It's Christmas, I think

As final exams have consumed the majority of my time that I might have otherwise spent blogging, I can now officially say that stranglehold on my time-space continuum has ended and now I'm free to not blog out of sheer laziness instead.

A few thoughts on my first round of university final exams to share with you:

1. We all deal with stress differently but you would be interested to know that when you have 400-500 people waiting to write an exam, most tend to do the same thing: Talk incessantly to the person nearest to you and try to gauge through indirect questioning whether you know more than they do.
2. There is a God. Specifically, There is a strong positive correlation between the direction I have chosen and the success met the further I walk down the path. Don't mistake this for fair-weather fanship as it is considerably more difficult to attribute one's success to anyone other than oneself.
3. Finishing multiple choice exams in the shortest amount of time possible is highly recommended.
4. Avoiding the persons mentioned in #1 will drastically reduce your pre-exam stress.
5. Taking a pre-exam constitutional is the most economical way to accomplish #4

Now for those marks...

My Waves

You all remember the great story when Jesus is walking on water and then Peter gets out of the boat and waltzes out a ways then he takes his eyes off Jesus and look sat the waves and starts to sink? Common knowledge, yeah? So, I was thinking about this story the other day and how I've got to keep my eyes on God and his faithfulness thus far in my life and have faith that it will continue and I feel a bit ashamed that I have worried so much already about things I can't know yet like my performance at school. I realize now that it would be fairly inconsistent of me to have believed that God's hand was so evident in my life up to this point and then completely forget that He exists when I consider future events.

As always, these lessons are easy to sum up but harder to to put into practice, especially when the waves in my life walk around in sweatsuits that say "Grad 2009" all over them...

Of Correlation and Regression

Is there a point in life where everyone feels that their life is going "according to plan"? Is there a certain point where everyone feels that life couldn't be further from the ideal than it is at that moment? Is there only a single time where either of these events occur? If statistics were the glasses with which we viewed our past, would we find that all of our lives fluctuate above or below the average, all eventually equaling zero? Or would we find that some finish with a strong positive correlation to the average life while others have had no relation whatsoever to that which truly equates "life"?

Something to break down this postulating mess is the language in which we interpret our lives, the standard by which we measure our current position and the standard by which we determine the scale of our position. With the subjectivity that is human understanding of the world around us, can there truly be a standard by which all things are counted?

There is.

Hidden somewhere between the implausible and the unbelievable lies the realization that in every pursuit that humankind has ever undertaken, there is commonality and, more importantly, the understanding that no new ground has ever been broken.

Someone was here before me.

Someone has a deeper understanding of the world I live in and no matter how far I perceive myself to have gone or how high I perceive myself to have risen, the answer remains the same. The playing field is not an unknown, the players within it do not contain unknown potential. The only unknown, if it can be described like this, is that which is known to you as such.

Applied to all facets of life, the only question that remains for myself and everyone who came before me and all those who will follow after is whether you can accept your insignificance.

1.6180339...and so on.

A Good Education

Just a short note here to put something on the table for later, let's say dessert as it will fit figurative purposes. I wanted a professional and clinical education but, unfortunately, the liberals got to it first and wiped their golden butts with it. I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't be in the same boat as I was with my EMS education in the past where the learning always had a practical application. We'll undoubtedly revisit this topic in the future.

It began...

So I've put the first full week of classes behind me, I've procured and perused all pertinent syllabi and I've made friends is all of my classes, not.

I don't talk to people.

Ever since my early teens I have had a physical aversion to chatter, small-talk, chit-chat, and the like. It sets me on edge to hear the nervous tone in the voice of the person two chairs over as they put their insecurity into words by uttering that first little self-deprecating comment to the person next to them in an attempt to "break the ice." Whatever euphemism you want to inject into the situation you will find that there is some obstacle to be overcome by being the first to speak to those around you. I'm not interested in debating the origin of the urge, it's prevalent and that's enough. I am interested, however, in discussing the widely held but rarely acknowledged belief that to sit in silence with strangers around you is in some way rude.

I could very well be saving you months of awkwardness by recommending that you do not strike up a conversation with that seemingly harmless person to your left. She/he could easily be the most insipid person you've ever met but, by setting that ball rolling, you've identified yourself as a blank canvas for their prosaic, rambling, paintbrush.

Could be that you find yourself a friend, could be that you find yourself with nowhere to run when Mr. or Mrs. close-talker, mouth-breather, or spit-spitter just wants a good chat.

Your call.

It all begins...

So, tomorrow is the day I start classes at the University of Manitoba. In preparation, I took a bus over to the campus today to grab some books and scope out the buildings in which I will be expanding my knowledge of wildly important topics like Statistics and Nutrition. Joy of all joys.

As a side note, I noticed today that among all the human pandemonium that is orientation week at any given university, there was a distinct lack of one group of individuals: Parents.

In past experience with a training institute I had the dubious honour in dealing with the parents of students who usually meant well but more often hindered their child's chances at independence, social success, and ever getting further than arm's length from mom's teet. These parents are the ones who walk into any given admissions office and state proudly, "My (son/daughter) wants to be a ________" Really? they won't give you the time of day from the screen of their iPod (which you bought them) but they confided in you their life's career goals? Now, you may disagree with my interpretation of what actions are obtrusive and which are not based on your personal experiences but I believe it's beyond discussion when parents are doing all the legwork for their child.

The basis of the problem is simple, how will your child know independent thought if you won't let them experience it? Also, how many people do you know that are grateful for their parents' actions? "I was, like, sooooooo happy that my mom called my boss and told them I was sick this morning because, like, if I had to actually work on Monday mornings, how the hell could I party?" I am underwhelmed by the sentiment.

Pros and cons people, pros and cons.

A Welcome and a Warning

I will extend the welcome first to those of you who heard firsthand about my efforts to establish a blog and then next to those who have perhaps stumbled across this page in their attempts to find something worthwhile. For the former; this is it, my very own space to rant and rave and spill out everything I've gone through and everything I'm about to go through. For the latter; my apologies as you're about to file this blog under "time I'll never get back."

The warning is simply that I'm starting this...venture with no idea what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time of the thought but, while my synapses were firing whimsically away, my subconscious may have been on to something.

So, to borrow a phrase from a movie, (second warning: if you don't like movie/tv show quotes, get learning or get hating) we're going to see "how far the rabbit hole goes."

Shall we?