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Chapter 9: Happy New Year!

I started my second semester of classes at Carleton University about a week ago. Usually I dread going back to school, but I was so excited when I hopped off the plane in Ottawa the night before it all started again. I think that’s a sign that I’m in the right program.

I haven’t received all my marks back from my Fall term finals, but so far I’ve done better than I was expecting. I think that’s also a sign I’m doing something right. Now that I’ve had some time to a) sleep and b) think  about last semester, I’ve decided to make three resolutions for 2011 that relate to school and journalism.

1. Sleep more.Typical teenage resolution, eh? However, I have what my uncle refers to as “AMO,” or “Afraid of Missing Out.” Characterized by chronic yawning and permanent bags under one’s eyes, AMO is a serious issue for new university students such as myself. It’s not actually a real thing, but looking back, the way my uncle described my attitude in the first semester really fits into my being AMO. I constantly worried that I was going to miss out on something if I took time to myself or went to bed early on a night when everyone in my dorm was still up, talking or planning on going out. I was able to deal with being tired every day for the first little while, but after midterm exams in October, it started to catch up with me and I found it difficult to stay awake in class and it was a lot harder to be motivated to study. As much as university is a social place, I’ve definitely realized that there comes a time when I have to put my schoolwork and my own health first.    

2. Complete my course readings.
This one seems like a no-brainer, but any fellow university student will know that it is very difficult to stay on top of the course readings, attend lectures and tutorials, plus submit papers and assignments. As soon as essays and the like started to be assigned last semester, I found that the amount of time I spent doing my assigned readings began to diminish. This didn’t really affect me too much until I went to prepare for my final exams and found that I was flipping through hundreds of pages of information that I could have, and should have, already known.

I think that this problem highlights one of the main differences I’ve noticed between university and high school in that I am only answering to myself when it comes to doing my readings. My professor isn’t going to walk into a lecture hall of 180 students and confirm with each of us individually that we've done our readings. It’s my responsibility to do so on my own, and I think it will really help relieve stress come April exams.

3. Stretch my boundaries.
Of my writing, of course. Since I began writing for Youthink and the Scarlett Fever in 2007, all I’ve really written about has been either music or sports-related pieces. I’ve stuck with what I know, and so far, it’s brought me a lot of cool opportunities, including the chance to write for the Calgary Herald online in Grade 11. I am now a contributor to a music magazine called The Portal Magazine too.

That being said, I really want to step out of my journalism comfort zone and start writing about things that I don’t really know about. So far, all the work I’ve done with The Charlatan weekly newspaper at Carleton has been with the sports section. I love what I’m doing, but I feel if I’m going to push myself as a writer and stand out against others, I’m going to have to leave the basketball courts and the concert halls and venture out into the rest of the world with my tape recorder.