Diary of a 1st-4th Year Student Who Might Graduate with a Kinesiology Degree
One of the interesting things about being a mature (/”transfer”) student is that I never know how to answer the question of what “year” I’m in. In theory, I can say I’m year 3.5 into a Kinesiology BA….which is kind of where I’m at credit-wise? I don’t know exactly when I’m graduating, though, or exactly what degree I will get. I’m kind of hoping I can get into an MA program sooner rather than later.
I DID notice that I have a pretty unique situation this year, though. I didn’t quite manage to get one of each “year”, but this fall, I have ended up with:
1 first-year course
2 second-year courses
2 fourth-year courses
Since I’m horrible at keeping a diary, I thought I’d try to see if I could commit to blog entries. When in doubt, make it public and guilt yourself into doing things…right?
So…Week 1…HERE WE GO!
Tuesday, Sept. 2
Today, the rest of my courses opened online, so I could FINALLY look at my course outlines. I know that some courses aren’t ready early, but I love getting the dates in hand as early as possible, so I can start getting a feel for the term, and find out which weeks will be busy. It’s partially because I’m a gig worker, and I need to have a rough idea of whether any weeks will be problematic for booking work, or if there are weeks when I can fit in some extra bookings.
I also got to clean my friend’s place today. (PS, one of my 10000 jobs is cleaning houses). I realized that a huge motivator for me is making people happy. Not just satisfied…but genuinely happy. This is why I like cleaning for certain people more than others. This is why I enjoy performing. This is why I enjoy volunteering at Dancing with Parkinson’s. And this is why I think I will make a great physiotherapist one day.
I want to make someone else’s day…every day.
Wednesday, Sept. 3
First day of school! It still feels wrong when that phrase means actual school - in my head, it means beginning rehearsals for a show.
….sigh…
But, today it meant actual school! It’s annoying how the first day of classes at York seems to always just be “welcome to class” - am I the only one who reads the course outline in advance? Sure, it’s fine to have a chill start, but I’d rather have some content right away and have a chill class at the end of the term when I’m feeling overloaded.
Definitely sat across the subway from some fellow “first-day-of-school”-ers…doing their makeup and making sure they look perfect for their arrival. I’m sure there was a time I felt that way, too, but now I’m just anxious and wish there could be more actual content ahead of time to get a head start. Probably the most iconic ‘of this era’ girl was donning a miniskirt, polo, chunky glasses, an oversized purse and a Stanley Cup.
I hate that I know what a Stanley Cup is.
In case you were wondering, I don’t have one…
Other day one observations include:
People can walk VERY slowly, even with long legs.
Some profs are amazing at answering obvious questions with sincerity and care.
I’m not sure why it’s hard to read the signs for one-way traffic down into the bookstore, but apparently it is.
The bookstore staff was ON IT, and the huge textbook line moved so quickly.
Apparently, only a handful of people still know what Coles notes are, other than it being something that’s often referenced as cheating. I’m old.
Students will complain a LOT about how expensive the lab manual is, and declare that York is robbing them, because the supplies at the checkout aren’t labelled with prices.
Day one had a lot of cologne. Not sure if the alternative would be better or worse. Check back in November.
No matter what “year” of the class, there was always a time when the room got too loud for the prof to speak over it, and they just waited.
Some guy plugged his next classroom into ChatGPT and got walking directions to it from the library.
I’m a little wary about how enjoyable my courses might be this year….HOWEVER, as a first impression, the profs seem lovely, and I hope that carries me through. I took some of my most relevant courses last year, and now I feel like I’m playing catch-up with some of the less interesting requirements. I’m happy I played it this way, though - I know my brain, and if I had done all of these last year, I would’ve been super frustrated.
Doing an undergrad as an adult is hard and complicated. I don’t mean just hard brain-wise (yes, things are RUSTY). When you know what you’re going to school to learn, though, and you’ve already had a chance to explore “who you’ll become”, the extra stuff is a little more superfluous than intended. Also, there are elements of certain classes in particular, that are better geared towards 18-year-olds as opposed to old people….like me….who’s not THAT old…but old enough to notice that I’m…old…
Thursday, Sept. 4
No school today! It was cleaning day instead.
And by cleaning day, I don’t mean I’m now living in sparkling luxury….I cleaned two other people’s apartments, as per usual.
I like my clients, though, and don’t mind cleaning as long as it’s not every day! It feels productive, and it’s one of the few places where my inner perfectionist is encouraged to thrive. It was a bit chaotic today, though, because one of them had a schedule that kept flipping on her. At least, my other client today was a superstar (aka she wasn’t home, so therefore didn’t care when I came), so we made it all happen.
I got very wet, though…and I have nobody to blame but myself. Most of my clients are a decent distance away, but close enough (for me) to walk to…so I feel cheated when I give up and take transit. I feel this even more when I’m in school because I don’t get the chance to walk as often.
So, I looked the day before, and it said it was going to rain. But I still wanted to walk. So I did. It was raining as I left. Then it rained a bit harder. Then it got lighter. Then heavier. But I still chose walking over taking busy transit.
I had very wet pants…
My main error was that I always have a dry pair of socks in my bag…because I have made stupid rain-related walking decisions before. I did not, however, remove my dry socks from my wet bag…so by the time I used them to walk home, they were also quite wet.
But not AS wet.
Friday, Sept. 5
Today was my first learning day! I had a meeting for my independent study project, and then an exercise physiology lecture. Although I’m a bit over learning more physiology, I think this professor might be awesome, and I have a solid feeling that my mindset will shift a bit as this class gets underway. My independent study project might be really cool as well, and I can’t wait to see where it goes!
I have a feeling that as the term progresses, I’ll be able to do at least some of my lectures from home. I really love the current state of technology, where we can be more autonomous in our learning choices. Many classes offer recordings after class, allowing you to review (or simply learn from home in the first place). Although they always recommend attending class, last year, Physiology in particular became much easier for me once I started learning some of the material online. The transit to school is draining, and it’s an early morning for my body to tolerate consistently…so even if I work through the material a bit slower at home, it’s worth the extra saved transit time and proper sleep.
Is it weird that I’m looking forward to the weekend so I can get a head start on some of my classes? I’m working a bit tomorrow (I say “a bit” even though it’s actually a whole day…I’m just monitoring a photo booth, though, so I'm mostly just going to be hanging out on my computer doing school…and getting paid for it), but then I have the whole day on Sunday! I kind of hit the ground running as soon as I got home last week from visiting my family, so I’m looking forward to a lazy day catching up on laundry, groceries, and maybe even a room tidy!
Also, I’m still trying to dry out my backpack from yesterday. I'm glad I have a separate backpack for school.
Another fun fact about yesterday’s monsoon is that I was apparently taking pocket pictures as I tried to protect my phone from the rain.
Artsy, right???
Saturday, Sept 6
Am I supposed to write things on weekends? I have no idea. I know I make the rules….but what are they?
I worked today…at a photo booth for Shoppers Beauty suppliers. The first thing I realized was that it’s nice not to be a brand ambassador at those things. I don’t miss the slightly-too-much makeup with “done” hair and a fake smile. It’s fun to wander around and get the free samples, though!
It’s always a different feeling to be in a place where they give away whole items as free samples. It seems to be a luxury only for those who can actually afford to buy them. Obviously, they’re only being given away in the hopes that people will purchase a LOT of them for their customers, but still. Trade shows are an interesting phenomenon from the outside.
I also felt sorry for the catering staff who were, for some reason, placed at their starting positions in the hall at least 45 minutes before the event started. Even in comfy shoes, it looked severely boring and uncomfortable, especially for those stationed far away from anyone else. While I understand that they might as well be around and available to help, it would be nice if they were at least in a place where they could sit if there weren’t things to do (actually, there were plenty of chairs, so they COULD sit - they just weren’t allowed to). (And anyone whose rebuttal is that they should just “find other things to do” has probably never worked as a low-paid event staffer before)
I didn’t get that much homework done today - I was too busy collecting free samples. Oh well. It’s ok to have a less-productive day every once in a while…I can make myself productive on other days! Will that be tomorrow? I guess I’ll find out. Will I write about it here? Perhaps…
Sunday, Sept. 7
I FULLY intended on not writing tonight…but I guess it already feels like a routine? Weird. I haven’t written in a diary for years, but I guess sometimes old habits resurge quickly?
Today, I did a bit of working forward on each of my classes. Sadly, it made me pre-roll my eyes for one of my classes tomorrow, and one Tuesday. Some classes haven’t been created for older students, and it’s pretty obvious.
I’m also a little judgmental about some of the spoon-feeding that seems to happen in my 1st-year courses. My class tomorrow (a kinesiology-centric sociology course) has an introductory lecture about how to succeed in university. This is not my first time in post-secondary, and I’ve never had a course present mandatory learning skills classes. It’s also apparently testable material (so please, show up!), so there will probably be a couple of trivia questions about the content on our final exam in April. The class seems to introduce a bunch of fundamental/straightforward learning strategies, such as listening, simplifying and reviewing your notes. While I understand the intention to not let students drown, I do think it takes away some of the learning process of learning how to learn. Sometimes, it’s helpful to create your own process first and then use external resources as needed to refine it. It’s not even like old-fashioned school, where if you couldn’t take good lecture notes, you ended up with gigantic holes in your study materials. If you miss something, you can just go back and watch the lecture again…or ask ChatGPT to explain the section to you.
My other course I’m rolling my eyes at is a new one for our cohort. The 1st-year version had some growing pains, and now I’m gearing up for take two. So far, the content seems just as rudimentary, but at least the assignments seem a bit less obnoxiously massive. It’s meant to be a participation-based course, but unfortunately, they require a number of marked written components to make it a proper ‘course’, and to encourage people to attend.
Sometimes I wish schools could just teach you stuff instead of requiring all the academic games. I can play it decently, but I wish my success didn’t depend on my playing it well. I just want to learn.