It's finally over. 3 long years of hard work and sweat... (who am I kidding... only ONE year of hard work and sweat *hehehe*) and I'm more than halfway through my programme. It's over!! Now let me rejoice in the sweet bubble called denial and not think of the steady pace at which I'm edging towards working life.
But as the curtain falls on my undergrad years, I see my friends preparing for their convocation, the culmination of their 3 years of Tim Horton's coffee (or any other drug of choice) at 2 am, furious 20-page paper seasons, honing their ability to survive four days with less than 8 hours of sleep in total and somehow still manage to come up with something coherent about the artful use of rhetoric to obscure a lack of content. In a month's time, they'll be in their graduation garb, waiting for a piece of paper that they exhausted themselves for.
And their family will be on hand to partake in their joy.
The vicarious celebration of an opportunity that wasn't.
The emotional realisation that children do grow up.
The anxious attempt to capture that shaking-hands-with-the-dean moment.
Then I realize I'm not going to have that.
In a country where the education system is built on the principle of education for all, where the very low tuition costs are paid for by taxpayers, education is valued in a different way. A year in a public university in France costs around 350 Euros, of which 180 or so is for socialized health insurance. Our exams are graded on a scale of 20 and 10-12 is a satisfactory grade. I cannot see a McGill student being happy with a C- and there is virtually no way of getting an A in France (or 17/20 - unless of course I'm taking that damn mandatory english course teehee). I still think 85% for an A is friggin' ridiculous.
If you fail a year, you redo it, simple as that. If you're not happy with your course 2 years into the programme, start afresh. If you prefer a technical diploma, just go for it. While I understand that this is probably one of the reasons why I know at least a couple of 30+ year olds still in school after so many years. What I do admire about this mindset though is that there's so much less hemming and hawwing, fewer what if this what if that. Because education is cheap, it is flexible, there is room to navigate and explore till you find your niche (Not that I can exploit this anyway). There is no background talk of wasting your time and wasting your life. So at the end of 3 years, it's not so much an achievement or a milestone as a turning of a page, there is no need for fanfare.
I hope it doesn't disappoint you, Pa and Ma, that there will be no fancy pictures for a yearbook, no formal ceremony, no mortarboard to toss in the air.
A price to pay for the road less traveled by?
It's no price, it's just a circumstance that will make all the difference.
But as the curtain falls on my undergrad years, I see my friends preparing for their convocation, the culmination of their 3 years of Tim Horton's coffee (or any other drug of choice) at 2 am, furious 20-page paper seasons, honing their ability to survive four days with less than 8 hours of sleep in total and somehow still manage to come up with something coherent about the artful use of rhetoric to obscure a lack of content. In a month's time, they'll be in their graduation garb, waiting for a piece of paper that they exhausted themselves for.
And their family will be on hand to partake in their joy.
The vicarious celebration of an opportunity that wasn't.
The emotional realisation that children do grow up.
The anxious attempt to capture that shaking-hands-with-the-dean moment.
Then I realize I'm not going to have that.
In a country where the education system is built on the principle of education for all, where the very low tuition costs are paid for by taxpayers, education is valued in a different way. A year in a public university in France costs around 350 Euros, of which 180 or so is for socialized health insurance. Our exams are graded on a scale of 20 and 10-12 is a satisfactory grade. I cannot see a McGill student being happy with a C- and there is virtually no way of getting an A in France (or 17/20 - unless of course I'm taking that damn mandatory english course teehee). I still think 85% for an A is friggin' ridiculous.
If you fail a year, you redo it, simple as that. If you're not happy with your course 2 years into the programme, start afresh. If you prefer a technical diploma, just go for it. While I understand that this is probably one of the reasons why I know at least a couple of 30+ year olds still in school after so many years. What I do admire about this mindset though is that there's so much less hemming and hawwing, fewer what if this what if that. Because education is cheap, it is flexible, there is room to navigate and explore till you find your niche (Not that I can exploit this anyway). There is no background talk of wasting your time and wasting your life. So at the end of 3 years, it's not so much an achievement or a milestone as a turning of a page, there is no need for fanfare.
I hope it doesn't disappoint you, Pa and Ma, that there will be no fancy pictures for a yearbook, no formal ceremony, no mortarboard to toss in the air.
A price to pay for the road less traveled by?
It's no price, it's just a circumstance that will make all the difference.
