The stress that has been building since Christmas is about to burst, and the due dates for essays and final projects are getting close. I feel like I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in months, and I barely remember to take the time to breath. Every free moment is dedicated to school work, and friendships are beginning to strain. We have all worked hard, and now that reading week is here we can all relax . . . right? Well, if it weren’t for all my professors kindly reminding me that it’s called READING week for a reason, I would agree. I suppose reading and researching over the next week won’t be so bad. I mean things could be worse; I could be in the middle of the ocean without a boat and surrounded by hungry sharks . . . but least I’d be in the ocean. All kidding aside, the reality is that we all need this reading week for more than just reading.

Looking back to my first year I can remember having all these grand plans for reading week. I had plans to finish my History 200 facilitation, and finally understand John Locke. Sadly, I’m pretty sure that I still wrote my essay on Locke the night before, and that my facilitation prep consisted of me talking to my Opa about Nietzsche.  Though my Opa had much to say, my grand plans weren’t quite realized. All in all, I am hoping that with a little bit of added focus, and a firm study schedule, I will accomplish more this time around.

So yes, I will be spending a great amount of time working on projects and doing research, but I will also be going to the mountains, tobogganing, and having a marathon of The Office. Plus, I have about 40 cereal box movie tickets that have to be used. It’s all about balance! I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t do any work then I will be overwhelmed coming back to school. That being said, I also know that if I don’t take advantage of this time to recharge, I will be running on empty for the rest of the semester.  So though I know you don’t need me telling you what to do, find a balance this week! Besides, if you’ve read this post, you’ve technically done some “reading.”

Je parle un petit peu de français, mais pas beaucoup.

I speak English fluently, and all the time.

Ich spreche Deutsch zuhause mit meiner Familie.

In many of my courses, we have mentioned that we did not choose to be born. None of us had a say in where we were going to live, who our parents or siblings would be, or what language we would learn coming out of the womb.  I had no say in learning German, but I feel very lucky that I was brought up speaking it at home. Especially now, after having taken French and watching many of my friends struggle at learning a second language, I know that it is TOUGH. Somehow I was lucky enough to get a free-ride. Though I know it will become more difficult to keep the language when I move out, at least I know that it will only be a phone call away.  Maintaining a second language takes commitment and dedication, especially when every other aspect of your life is in a different one. I applaud my parents every day for sticking with it, and for encouraging my brothers and me to stick with it too. Sometimes I think I am too adamant about not losing the language, but it is worth so much to me.  Looking back, I think may have scared off a few men by telling them that if they ever want to marry me, they’ll have to learn German first!

Over the past few weeks, I have had several conversations about the importance of practicing a second language. In these conversations, many of the individuals – including myself – spoke about how they were once fluent in a language, but lost much of it due to lack of practice. Sadly, this is the truth for many of us, especially those of us who took French in school.  I myself took three years of French immersion and can hold my own in a conversation, but my knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is fading quickly. What’s the point of learning a language if you’re not going to use it?

It is a requirement for all degrees at St. Mary’s to obtain credit in a language other than English, and the university offers French, Spanish, and Latin.  I think that this is an incredible feat for such a small institution. As for me, I am looking for opportunities to use my French, and am hoping to introduce a coffee and conversation en Français at the café where I work.  Maybe I’ll see some of you there!

In English 363: Media Studies: Television and New Media, we are currently looking at two texts, Maus by Art Spiegelman, and A Contract with God by Will Eisner. Maus is a graphic novel about World War II, and A Contract with God dives into the lives of Jewish immigrants living in New York City circa the 1930s. In Philosophy 353: Contemporary Ethical Issues, we just finished studying issues surrounding abortion and euthanasia. In English 397.6: Literature and Social Change, we are looking at a text that vividly describes the harsh realities of indigenous peoples and their experiences in the Residential School system (Porcupines and China Dolls by Robert Alexie).  Hmm, there seems to be a running theme in my courses right now . . .

In thinking about my rather depressing course content at the moment, I thought about how thankful I am to have choir on Monday nights.  I always leave choir with a smile on my face and songs in my head, but saying that choir doesn’t fit with the rest of my current course content isn’t entirely correct. One of the songs that we are singing in choir is called “Walk a Mile,” and an often repeated lyric is:

Walk a mile, walk, walk a mile in your neighbor’s shoes.

You’ll understand them better if you do.

The song seems to fit perfectly with everything else that I am studying. In my Ethics course, we attempt to put ourselves into the shoes of those who are faced with difficult decisions. We cannot possibly know what decisions individuals would make for themselves, but we try to empathize with the position they are in and base our discussion accordingly. With the difficult subject matter that we are covering in all of my courses, I believe that gaining empathy is important as a starting point to guide the academic conversation.  It is also important to recognize the tremendous work of the professors in addressing such delicate subject matter with a great degree of sensitivity.

What I have found throughout my two years at St. Mary’s is that all of my courses seem to be related on some level. There are always connections to be made, and, unlike high school, I can see the real world application of the things that I am learning.  I believe that it makes us better scholars when we can take the consciousness awakened in one area of study and apply it to another, and another, and another. I challenge all of you to look for connections in your courses . . . you might be surprised with what you find.

It’s that time of year again . . .

My family loves coupons. We use coupons when we go out for dinner, to buy groceries, to go to the zoo . . . pretty much wherever we go; we always have a coupon in hand. So, when I say it’s that time of year again, I’m talking about the movie tickets on cereal boxes. I almost don’t want to give away this secret of ours, but I feel I have a duty to tell you as many of you reading this blog are students who are always scraping money together.

I am risking a great deal telling you all this, because if you go out and buy all the cereal, there will be little left for me to purchase! I am honestly not kidding when I say that we still have cereal left over from last year’s movie coupon shenanigans. My Papa fills carts, plural, full of cereal boxes and we spend a day sitting on the kitchen floor cutting out all the coupons.  After the coupons are cut out and used, my brothers and I spend the rest of the year wishing for anything other than Cheerios for breakfast. We even get to the point where we send every guest home with a bag or two of cereal under their arm! All of this may sound crazy, but when you realize how many movies my family goes to one month, you see that it is definitely worth it.  Every family has its thing, and ours is movies…and coupons, but without further ado, here’s the deal:

When you buy any specially marked packages of General Mills cereal you will receive a free Cineplex general admission for February, and then, if you don’t use it until March, April or May, it turns into a two for one admission. You pay roughly four dollars for a movie coupon that would cost you thirteen dollars, plus, you get a heart-conscious cereal that can reduce your cholesterol!! I am no math student, but you can’t deny that you are saving wicked amounts of money! For full details and participating products, please visit http://lifemadedelicious.ca/Home/OffersandPerks/Cineplex.aspx.

Unknowingly, writing out that deal actually made me realize something – I have likely watched too much TV, and have been exposed to too many commercials in my lifetime. Hmm. Something to think about.

Shop on coupon lovers, shop on!

The title of this post is for all of you Harry Potter fans out there . . . I know I’m not alone in my desire.

Students have a number of responsibilities: assignments, jobs, families, perhaps a significant other, volunteer work, pets . . . the list just goes on. Last week, when I took on a house/pet sitting gig, I felt the added pressure and responsibilities of maintaining a home, a dog, two cats, two lizards and an array of fish. It was as though I had been left to take care of an entire zoo! The week was hectic, to say the least, and as a result of this experience, I gained a huge respect for anybody – especially a student – who is living away from home.

Every morning, I woke up at six, got myself ready, let the dog out, ate breakfast, fed the cats and the dog, checked their water, sprayed the lizards, fed the fish, and, finally, locked the dog in the basement, turned on his radio, locked all the doors, and started my day. Essentially, by 8am I was already exhausted, and I still had the whole day to go! It seemed endless, and, although I fell in love with the animals, I couldn’t wait to come back home.

What an eye-opening experience! My school work suffered, I barely got any sleep, I had to skip out on all of my extracurricular activities, and the only thing that saved me was all the caffeine I was able to enjoy at work. For all of you who are living away from home, I don’t know how you do it! For those of you who have a dog, I don’t know how you do it! Despite my dream of moving out and owning a Burmese Mountain Dog, as a student, I don’t know that I could ever do it! Strangely enough, I am suddenly in no rush to get older and begin my life away from home.

So, here’s to all of you who are living away from home, who have pets that need more attention than my bright orange tabby cat, who buy your own groceries and pay your own rent, and, finally, to every student whose to-do list never seems to get any smaller.

A few days ago while we were waiting for class to begin, a good friend of mine showed me a book called Goodnight iPad that parodies the 1947 children’s classic, Goodnight Moon. The room that appeared in the original is replaced with an updated version that is much more representative of the typical homes seen in our current, technological age. Silence and peace, it seems, were difficult to achieve in this home as it was filled with the sounds made by our modern day gadgets. Out of frustration and appreciation, the book inspired and revived many thoughts which lead me to reflect on the way that I use technology in my own life.

Every morning, I wake up to the alarm on my phone, check the weather, and, while I am quite embarrassed to say, check to see if any celebrities have tweeted anything particularly interesting. In the winter, when I borrow my Mama’s car, I warm it up before I head out for the day by using its remote starter. I use my computer to work on assignments or search for recipes, and watch TV when I need a break from the world. My iPod currently has five thousand songs on it, and even if I don’t have an e-reader, my smartphone has the ability to turn into one.

My smartphone is useful in many ways, I can ‘Google’ something the moment I have the urge to do so, and I never have to fear that I will get lost trying to find somewhere I haven’t been before…or do I? When I was given the address to a friend’s house, my first instinct was not to call and ask for directions, but to type it into my phone. I was shocked when neither Google nor the multiple search engines could find directions. I logically came to the conclusion that even though I knew I had the right address, it didn’t exist…or at least not in cyberspace.  Finally I did what I should have done to begin with, I texted my friend and was sent the directions.  I spent over a half an hour on my computer or on my phone looking for directions that were sent to me in a matter of minutes!! Whether I like it or not, it is in moments like these that I realize that technology is ever present in my life. I rely on technology, and would likely be lost — in some cases literally — without it. Not to mention that without technology, this blog wouldn’t exist at all!

Among other things, I am an avid board game player, and spend much of my time enjoying the outdoors. Technology does not rule my life, and I know that I would go on living even if I didn’t have a phone or a computer or a TV. In spite of this, I recognize the need to take a step back. I recognize the need to return to the simplicities of life. For me, it is sometimes as simple as reminding myself that a bed is meant to be used for sleep, and not for replying to forgotten text messages.  I also need to remind myself that my bed — despite the fact that it resembles a desk in many ways — is not the best place for me to do my school work; I always seem to take a nap instead.

If you have not read the original book, Goodnight Moon, I very much encourage you to do so before you read any of its parodies – that’s right, there are more, just ‘Google’ it on your smartphones. Then, if you feel so inclined, follow the link to watch the YouTube version of Goodnight iPad . Please comment with your thoughts on the book and what would you do if someone threw your cellphone, television, and computer out the window!

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you are staying warm here in what I refer to as Narnia, pre-Edmund, Lucy, Susan and Peter.

Stefanie

For my first post, or rather the first post ever to be written on www.stmustudentblog.com, I thought it best to begin by giving a brief introduction to what you can expect to read about here. Before I can do that, however, I want to welcome you and introduce myself to you all.

Welcome! My name is Stefanie Story, I am in my second year at St. Mary’s University College, I am 19 years old, and I love my name. All my life, people have responded to my introduction by asking me what my story is or by asking if I had any good stories to tell, and, of course, whether I responded with fact or fiction, I always found something to say. I have always loved the idea of blogging because every life has a story, and, for this blog in particular, every student is undoubtedly more than just a student. It is my goal, as the current author of this blog, to provide you with a unique, student perspective of life at St. Mary’s and, unlike my responses to people’s questions, I will be only be telling you true stories about my life as a student. As many of you can suspect, a broad number of topics will be talked about on this blog, ranging from academics, campus events, and athletics, to what it’s like juggling work, school, family, friends and whatever else I may have on the go. It is my hope that, as I share my thoughts, discoveries, and adventures, that you might smile as you read, forget that some of my troubles may resemble your own, and take a break from your busy life. If I have learned anything as a student…which hopefully I have…it is that breaks are necessary for survival.

Before I go back to the busyness of the day, I wish to leave you with a promise of sorts:

I, Stefanie Story, take you, the readers of this blog, to be my…readers, to post and to comment from this day forward, through the thrill of long weekends and agony of exams, late night papers and sleeping past alarms, to celebrate and to provide a different perspective, till the winter semester do us part.

Thank you for reading and I will see you here again soon!