Hey girls!

                It's been quite the week and I'm definitely glad it's almost over. This past weekend I went out to Dalhousie (in Halifax) to visit a couple friends and I had a lot of fun. It was my first time ever being to the Maritimes so naturally I was excited. On Friday night we stayed in their Residence and hung out and partied a bit, Saturday I was shown all around Halifax and we saw a couple tourist-y things and then I went home of Sunday morning. It wasn't a very long visit but I really missed my friends so it was relaly good to see them.

                Unfortunately I don't think I could've picked a worse weekend to go. This week I had a film midterm on Monday, a math and physics test on Tuesday and I have a mechanics midterm on Saturday. Once Tuesday was done I was really happy and felt pretty relieved because mechanics isn't too difficult and the majority of my week's exams / tests were over. Since all I've done was study this week I'll have to do my assignments all Saturday afternoon and Sunday so I get them done on time.

                For the most part I think my tests have gone well except for my physics test. I'm really glad they don't count one test since I have a feeling that is going to be my test that doesn't count. The test was mostly derivations of formulas which I have trouble with (and the test is only out of 10 so every point you get off is actually 10% of the grade) and the derivation that was on my test we didn't actually learn in class until the day AFTER my test. I was pretty upset when I was sitting in class learning what I was tested on the day before. I did find a silver lining though - I got 100% on my physics lab so I'm hoping that evens out my terrible test. I guess you never know and maybe I'll do well on that test but I doubt it. I'm just trying not to dwell on it and move on.

                One piece of advice - try not to get overwhelmed with school work. On Sunday night I was working on math and physics after already studying film and I started to get overwhelmed. The math wasn't making sense even though it had before and I started to get frustrated and when I get frustrated I cry. So here I am trying to learn math with my friend and all I can do is cry because I'm frustrated. I left the room and just sat down for 10 minutes or so to try and calm down but for some reason I just couldn't and I got it into my head that I just wanted to go home and give up even though I told myself I never would do that. When I came back, clearly not alright and saying I wanted to go home, I couldn't calm down until my friend sat me down and just put it into perspective for me. He said that even if I'm stressed now about one lesson in math I still understand the other 3 that we were being tested on and that I just had to not think about it for a minute and take my mind off it. We watched a TV show for half an hour and then went back to work and once I was calmed down I started being able to do the math again and it was coming easily. My advice for you is that if you decide to go into engineering or IT or science, or anything else for that matter, at university there's going to be times when you feel like you just can't do it but try and look at the bigger picture, take a break, you'll get through it - I did. My math test was actually the test that went the best for me. Comment with any questions - I'll be happy to answer them!