17th century women's writing class last night and I made some summary notes this morning in order to really understand and remember what I read. I felt so prepared for my class this afternoon! This brings me to my second goal...

-Make summary and/or reflection notes after each reading: If I make my own notes right after reading the texts or pages, I will remember the information better and understand what I read. This will also help me become better at summarizing what I read (I sometimes have trouble with this and end up writing several sentences when all I needed was one).

-Use visual ways of learning: I am a visual learner so just listening to a lecture or just reading information doesn't always help me learn best and remember the information. Videos, images, tables, key words, timelines, etc. are often easy for me to remember information from and help me understand. Sometimes, I just need the information broken down to the main points. I want to use these visual ways of learning to help me understand what I learn in class and to help me remember. I plan on making some visual notes after each class if my class notes are not good enough.

-Finish assignments early: I will admit, I procrastinate and it's not fun! I want to finish assignments early this year so that I am less stressed out and I have time to make them the best that I possibly can.

-Participate in class more: I am very quiet in class. I am also shy and I worry that what I say won't be good enough. I want to get over this and participate more in class (especially since I have to if I want participation marks that are required in some classes).

-Practice French outside of school: Along with my specialization in English Literature, I'm working on a minor in French. I started learning French when I was 4 years old and my parents had entered me in French Immersion (French Immersion is where you have class in both English and French) in Junior Kindergarten. I stayed in French Immersion all the way to the end of high school and then wanted to continue studying French so I decided to minor in it. I love French! Speaking it is so fun! I want to speak French outside of school more so I want to have conversations in French with my younger brother because he knows French too. I also want to read more French books, watch more French TV shows and  movies, and listen to more French music in order to practice French reading and understanding.


Fun:

-Dress up more for school: I have so many interesting accessories but I hardly wear them because I'm a bit afraid of dressing in a way that stands out more. I want to break out of my comfort zone when it comes to clothes and just wear what I want to wear without worrying about it. I have already started doing this and I am very proud of myself. On the first day of school, some of the things that I wore were a black wrap, red sneakers, and my 1920s style cloche chapeau. Today, I wore a magenta long sleeved shirt, black ruffle scarf, blue sneakers, colourful socks with zig zags on them that show because I rolled up my black skinny jeans a bit, and I wore my hair down and put in a few different colours of hair clips.

-Make new friends: This is hard when you're an off campus student because you aren't at the university as much as people who live in residence. I want to chat with people in my classes and get to know them more and maybe even become friends! I might even join a club which will help with friend making!

-Use the gym and swimming pool: This sounds crazy but I am in my third year of university and I haven't even used my student card to go to the gym or pool yet! I really want to use them this year because there is a fee in our tuition which pays for us to be able to use them so I might as well make use of it. Plus, it will be fun and one of my friends wants to use the pool too so maybe I'll go with her!


Here's hoping that this year is the best school year yet!
-Kaylie

University Life: A Little Bit of Back to School Fun

With 'Back to School' time just around the corner, I thought that I would post some fun educational links here for you to enjoy to make this time a little less stressful. Since I study English Literature in university, all of these links are English, literature, and writing related. Enjoy!

Fridge Poetry : Virtual magnets with words on them which you can arrange to make random poetry. I remember one of my English classrooms in high school had this on the chalkboard.

100 Most Common English Words : A game where you try to guess the 100 most common words in English in 5 minutes

FreeRice : A multiple choice game with a variety of subjects to choose from. Whenever you get a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through the World Food Programme to help end hunger. This link will bring you straight to the English vocabulary version.

-Kaylie

University Life: Using Technology for School

In this day in age, technology is very important and it is at a point where it is fast and easy enough to help us in so many situations so why not use it for school? Yes, technology can be very distracting but it can also help us and make our school life a lot easier! Here are my favourite technologies and programs that I use for school:

• My Netbook: You see so many university (and high school) students using laptops today and it is no surprise. The cost has gone down a lot in so little time (my very own first laptop for grade 9 in 2007 cost $1000 and now laptops can be as low as $200) that it is easier on our pockets to buy a laptop now but it can still be expensive. I received my little netbook (which I am using right now!) from my great-uncle who had some left over from work (he’s now retired) so he gave one to me and one to my parents. He told me to use it for school to get good grades and I try my best. I use it to type assignments and notes, do research, check my school email, and visit websites that help me with specific classes.

• My iPod Touch: 

1. Calendar: I have my calendar on my iPod Touch connected to my Google calendar and it’s great! The calendar can be used to schedule in classes, assignment due dates, test and exam dates, and so much more!
2. Reminders: Reminders can be used to make a to do list for studying, completing homework, and working on assignments.
3.  Grades 2 by Tapity, Inc. : I use this app to calculate my grades and averages in each class. It lets you enter the grades for each specific assignment and how much of a percentage of your final mark each assignment is worth.

• Google Account : Google accounts can be useful for so many things because they have so many different tools. They have so much that I still need to explore my Google account more and try out everything!

• Evernote : I use Evernote to create and save lecture notes and personal notes. It’s great because you can use it on your computer, laptop, iPod Touch, iPhone, etc and sync it to all of your devices. I use it on my netbook and my iPod Touch. On a computer, you can create audio notes, webcam notes, and to do lists and then organize notes into specific “notebooks”. It’s handy on an IPod Touch as well because you can create notes on the go and add audio and pictures.

Sometimes, pen and paper is the best way to go with certain things in school. Not everyone will use technology for the exact same things. I like to type my notes now using Evernote but I still write some notes down on paper. I also like to use a good old fashioned agenda along with my online calendars and iPod touch reminders because I like to have a physical calendar that I can quickly jot notes on and I like the weekly spaces for assignments in which I can write details about assignments rather than just putting the basics in a virtual calendar and reminder list. It’s up to you how you use technology in your school life (or if you use it at all).

-Kaylie