My Loves and Hates of University

I need to get this off my chest.

Loves:
People stop harassing you because you're so cool to be in university now.
Your parents stop badgering you about doing something with you life.
There are lots of people and friends around to keep you occupied.
You don't get penalized when you don't show up.
There is a bar.
There is lots of food.
There is a massive library full of books that you can hide in when you want to be alone.
When it comes to student loans, the less you work the more money they give you.

Hates:
It costs a fortune day-to-day because you are constantly taunted to buy stuff.
It's just like high school.
The profs pretend that you are to think for yourself but really you have to submit work based on what you think they want.
It's not specialized.
You can go for years and years and never really get anywhere except in debt.
They offer limited options.
I feel stupid in university.
The profs mark in red pen and are ruthless- ruthless I tell you.
You don't have enough time to do your best, so you end up handing in half-assed work.

What I wish I could have in my education:
Individualized attention.
Hands-on work.
Specialized training.
Smaller class sizes.
A clear outcome of my future.

COLLEGE is definitely for me. I applied for a bachelor or arts in childhood development at Seneca College in Ontario for Sept 2009. I hope I get accepted. I'm getting really really frustrated with MUN. It's so over-rated. You just learn to be another zombie in the march of the walking dead.
The road to become... the same as everyone else.

*sign* Maybe it's just my stupid English essay (cough cough) that's making me this way. I thought i was good at English. I know I still am, but I don't want to write a certain way just because that's the way someone else wants it. I know I need to learn to write essays the was profs want, but if I'm not in university I can by-pass that. Oh my what to do.

Make Tea, Not War

Fighting for peace is like smoking for air.
People being slaughtered is cruel and unfair.
The weapons we create for mass destruction
Those funds should go to helpful production.
Humans are starving a die from disease.
Appreciate what you have, and not take what others need.
Forget power and wealth and money that sings.
The oil, the riches, what of these things?
Billions of dollars spent on entertainment.
Million dollar rings as proof of engagement.
What about the kids without good nutrition?
Could we give them hope, a sense of ambition?
Eliminate differences between you and me.
Untie! Get together! Forget war, make tea.
How many wars will it take people to realize
That fighting and killing will not end in compromise?
There are countries in the world that won't stop - no suspension
Of the money fed in to military expansion.
Aggression and violence do not solve confrontation.
What is this method teaching future generations?
Opposing governments recruit young women and men.
Convince them the others the enemy, their duty is to defend.
As the leaders of nation's sit unaware
Young soldiers, both sides, left dead, in despair.
If we were all treated equally we'd have no reason to fight.
Agree to disagree, we should all have that right.
Humanity is suffering like a thousand times before.
Unite! Get together! Make tea, not war.

From Facebook

You have to be in my network on facebook to see this. Either St. John's or Memorial University

I love this!

http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=37075624174&id=789625211&index=0&

Looking For Youth Interested In Research

I'm looking for young people of all different backgrounds that would be interested in participating in a research group focused on youth empowerment and leadership in educational change. The commitment level of the group depends on how much you want to contribute, it's totally up to you. We'll interactively, creatively, and openly engage in discussions around what empowers youth to take action and be change makers in their learning environments. There will be workshops held focusing on different areas of this topic, depending on the interest levels. We will be able to express our stories in the education system through a variety of multi-media activities such as art, music, drama, or whatever you can think of! SWASP funding is in progess, which means whoever wants to commit will be able (if they wish) to receive 100 dollars a week for 8 weeks and a 1500 tuition voucher at the end of the year. There will be all different types of things to participate in, all at your leisure. Such things include retreats where we go away and focus on a specific area of interest, community building activities such as camping, bowling, etc. We will be working on a publication (perhaps a book or film) of our stories as advocates of educational change, struggle within the system, or whatever else we like. This group is completely flexible, and allows you a free space to be who you are and express your ideas. Everyone's stories' and opinions' are valued and heard. It's the differences of each of us that makes this research so rich- our experiences, feelings, stories and thoughts are the contributions we make and they everything that goes on in our day-to-day lives is relevant in some way. So check it out! No obligations- you can attend as much or as little as you like. Come and explore your ideas of educational change, and your evolving role as an educational change maker.
The first meeting this year is tomorrow, Thursday, at 11:30am at The Murphy Centre. Ask for Ann's room. You can call me, Linda, anytime if you have questions or would like more information or to set up a one-on-one chat with a group member to familiarize yourself with the field we are interested in! The possibilities are endless!

Hope to see some interest! I joined last year and it has really contributed to my future path and has opened up a whole new world of understanding to me! I am making a difference right here, right now, and you can too.

My number is 579 8509 or you can reach me by email at tellalikelystory@gmail.com or on facebook!

Cheers!

MUN

Ah. University. A breath of fresh air, a kick in the guts, and a 740 spinning out of control. There's so much going on, but so little at the same time. Everything I think and feel agrees with parts of me and disagrees with part of me (mind you, not equal halves). It's a whole new world. It makes you feel like a kid again. I didn't have that opportunity in high school, and now that I've reached a higher point of maturity in my life I can relax and start feeling like a kid again. Weird isn't it? That's not all that's weird. The academics are easy- phew. Breeze, they are. BUt you know what's hard? Making friends. The homework and studying and reviewing critisizing reflecting.. all EZ PZ. But interacting with others? Oh god, i need a manual or a tutor for that area of expertise. I do know a lot of people here, which is nice. I've been able to spend time with old friends which is wonderful. I think the best part about it all is that I can be myself. I didn't think so for the first week- I didn't feel like myself. And sorry to day, myself isn't really all that it's cracked up to be. To be myself, I enjoy sitting in the Breezeway, having a beer, studying, reading or simply ranting on about school. I can sit here and have a beer and listen to good music WHILE I'M BEING PRODUCTIVE??? It's like my two worlds collided into one, a merge of my favourite things in life. Books, and beer. It may sounds like an odd combo, but as long as I have these things which I love I think I'll do good here. I still want to move away, I still want to go to the Soo, but I think I will stay at Memorial forever. Perhaps spend the ENTIRE 2009 summer in Sault Ste Marie, babysitting my cousins and hanging with my family, but as of right now, I like it where I am. I like getting up in the morning. I like working after school. I like staying up too late watching House and then waking up at 7:30, I like how on Tuesdays and THursdays I can sleep until noon if desired. I like how there are fun things to do here. I don't feel pressured. I don't feel guilty. I feel great. I'm starting to feel thinner. I feel like I belong somewhere, as I sit here at a table by myself while everyone else is around mingling. I can sit by myself and feel like I belong, and that's an amazing thing.

New Love Old Love

People always talk about new love. They long for it, strive for it. New love. Ya know? The kind of love the tingles, puts butterflies from your diaphram to your espohagus and out your throat. The kind of love that is fresh new exciting spontaneous romatic. The kind of love the you find on a hot summer's day or a cool autumn night. The kind of love where morning kisses are acceptable, bills are picked up, roses are sent, and sparks are flying. The kind of love is the most fun. This kind of love makes you feel great. This kind of love is new love. New love, however, only lasts while it's new. Once you're in a relationship for a period of time things start to change. The love letters scribbled in ink on little scraps of napkin diminish. The romatic candle lit bubble baths for two, the spooning and swooning and showing off of one another, the reckless hopeless and utterly wonderful new sex seems less...well... new. LEss new therefore less exciting, less dangerous, less erotic.. You start to get used to one another. You start to take each other for granted. You start to become comfortable in your own skin again. You want something like new love again. You want to feel that spark, that flare, that excitement... but it's gone. It's no longer there and you are left on yet another search for that passion and desire.. It's not until you've found that new love 10 times over, have it dimish each time, only to find yourself in this endless cycles of sexual lustful demanding hide-and-go-seek, that you realize that new love isn't the only kind of love. When you go through these phases day in and out for a long time until you realize it's repetitiveness and unstoppable outcome, that's when it changes. New love is not the only kind of love. It's exciting, fresh, spontaneous, lustful, passionate, hot, romantic and all those other things that you strive for and long for, but it's not the only kind of love. It's when you realize this that you can have the other kind of love- old love. Old love. When the sparks die down, when the flare diminshes, when the romanticism fades and the lust vanishes. When you show you care not through a gift or a night of sexual extravagance, but through compassion and loyality. Old love is when you can be so tied up with all the busy things in your life and still have time to have tea together and a game of cards. Old love is not having to swoon and spoon but to be dependable and kind. Old love is everlasting. So even if you don't feel that spark, that flare, that romatic touch... don't get discouraged. Old love contains all the things new love contains, just in spurts at the right moments- like during hard times or grievances, weddings or births, vacations or getaways, or just special moments you share together. As long as you can experience new love moments during your old love relationship, you can last until time stops, until eternity ends, and until death due you part. There are different types of love, and even though new love be more exciting and picturesque, it's dreamy, and it will stay that way- a dream. So wake up, open your eyes, smell the roses, and please realize that what we have is truely old love, and you will never find better than that.

i love you mike.

Mike

Dear you,

The days are long and the nights are even longer. I miss you, but I want to get over you. I want you around, but I want you to be you and be free. I love you more than anything and the hardest thing I've ever had to do was let you go. It was all for you. I could lie with you forever and never get sick of it.. Maybe one day in the future we'll have a chance again.. For now you need to be free so you can do wonderful things for yourself. I want to be strong. I want to be positive. But I want you here right now so I can cry and cry and cry in your arms. Even if we're just friends, that's all I need right now. A loving friend, a caring soul. Someone who cares if i spend the nights alone. I know you still care, but I need you here. I am not used to being alone, I prefer not to be. I know I can be if I really try, but why be alone when there are so many lonely people in the world? I love you and always will. I hope one day you'll come back to me, when you are ready. I can't promise I'll wait, but just expressing that to myself is going to help me get through tonight. Every song I hear, drama on ntv, passing moment, makes me wish you were here. I try to think positive. You're still in my life. You're still my friend, you're not dead and that I should be grateful for.. But i just miss us. I miss us already and it's been just over 24 measley hours. I guuess the first hours are the longest.

Bye Baby,
Linda