The next phase

Four years and four bedrooms later I have officially graduated from Queen's University.
After moving out of 193 Collingwood St. today, I was motivated to write a blog as I saw my memories being packed into carboard boxes. One year at a time, a short summary follows:

In my first year, I lived in Victoria hall (aka the party res). Coming into Queen's, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I'm not going to lie, school was the last thing on my mind that year. I got caught in a life of partying, sleeping in, and ridiculous amounts of procrastination. I don't know if it was the crazy engineering mentality, or just the fact that I wasn't used to so much freedom...but nevertheless, I barely got through...scraping by with 50s and 60s, but a hell of a lot of 'party knowledge.'

My second year was a lot like a transition phase. I was still stuck in a lot of my old ways but definately put a little more effort into school. I met a lot of new people, but there were some that had a greater influence on me than others. Those individuals know exactly who they are... and for everything they've ever done, I would seriously like to thank them. School started to get more interesting, as it became more specific to my interests. And who could forget, I had an afro.

On entering my third year, I had a completely different mentality about school. I knew I was capable doing well, while still having a great time. With the help of some newly acquired freinds and a lot of time in Bain Computer Lab, i was able to pull out of the year on the dean's list with an unexpectadly high ranking in my class. Funny how much things could actually change.

In my final year at Queen's University, I had decided to go all out. Along with taking 8 classes im my first semester, I had also decided to work a part time job and convince myslef that i would still have time to party. Little did I know, I would be spending many all-nighters in Bain, while using worn out single coaches for beds. For anyone that plans to ever go through a semester with this much to do, make sure you know what you're getting yourslef into.
The best part of all this hard work, was that it paid off for my final semester at Queen's. Because I had taken so many classes first semester, I was left with an increadably slack second. Only 3 classes plus a project opened the doors for 3 nights of partying a week... and because of all this, the semseter flew by... and I don't regret one second of it. Sure, I spent a LOT of money, and lost a couple marks here and there, but I got to enjoy myslef the way I had wanted to for so many years. ...withouht a worry in the world. Friends became closer, and memories that much more priceless. This semester had definately put an exclamtion mark at the end of this 4 year sentance.

Now seriously, the point of this post was not to list what has happened to me over the past few years and brag about it... but to actually talk about where it has got me to and where I plan to go. Everything that I have stated is not sugar coated at all, but there are many things about my time at Queen's which I hanv't mentioned...times at which I had felt so low that I never expected to regain myself.... But the way I see it is that without those moments, I would never have been able to enjoy myslef as much as i did when everything was going well.

Everything being said...here i am. Sitting in my bed at home in Mississauga, at 5:17 AM, thinking about what I am doing with my life. It sounds so wierd to say it:
"I have a University degree."
"I am done with school."
"My 'real' life begins now."
just to mention some of the overplayed thouhgts in my head.

The truth is, I don't really know where I am going... but I am not completely hopeless. My problem is that there are many things that I want to do with my life but don't know exactly in what order, or how I should go about doing them. One thing is for sure, my life is not getting any more simple now that I have a degree...if anything it has become that much more complicated.

I have more to say, but its late and I'm tired.
I will start fresh another day,

-Zak