end of school- overall thoughts

Happy Easter!

I'm pretty much done school for the semester. My last day of class was on Wednesday. Following class we went to the Broken Rack for some drinks and followed that up with some glow bowling. It was a good time.

I have one final on Thursday (the 16th), and then I'm done school! ... For a month. At the moment I'm enrolled in one spring class, mostly in an attempt to avoid having to take a full five classes during my final semester. I've heard from many sources that going back to university for your final semester after internship is absolute hell. I'm trying to make hell slightly less painful.

Here are a few overall impressions from the school year, with a specific focus on the Winter semester since that one is the most recent in my memory.

---

My fall semester was an interesting one. Working full time at Best Buy and having four night classes was exhausting, and after a few months I realized that and cut back on working. I enjoyed my classes for the most part but found it hard to get back into the groove of being in school, perhaps because I was at work a a lot more than I was at school.

The winter semester was an improvement. I felt as though I grew as an education and person from my field work at Martin, and I seemed to accomplish a lot more, getting back into the groove of school that was so lacking during the fall. I also managed time better so I had more more free time to do things like go to movies or to the Press Box for wings. I even had some free time during pre-internship, which wasn't half as stressful as I thought it would be. This is a trend that I hope will continue into my internship, even though I doubt that'll be the case.

I was a lot more involved this year, participating in events for the Business Education Student Society and, late in the winter semester, showing an interest in the Education Student Society as well. I got to know some great people that I otherwise would not have met. On a similar note, the staff and Martin was amazing in welcoming Lauren (my pre-internship partner) and myself into the school community.

For me, this year was a year of reconnecting with old friends. I came into contact with someone who I hadn't seen since grade eight. His brother ironically is a teacher at Martin, and is probably one of the most interesting people Ive ever met. I've strength ed some connections at my high school, even emailing a former teacher back and forth to catch up. I would love to intern at O'Neill. They have a fairly strong variety of business education classes and after this year I think there will only be one or two students in the school that know me personally.

This summer is going to be a busy one. While I want to buckle down and make ridiculous amounts of money, I have several other goals.

1- Go camping. I was supposed to do this last year but the plans fell through.

2- Get my motorcycle license.

3- Convert to Catholisism. I was to have the option of teaching the the Catholic system. I still think it's terrible that I have to jump through hoops to accompish this, seeing as how I haven't been in a Lutheran church since my baptism and I was in the Catholic system from K-12. Catholisism is all I know, and apparently there's not much difference between Luteranism and Catholisism.

4- Get in better shape. I'd love to participate in teacher vs. student games during internship, and if the opportunity arises I'd like to not make an ass out of myself.

That's pretty much it for my review of the year. I'm really going to miss the business ed crew. A lot of them are in an after-degree program and won't be back for another semester after internship. I wish them all the best and hope that we can all stay in touch. It seems like yesterday that I walked into EBUS 285. It seemed like everyone knew each other already. My first business ed class, I was a little scared and excited. Now I've some to enjoy everyone in the program. We've spent a lot of time together and we've all been through a lot together. We've stayed up late messaging each other about assignments, we've had a lot of laughs, and I've even helped one of them move into a new house. There were some challenging times in the last two years, and I'm not sure I would have pulled through without their support.

Until next time,
Mike