By Sherylynn Niezen – Email
“Thanks for the invite I would love to come but (homework excuse here)”
I got one of these texts the other day, I’ll call it the Homework Country text, and it isn’t the first and it definitely won’t be the last I’ll ever receive. The Homework Country text is a text that neither the giver nor the receiver likes to deal with. While the receiver of such a text is usually a disappointed non-student friend, family member, or a student friend that has spare time (or obviously isn’t as committed to their studies as you) the giver is almost always a stressed out student frustrated to be reminded that they are restricted to their desk until they finish their assignment.
Once you travel to Homework Country the outside world communicates with you via cell phone (or Facebook/email/etc.) and brings messages of great things happening elsewhere on Earth. But you are far away in Homework Country, doing homework. Always doing homework. You are restricted to this country and as much as it’s a difficult country to visit, you have chosen to visit it because it will prepare you for the rest of your life (or for your test tomorrow, if you’re thinking short term).
Now here’s the thing about Homework Country many people don’t realize: it’s like Europe. For instance, you can travel in and out of Homework Country, In-Class Country, and Late-Night-Study-Party Country super easy and meet a ton of awesome people in the process. All these different countries make up University World and you, as a student, are able to go in and out of all these different countries with only one passport or in your case, a student ID card.
These thoughts all stem from my realization the other day that my passport expired in April. At first I was thinking this is so unfortunate because now I can only travel within Canada. Oh woe is me to be restricted to a small chunk of land while the rest of the world is out there waiting for me to explore. Then I thought about this further. Is Canada not a jumbo chunk of land with a mass amount of different cultures, landscapes, varying weather patterns and about a million different things to do across the country? Rhetorical question, but to avoid confusion, yes, yes it is. It will always happen that as soon as you are not allowed to be somewhere then that is where you want to be.
And so, if you look at my made up University World in the same way, does it not appear that you are not so much restricted to one area, but that you haven’t fully explored all that is available to you where you are because you are looking at where you can’t be? Everything that University can offer you goes far beyond just getting that piece of paper in the end, which you may or may not even frame. You may not be able to go out every weekend with your friends but you get to travel in University World with thousands of other students, which can result in so many great adventures, lessons learned, and life experiences that others will never get. Are you going to make the most of it? Read every book in the library, talk to the hundreds of different students you see on a daily basis, find the beauty the world has at 3AM, learn from one another, and expand your knowledge!
Your day to day life as a student is an educational adventure whether you want it to be or not. You can meet people from around the world, learn things about the world, and learn about yourself within this world, just by sitting in the UFV library. Win-win-win if you ask me.
