University Life
In a recent informal survey published by a Harvard student, she ranked undergraduate colleges according to how much social life was in the college. U of C, not surprisingly came on #331. Now, what was the reaction of U of C students? They printed a T-shirt saying 'Ranked 331 and proud of it'. I still see remnants of this when I look around and see T-shirts saying 'U of C, where fun comes to die'.
Now, U of C, I must admit, has changed my study habits drastically. Just as recent as this year, my daily schedule would be wake up at 1 pm, play WoW, play Dota, play bridge, chat/argue with paw1, sleep at 5-6 am, rinse-repeat. Even in JC, I do not remember ever studying beyond 10pm. Late nights + dreamy(panda) eyes inevitably came from my insatiable urge to play bridge late into the night. In fact, after I came back from Taiwan in J2, I went through this phase where I just did not feel like studying at all( and did not ). This coincided nicely with my J2 prelims and it cumulated to not knowing that my chemistry essay paper was the next day until that day itself.
Before I came to US, I deliberately did not install WoW or FT on my laptop, and I believe that this was a wise choice. The academic culture here is so, to use a Singaporean term, muggerish. This week is the 3rd week of term and I already will have 2 exams and 1 more next week.
There are study breaks planned practically every day at our house lounge.
In fact, in the past week, I found myself sleeping at close to 3am every night(which explains my lack of entries here =X). That is not to say, I hate it here.
On the countary, I seem to have rediscovered the passion I once had for learning and studying, something which I appeared to have lost in the past year. The libraries here are huge, so huge that it is easy to get lost in any one of them. Furthermore, book loans are on a quarterly basis, meaning we can borrrow them for up to 3 months. From a time when I thought that I had nothing else to do other than work for the next epic item or level up my character, I seemed to have progressed to a state where I find myself not having enough time to study as much as I would like to.
I believe that other than academics, university life is about personal growth and development, experiencing things which you would not be able to experience by studying alone. It is actually one big life skills lesson, where you learn what kind of friends can be trusted, learn about office politics, and most importantly experience new things.
What new experiences have I had so far? I believe the most significant one is probably late night studying in a study room with paw2 and paw3 and once in a while tail1. Furthermore, in a coed dorm, it is quite common for me to go to say paw3's room and spend the whole day there, watching movies/studying/chatting all in the context of a platonic relationship. I once asked my Singaporean friend, what do girls do when they go to guy's room at night. 'To have sex!'. Perhaps that is true in Singapore, but not so in here. I mean, they do have the sex part of course once in a while and it is widely condoned(actually I think it happens much more than I think it does); but on the other hand, there are so many other reasons to spend a day together in the same room.
Perhaps the first life skill I have developed here is the ability to behave more confidently in front of members of the opposite sex. (To those who don't know, if I stammer when I first talk to you, it probably means I have a crush on you). In fact, in JC, I used to have problems maintaining a decent conversation with someone of the opposite sex. Even now, I still don't call girls just to chat as I am always worried of not being able to maintain a decent conversation. (If I refuse to pick up your call or insist on chatting over msn, this is why.) I feel more confident when I can plan/edit whatever I want to say before sending it to the other person. Maybe I should call paw1 every night to train this skill >.<
The next important experience/life skill that I am picking up here is to live independently and to be responsible for decisions which I make. In Singapore, I used to live a very sheltered life and I was always too lazy to carefully consider all my possible options before making a decision. It was a case of which was the most convenient. When I applied for my universities, I wrote all my essays on the last night before it was due. When I applied for my scholarship, I only applied to DSTA, and the main reason was because it was the simplest to apply for. No essay. These decisions I deeply regret today. I used to be too lazy to find out things for myself and had this inertia towards work. I did not even know what colleges were good for economics and physics and only applied for U of C because my army mate told me he applied there coz it was good for economics. I went for an olympiad because my brother went for one. I studied actuary in army because my brother did it. I took 3 S papers because it was the in thing to do in my year. I never took responsibility for my decisions, nor did I have to pay their consequences.
It is so different here. Right smack day 1, you are faced with the decision of what courses to take. Do you take an easy course for that valuable A(GPAGPAGPA), or a difficult course to challenge yourself? Do you want to stress yourself out and take 2 humanities based subjects or just 1? If you want something done, you actually have to pro-actively do it. The next important decision I probably have to make is do I want to move out? How much is the opportunity cost of the convenience of staying in dorm? If I move out, who do I want to stay with?(probably paw2 and paw3 and tail1). I believe that as I make more and more decisions each day, I learn to be more and more decisive and face the consequences/rewards of my decisions. This lifeskill, I believe, I will never get in Singapore.
People say that army is what separates boys from men. I believe University life will be able to provide me with a side of life which I never had in my education in Singapore. The side, which I believe is so much more important than academic knowledge. I was not angry with the person who said that I was nothing more than academic because I knew, in part, it was probably true. I hope one day, I can look at the person who said 'You are nothing but academia', and tell her, I have grown.
Now, U of C, I must admit, has changed my study habits drastically. Just as recent as this year, my daily schedule would be wake up at 1 pm, play WoW, play Dota, play bridge, chat/argue with paw1, sleep at 5-6 am, rinse-repeat. Even in JC, I do not remember ever studying beyond 10pm. Late nights + dreamy(panda) eyes inevitably came from my insatiable urge to play bridge late into the night. In fact, after I came back from Taiwan in J2, I went through this phase where I just did not feel like studying at all( and did not ). This coincided nicely with my J2 prelims and it cumulated to not knowing that my chemistry essay paper was the next day until that day itself.
Before I came to US, I deliberately did not install WoW or FT on my laptop, and I believe that this was a wise choice. The academic culture here is so, to use a Singaporean term, muggerish. This week is the 3rd week of term and I already will have 2 exams and 1 more next week.
There are study breaks planned practically every day at our house lounge.
In fact, in the past week, I found myself sleeping at close to 3am every night(which explains my lack of entries here =X). That is not to say, I hate it here.
On the countary, I seem to have rediscovered the passion I once had for learning and studying, something which I appeared to have lost in the past year. The libraries here are huge, so huge that it is easy to get lost in any one of them. Furthermore, book loans are on a quarterly basis, meaning we can borrrow them for up to 3 months. From a time when I thought that I had nothing else to do other than work for the next epic item or level up my character, I seemed to have progressed to a state where I find myself not having enough time to study as much as I would like to.
I believe that other than academics, university life is about personal growth and development, experiencing things which you would not be able to experience by studying alone. It is actually one big life skills lesson, where you learn what kind of friends can be trusted, learn about office politics, and most importantly experience new things.
What new experiences have I had so far? I believe the most significant one is probably late night studying in a study room with paw2 and paw3 and once in a while tail1. Furthermore, in a coed dorm, it is quite common for me to go to say paw3's room and spend the whole day there, watching movies/studying/chatting all in the context of a platonic relationship. I once asked my Singaporean friend, what do girls do when they go to guy's room at night. 'To have sex!'. Perhaps that is true in Singapore, but not so in here. I mean, they do have the sex part of course once in a while and it is widely condoned(actually I think it happens much more than I think it does); but on the other hand, there are so many other reasons to spend a day together in the same room.
Perhaps the first life skill I have developed here is the ability to behave more confidently in front of members of the opposite sex. (To those who don't know, if I stammer when I first talk to you, it probably means I have a crush on you). In fact, in JC, I used to have problems maintaining a decent conversation with someone of the opposite sex. Even now, I still don't call girls just to chat as I am always worried of not being able to maintain a decent conversation. (If I refuse to pick up your call or insist on chatting over msn, this is why.) I feel more confident when I can plan/edit whatever I want to say before sending it to the other person. Maybe I should call paw1 every night to train this skill >.<
The next important experience/life skill that I am picking up here is to live independently and to be responsible for decisions which I make. In Singapore, I used to live a very sheltered life and I was always too lazy to carefully consider all my possible options before making a decision. It was a case of which was the most convenient. When I applied for my universities, I wrote all my essays on the last night before it was due. When I applied for my scholarship, I only applied to DSTA, and the main reason was because it was the simplest to apply for. No essay. These decisions I deeply regret today. I used to be too lazy to find out things for myself and had this inertia towards work. I did not even know what colleges were good for economics and physics and only applied for U of C because my army mate told me he applied there coz it was good for economics. I went for an olympiad because my brother went for one. I studied actuary in army because my brother did it. I took 3 S papers because it was the in thing to do in my year. I never took responsibility for my decisions, nor did I have to pay their consequences.
It is so different here. Right smack day 1, you are faced with the decision of what courses to take. Do you take an easy course for that valuable A(GPAGPAGPA), or a difficult course to challenge yourself? Do you want to stress yourself out and take 2 humanities based subjects or just 1? If you want something done, you actually have to pro-actively do it. The next important decision I probably have to make is do I want to move out? How much is the opportunity cost of the convenience of staying in dorm? If I move out, who do I want to stay with?(probably paw2 and paw3 and tail1). I believe that as I make more and more decisions each day, I learn to be more and more decisive and face the consequences/rewards of my decisions. This lifeskill, I believe, I will never get in Singapore.
People say that army is what separates boys from men. I believe University life will be able to provide me with a side of life which I never had in my education in Singapore. The side, which I believe is so much more important than academic knowledge. I was not angry with the person who said that I was nothing more than academic because I knew, in part, it was probably true. I hope one day, I can look at the person who said 'You are nothing but academia', and tell her, I have grown.
posted by Anonymous at 12:24 AM
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