Oweek 2010_Fin

Where to begin... it was a pretty long week, so there's quite a bit to go over. I think I'll just go at this in whatever order I wish. Because if you don't like it... well, that's a shame.

The Good:

- New friends: Unlike last year, I actually managed to make a lot of new friends this year during orientation. Not that I didn't meet new people last year, but I feels like I just never really clicked with any of them. This year on the other hand, I found myself hanging out with the same group of people over and over again. I believe it is due to the OL social since I met most of them there.

- Did my job: With another year under my belt, I felt that I was more prepared to answer the questions that were posed. I also felt better equipped to handle any of the random situations that occurred.

- Kickoff: Watched my first football game ever (live or otherwise), so that was pretty neat. The game was relatively slow in the first half, but picked up later. Wasn't too familiar with CFL rules, so things were slightly confusing at first. Also, lots of people wearing red and cheering is a neat atmosphere to be in.

- Keynote Speaker: I enjoyed the speech by Christina Groves (Olympic medalist). It's more casual than most of the stuff we hear, although it was along the same lines of everything we've come to expect from an orientation / induction type speech.

-Tailgate Party: Ever see those rowboat-type exercise machines? Decided to race a friend to see who could do 500m quicker. I lost by 2 ish seconds. My arms also hurt like crazy after. There was a booth that filmed you for 6 seconds and made a flipbook of it afterwards. Too bad the crabby lady would only print us 2 books for 5 of us. Helped to serve food at the BBQ. Feel slightly bad that some people couldn't get any food. Slightly.

The Bad:

- Disorganization: There was a lot of it. The first time meeting our groups was at a field. All of us. All of the students. Do you know how much of a gongshow it is to introduce yourselves and to teach a song... all without a blackboard alongside hundreds of others screaming their own things? Not easy.

- Disorganization 2: Why was the Science Faculty split across the gym? Coordinating any type of cheer just became a mess that was both unsightly to the eyes and discordant to the ears.

- Disorganization 3: Lack of information on how to get to University Theatres was frustrating not in that I didn't know how to get there, but that it would've been important for others to know.

- Disorganization 4: SU representatives not present during their presentation. We ended up having to wing a presentation on the SU for them. I guess the good in this was that we were able to stand up to the task and present. Yay us.

- Disorganization 5: Room typos resulting in all science OL's searching for a nonexistent room is neither fun nor does it garner us the attention / pseudo-respect we need from our students. ST104 and ST106 do not exist. Sarcastic ~30year old students do not help.

The Meh:

- OL partner: She had this way of being kind of bossy, but she thinks that she's only joking. I couldn't tell if she was actually being serious or not. There's also a slight lack of planning capabilities on her part, but I didn't feel like replacing it with a better command lest I stomp on her pride.

- Free food: It was free, but it wasn't that delicious. Sadness.

- Free T-shirts: Despite being free (yay free), the design this year was.... well. I wouldn't say it's bad... but I definitely wouldn't wear it out. I mean the Oweek shirts from last year, if needed, I would still wear them out; they're kind of alright. This years? No.

- Other OL's recognize me from the Faculty of Science Rep posters.

Overall, I found that this year's Oweek was much more fulfilling than the one of yesteryear. I felt more capable and a bit more confident in what I was doing. I was able to answer the students questions by drawing from my own experiences, and it really made me feel like what I've done has been at least useful because thus far I've had little opportunity to do so. Despite how disorganized everything was, it also felt great to be able to work around those issues by coordinating with the other OLs on what to do. Huzzahs all around.

In other news...

I don't feel ready for the start of classes yet. I still haven't really checked my schedule, made plans for what's to happen between lectures and labs, examine my textbook list, adjust my sleep schedule (this blog is an example of this), clean out my old notes, and the like. Perhaps there's no initiative to do so because I'm still rather exhausted from everything.

However, life does move on regardless of if I'm exhausted or not. Life moves on regardless of if I'm ready; regardless of if I care; regardless of if I make the right or wrong choices; regardless of if I'd rather walk or be dragged along.

So I have to make a choice.

Lovely.