Less than a month left before school starts!

Thoughts

It was a Thursday afternoon, after school when I first heard about schools closing for an additional two weeks after the March Break. With the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic just a day earlier, no one knew how long this would last.

Here we are though, around 5 months later in August, about to start school again in September. Insert ENG4U Time Flies reference (One of the books we studied was Maus, there is an excellent part known as “Time Flies” that one of our classmates was always very excited about). Anyways, there are still a few things I should probably get to before the school year starts, and I have listed them down below.

Suggestions

These are more so to remind me as to what I should be doing before the end of August, but if they work for you too then feel free to use them!

1. Study Space

Likely only relevant for COVID-19 times since most people are at home.

Having studied at my desk for the duration of high school, I was hoping to try out studying in the library on campus (enjoy my sketch) but it does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon. To make it more interesting (and to pretend to be productive), I am cleaning up my desk, changing the arrangement and clearing out all of my high school notes, binders and miscellaneous items like a fan I made in grade 4 out of paper, popsicle sticks and tape (wow look engineering )

I might be adventurous and venture to the other parts of my house. One of the speakers in today’s ECE Program Live Chat said someone started working in their bathroom, so anything is possible

2. Scheduling

Ah, the joys of scheduling. I have been using a combination of Google Calendar (events/activities), a physical agenda (homework/school) and writing out a task list or time breakdown of what I plan to do for the day (typically when there is a larger chunk of time like the weekend). It generally works, but we will see how it goes with university: it looks like all of my 1A classes will be asynchronous, so I will probably just follow a 1A schedule from last year and then make modifications to that. I have not managed a 40-60 hour work week before so time to be a scheduling master

3. Reflection

Before getting thrust into the world of co-op searching, figuring out physics, and everything else that comes with university, I want to be more mindful during these last few weeks in reflecting on where God has brought me today and where He might bring me in the future.

Although not entirely relevant, last week my fellowship group discussed the idea of “lamenting”, and one of the passages we looked at was Psalm 13, where David is well, lamenting. There is a noticeable shift in verse 5, where David begins to remember the beautiful grace of God.

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5)

This idea of thinking back to the times where God has been in our lives, where His love touched us deeply or just remembering His amazing gift through Jesus Christ is what carried David forward and what will carry us forward in times of uncertainty, anguish or pain.

!! I am not trying to say that university is all sad, but rather this opportunity for reflection before that time will help through the ups and downs that come with any experience.

Last Thoughts

A lot of text! I tried to add some sketches throughout to break up the many blocks. I am clearly an artist . If you read through the whole post, I am pleasantly surprised . This is mostly for me to look back and recall some memories, but I hope you found it interesting or helpful in some way.

Here’s to the next post!