As a soon-to-be graduate, I’ve learned a lot from my time here at Brock. Here are my most important lessons condensed into one article.
I have a lot of feelings as I write this. There’s relief, of course, that my responsibilities are slowly dwindling as I knock out the final projects of my undergraduate degree, but also melancholy that it’ll be all over soon.
See, Brock and I have a complicated relationship. It has beaten me down to my lowest lows as I sobbed by the Sir Isaac Brock statue when everything just seemed like too much, but it’s also built me up with some of my greatest achievements, both personally and professionally. It’s been the setting of my transformation from a young, naive kid to someone who feels (mostly) ready to tackle the world.
With this in mind, I like to think I’ve picked up a few tidbits of knowledge that others should know, particularly if they’re just starting out at Brock. You might call this an early Beginner’s Guide article for next year, a relic that newer students or incoming first-years can find and hopefully learn from (or dismiss, because we all know how first-years are).
Now, this isn’t intended to be a guidebook, like a “Top Tips to Survive at Brock” or something like that, but I’d like to think it might encourage someone to take risks or get a little bit more out of this major period in your life.
I mainly just want to tell people to make the most out of their time at Brock. It’s really that simple. Brock University is teeming with possibilities that anyone can just reach out and grab.
There are hundreds of clubs led by passionate individuals that might just introduce you to a community you didn’t know existed in the real world; if you have a passion that isn’t answered by any pre-existing clubs, make the space yourself. Brock lets you do that.
In this post-COVID world, there are so many gaps that need to be filled, even four years after the fact.
There are dozens of jobs you could apply to right here on campus. The Brock Press, for example, is currently hiring (wink wink, nudge nudge) but there are also opportunities at BrockTV, BUSU and within the university institution itself.
Sometimes professors hire research assistants, even from first-year classes, but you’ll only learn about that if you make connections. These people that you’re going to spend the rest of your undergrad with, your fellow students, roommates and even professors, could be your ticket to the future. You might end up in a career you love thanks to your connections, find a life-long partner or discover a passion you never knew you had. Talk to people — everyone and anyone you meet — and you might be surprised at how many doors open up for you.
Attending class is important, even if it doesn’t seem that way. Showing up is both the easiest and hardest part, but once you do that, the rest will fall into place.
That’s not to say your undergrad is going to be a walk in the park; it will be hard, if not just for the classes and assignments then all the other shit you’ll find yourself dealing with. If you’re coming straight from high school, as I did, this degree will represent a complicated time in your life, when you become a young adult and learn about all the new problems that accompany the title. On top of your scholarly responsibilities, you’ll feel pressures from your personal relationships, your career and more. None of that takes a backseat because you need to focus on an essay, unfortunate as it is.
And gods forbid you decide to pursue graduate studies, which will require you to dedicate an entire year of your life (at least) to simply applying, a process that will overlap with your fourth-year, fall-term responsibilities, and when that’s over, you’ll sit with the pressure of an incoming decision for months, the fate of your future resting on a handful of grad committees at a handful of universities. But I digress.
The most important thing to remember in the face of all these mounting pressures is that you’re not alone. If you need help, ask for it! There are resources here at Brock that can help you with accommodation needs, personal troubles and more. Most professors will grant you an extension if you ask for it ahead of the due date with an adequate reason, even if that reason is 12 other assignments due on the same day.
Take care of yourself, seriously. The life of a university student is not easy; sometimes it demands 14-hour days as casually as you might ask for an iced coffee at Tim’s, and it can be easy to fall into bad habits like staying up all night or drinking exorbitant amounts of energy drinks.
Don’t do this, seriously. Your body and spirit will thank you for it.
Know that breaks are alright to take, try your best to schedule your school responsibilities ahead of time and, when you inevitably leave your assignments to the last minute, forgive yourself and hunker down. Know yourself and how you work, then go backwards from there. If all else fails, remember that you can ask for help. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can criticize you for that.
Maybe I’ve scared you away by now, but if you’re still reading this, I think you’re ready for the experience that’s coming. And if you’re a fellow soon-to-be-graduate like me, I hope you’re nodding your head in agreement, reflecting on all the times you haven’t done this. Indeed, I’m currently writing this when I should be winding down for bed.
But alas, you should do as I say and not as I do.
Realistically, everyone will go through their own process and learn their own lessons, but if I knew I had to take things into my own hands sooner, I would have opened myself up to a lot more opportunities. Hey, I might’ve even been Editor-in-Chief by now if I’d known about this little joint when I started out, but now the world will never know.
Instead, I bestow that opportunity to you, should you choose to pursue it, or any other opportunity, for that matter. You have to make your own space here at Brock: others will help you achieve your goals along the journey, but nobody’s going to do it for you (and I don’t mean Odysseus).
Finally, and I say this with utmost seriousness, you have to know if university isn’t right for you. If you give it a solid go, if you really try and it just doesn’t work, that is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it might be better for you to drop out and pursue other avenues, like a college program or just hopping into the professional world, before you become burnt out trying to spin your wheels across the same patch of ice over and over again. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, but that isn’t the end by any means. I have friends who dropped out and they’re doing great now, but what’s important is that they realized university wasn’t right for them. It’s alright not to make it all the way through, because odds are, you weren’t getting what you wanted from it in the first place.
But if university is the right place for you, and you put in the hard work, the literal sweat and tears an undergraduate degree demands of you, you might just find exactly what you were looking for (or exactly that which you weren’t looking for, but needed to find). I’ll say it again: your time at Brock is what you make of it.
And despite everything, despite the crazy shit you’ll juggle trying to get your undergraduate degree, remember to enjoy it.
Remember to savour those late nights with friends or by yourself, those spur-of-the-moment hookups, the parties, your class cohorts, everything. Because before you realize it, you’ll be sitting exactly where I am, wondering where it all went.
You’ll be able to see just how sweet it was, despite the hardships, because you made it the experience that you needed.
And if you’ve gotten that far, you can do anything.