Hey, teacher! Leave those kids alone!

As those of you who actually read up on this blog know, I've been writing paper for a couple days. And I just finished it! Yayy. I also just drove to campus to hand it in at 4am hoping my prof chose tomorrow morning to pick it up and not this morning. Either way, this prof is the bomb and he won't penelize me for late submission. He'll pick it up one day, read it, mark it, and give me a final mark for the full-year class I just finished. Sounds like a given but I've had some profs be so strict on the syllabus-given due dates that this would never slide. But he's not mean. Alright, let me just fill you in on this prof, although many of you who know me already know how awesome this dude is because I talk about him all the time. But I'm just going to throw this right out into the internet universe for the sake of paying respect... Gregory Cameron is the best teacher I've ever had.

It may have taken me a semester and a half to realize it, but I did. I couldn't see it first semester when I saw him just as this cartoon character I had drawn up of him... and the fact that I had him for a certain communications course at 9am Mondays and Wednesdays. I just couldn't see past that early wake up on Monday mornings especially. I would always wonder what he would think when he would see me attend his Tuesday and Thursday cultural studies classes. (couldn't have been that bad, I got a B in the comm course and did absolutely the bare minimum). Anyways, in January when I started only seeing him Tuesdays and Thursdays (at 2:30pm, ps... awesome), the resentment was gone and I actually started notcing myself learning a lot from him. I started becoming less afraid of his intimidating nature and seeing that it was really just a quiet carefree nature that was being misinterpreted as "this guy loves his job and means business". Don't get me wrong, he does love his job. He loves teaching students, he just doesn't necessarily love being bound to the restrictions of the schoolboard. So when I asked to change my subject, the same one that I had been working on for 2 months, to something else he said, whatever you feel better writing about (for the paper I just finished). When I asked for a one-week extension on something he didn't question why I needed it, but trusted that I did need it to make it the best that I could. When I asked for an exemption for a certain presentation for a part of my final grade because my grandmother died, he told me not to worry about it. He also told me if I needed more time to finish my paper I could have it.

I learned the most from him than any other teacher.

Not only did he provide us the respect I believe he actually felt we deserved, but he is an incredibly smart person. I actually feel priviledged to have three whole sections in my five-star notebooks filled with his words.

I learned the most from him than any other teacher.

In general, I believe that we don't learn from a schoolboard regulated syllabus. We don't learn through rules and regulations. We don't learn through a forced nature. We learn through teaching. Transfering information from the learned to the learning, and doing so in a relaxed environment where we aren't afraid to approach the one who is teaching us and ask for understanding is perhaps when we can learn more than from any other teacher. Kid's don't come home from school and say they hate their mean teacher for nothing... they're mean! And the kid in turn probably didn't learn as much as they could have if the mean teacher gave the kid some respect.

That's what it's all about. R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Sing it, practice it.

Figure it out, teachers. This is what the world needs.

I Just Want to Fly

As I'm sitting here trying to finish my last paper of the school year, I have found myself finding absolutely everything else to do. Made my roommate a hilarious facebook group, made friends with one of my profs and downloaded every Sugar Ray song ever made I'm pretty sure. Why? Because they're awesome. I remember them being so lame in the 90's when they were "popular". Listening back now I am enjoying their chill-rock/regee sound and their lead actually has a sick voice and the lyrics aren't as dumb as I thought either. A hidden, classic gem in my eyes. Way to go guys.

As I get back to this terrible paper, enjoy this beat that I would never expect to ever happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6CZKz9P5g

Everyone Deserves Music

Along with the pressure of exams come the great need for distractions. Anything will do. Walks, coffees, getting food, naps, facebook, twitter, blogs. My best and worst friend along with the above distractions is downloading music. Having an entirely new library of music is just surreal. It's like waking up to a pile of presents all for you. Or like going to sleep on a brand new set of clean bed sheets. Like chugging an ice-cold glass of water in the morning after drinking. Like sweet AND salty when you're stoned... It's freaking awesome.


And downloading a new library in preparation for the summer is even better. Summer jams? Who doesn't love them. Keep an eye on the list to the right, as it will change throught the summer with my next new summer jams.


Summer jams to me means jams you can lie out in the sun with a cold one to. You can party outdoors to. You can drive around with all the windows down to. You can sit under the stars to. Basically songs that suit the warm weather and can make you feel like you're in a movie. That's what summers always feel like to me. Especially after the summer is over. Like I had just watched the most real movie ever. A very short period of time in your life in which you'll remember the good parts, the bad parts and you'll continue to talk about the parts that became memories and meant something to you years later. Like any movie. Like any summer.


So give these songs a listen and let me know how you feel about them when you're having fun in the sun.


My newest fave artist, check it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaTl7IcFs8&feature=related



And if you're looking for some sweet beats, check this site
http://onthatbeat.com/ it's serving you fresh beats daily!

xo

We're All in This Together

It's that time of year again...
Exam Time. *shudder*
Those four dreadful letters, e-x-a-m. So simple sounding, but we all know what they really mean. Late nights, early mornings, messy rooms, too many trips to starbucks and tim hortons for those late night coffees, 12 packs of red rain, not one healthy meal for 3 weeks and spending more time on campus than you have all year. A clean kitchen or bathroom? Forget it. Who's got the time. Trips to the gym? Hell no. There's just too much work to do! Student's lives get turned upside down for those couple finals that just won't write themselves (trust me, they won't.. I've already prayed to the exam gods. They said no). So what do we do? We do it. Just do it. It sucks but we do it because as much as we hate the feeling of endless readings and power point slides and papers all over your bedroom and falling asleep at the library, the feeling of bombing an exam will stay with you for a much longer amount of time. AND, there's actually nothing like the feeling of walking out of an exam with a smile on your face, knowing you fuckin' killed it.
And if that's not enough motivation to study your ass off, take a trip on campus at 2am. You will see that there is an entire school full of people in the exact same boat as you, struggling to cram in that last bit of information before their final in the morning. Being on campus late at night gives me this crazy feeling of secrurity. That I'm not alone. That nothing is weird about my study habits, I'm just a student. We all procrastinate. We all stay up late. We all want to succeed. And one thing is true that for these weeks of exams, in the words of Ben Lee, "Awake is the new sleep"... and We're all in this together.

Good luck, kids.

All You Need is...

I would start my blog off talking about love. My fave.
The topic always challenges me. The word speaks volumes. Is bigger than Mountains. Whats bigger than mountains? Earth. What's bigger than Earth? The universe. What's bigger than the universe? Love.
I lost my grandmother this past week, and there's nothing like death to bring out love. (Leave it to death to complete our life). It's times like these - at funerals and during mourning - that we think about how great these people in our lives are, and when we really feel the love for that person. My grandmother and I weren't close. I was number 19 of 19 grandchildren, and only saw her on holidays. Not only until did she move into a home quite close to where I started going to school did I visit her more than twice a year. But this week, being surrounded by the large family that I am a part of and all being gathered because of this wonderful mother of 8 did I feel the love. Coming from every person's insides. All gathered. All thinking of good memories, sharing stories, saying goodbye. Saying goodbye, remembering, and sharing. Sharing the love. Passing it on.
Standing in that church, I was overwhelmed, and not because of her death (she was in her 99th year and it was not a shock), but because of the love that surrounded her. The love that was created because of her love. All products of love. A never ending cycle of love. And 50+ family members that did not have one bad thing to say. I cried not out of sadness but of an overwhelming wave of care. family. That's what it's all about, really.

A never ending cycle of love.

"Enjoy your life" - Gramma: Sept 23, 1911 - March 29, 2010