My Two Cents about the Election

Like most people, I stayed up until the early hours of the morning last night watching the votes come in and saw Trump claim the 45th presidency of the United States. I have been doing my best to remain neutral throughout the election process since I'm Canadian and don't have any influence over the results anyways, but when I woke up this morning to a hoarde of angry people (both American and Canadian) that were upset at the result of the vote, I became very dissapointed. The result of the vote must be accepted because that's the political process in the States and it is not up for debate. The election determines the president. End of story. All these people that are angry should focus their attention on electoral reform if that is they change they want to see. But there is no longer anything they can do about Trump being president. They are stuck with him for the next few years and that is a fact they must come to terms with. I hope he does a good job, but now that is up to the government and the people he appoints to help him make important decisions. That is all I wanted to say.

The cygnets that were goslings

When I was on a walk today there were a whole bunch of swans down by the lake. They were really pretty and they didn't swim away when I came close. There were also these two little chicks that were yellow and greyish and they were so cute! I assumed they were cygnets (baby swans) because of all the swans that were in that area. So I took some pictures and then when I was leaving they followed me! Now this wasn't good because they were leaving their parents so I tried to get them to go back without touching them. At this point, they were on the sidewalk and a couple walked past. And guess what? The chicks started following them too! The couple wasn't even aware of it but the little chicks were literally running just trying to keep up! Eventually, they ran out of steam and started wandering around again, so I went over to them and tried to get them to follow me back to their parents. Slowly but surely, this was working until someone else showed up and determined that the chicks weren't cygnets after all! Turns out they were baby Canada geese! Unfortunately, there weren't any adult Canadian geese around so the goslings had been abandoned or had gotten lost. So the person that knew the difference between cygnets and goslings got a box to put them in and took them to the humane society. It really was the most adorable and funny adventure ever. 

My Leadership Workshop Series Experience

I recently completed a series of leadership workshops through the Lion's Den at Glendon College. It challenged my conceptions of justice that have until now been primarily moulded by my experience in air cadets. To be honest, I didn't change much in terms of my leadership style. Five workshops of a couple hours apiece simply do not have enough force to overcome seven years of training to act a certain way. In terms of the five practices we learned in the workshop series, I found that I often underutilize encouraging the heart. This is because in cadets the people that are successful have a high degree of intrinsic motivation and rarely require additional encouragement. As for the people that are not intrinsically motivated, they usually quit cadets because they don't get as much success as they would like. I do not think I would have changed my leadership style in cadets if I had taken this workshop series earlier. This is because the cadet organization has a unique culture, and people in charge are expected to act a certain way. For example, a flight commander is expected to know all their cadets quite well and inspire their flight to be the best it can be. The job of the squadron commander (the person in charge of everyone), on the other hand, is only supposed to have close contact with the flight commanders, and not the cadets. It is generally considered a good thing if the cadets are a little scared of the squadron commander. Because of these influences, my leadership style can tend to be slightly authoritative, and I do not appreciate group followers criticizing my methods in front of others. I believe that the leadership style taught in the workshop series may lead to more likable and friendly leaders, but I doubt that it would improve decisiveness or be the most efficient method of leading a group.

St. Patrick's Day

I'm an eighth Irish so I have to celebrate this wonderful day. I just got back from the pub night on campus in celebration of St. Patrick's day. Somehow, one of my friends got drunk after only two drinks and the other drank too many Screwdrivers, so I ended up taking care of two drunk people in one night. It wasn't too bad though because the first one was absolutely hilarious when she was talking about how she could feel the Earth moving and see sparkles everywhere. It's a good thing I wasn't drunk as well because if that was the case, we wouldn't have gotten back to residence in one piece.

Wanderlust

I've always wanted to travel. Spending the summer backpacking in Europe has been one of my dreams for as long as I can remember. It's even worse right now because it's March Break and my siblings are all having fun and going away for the week. I'd love to be travelling too, but there are at least two things in my way. First, it's not March Break for me. My spring break was back in February and was pretty lame if I do say so myself. Second, I'm a pretty broke university student so I don't even have enough money to pay for tuition let alone travelling during the summer. The summer is where I have to make enough money to pay for the rest of the year. Life sucks, doesn't it?

That Feeling when you Finish a Project

No, I'm not talking about school, but the feeling that you get once you finish something that you've been working on for a while truly has no equal. I just finished crocheting a blue blanket and I feel great! I even have a picture of it on the right. (Please excuse the picture quality and the abhorrent state of my room, I tried to crop out as much of the mess as I could.) It's the first time that I've actually changed colours when I was supposed to and is probably the fastest I've ever finished a blanket. Truth be told, I didn't get any other work done while I was working on it but hey, at least I have something to show for my time right?

Procrastination is my Sin

Ever heard of that poem? My dad told it to me when I was younger. It goes like this:
Procrastination is my sin
It causes me much sorrow
I really ought to try and stop
In fact, I'll start tomorrow!
I think it is a very accurate depiction of my life right now. I have two term papers that are worth a heck of a lot of my grade, but they aren't due until the first day of exams. The problem with this is that I have exams then and I can't afford to be finishing papers when I need to be studying for exams. I know it's really bad to procrastinate and that I should just snap out of it, but Netflix is infinitely more fun than writing a paper about something I don't really care about. I'm sure you've been in the same situation before.

Bedtime Thoughts

You know when your mind wanders all over the place right before you fall asleep? Last night mine came up with this sentence; I wonder whether the weather on Wednesday will be windy or wet. Quite a tongue twister, right? It's crazy what our subconscious pops out sometimes when we least expect it.

The week of Hell right before Spring Break

Everyone loves spring break. But the week that leads up to it can be awful. All the professors choose that week to have papers due and mid-term exams. Sometimes you just have to push through and then the reward afterwards will be worth it. So, ready for a week of no sleep, staying awake because of coffee, and mental breakdowns? Me neither.

Zumba Problems

At the beginning of this school year I got myself a gym membership because it was only $20 for the whole year. Why not, right? Anyways, I've been going to a couple classes a week pretty regularly and the Zumba instructor is always late. Sometimes ten minutes or more! And when it's only a 60 minute class that's kind of a lot. It always makes me a little irritated because Zumba is the one class that I want to start on time because it's the most fun. I wouldn't really mind if Pilates or Spinning started late, but I guess it's just one of those things. I think if I can make the effort to get up off my lazy butt and go to the gym, I should be able to expect the class to start on time. Just a thought.