animal ethics – Imaginary Sunshine

The end of a chapter; the beginning of the next.

Michelle — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:30:35 +0000

So today I got all of my grades in for the term (the one I was waiting on was one of my harder classes this term – Animal Ethics where the last 45% of my grade was based on a term paper and web-based presentation). I ended off with:

Animal Ethics – A-
Health Psychology – B+
Human Sexuality – A+

I ended off my last term at this school with an A average. It was also my best year (September-April) of my undergrad yet with a B+ average overall.

When I started my undergrad back in 2007 (yes, it took me 5 years to complete a 4 year degree, shuddup), my average for my first year was 57%. I got put on academic probation, I failed a few (three) classes. And every term since then, I’ve gotten my average higher and higher. The only time my grades dipped again was when I retook first year calculus and when I took organic chem (but I passed it on the first go, unlike a lot of my classmates that had to take it twice or more). I actually aced the final of my calculus course (the second time around), but did poorly overall in the course but he passed me based on the fact that I got an A on the final. Me, calculus, an A final. Who would have thought?

That said, it’s kind of bittersweet that it’s all coming to an end. My graduation ceremony is in late May, which I’m pretty excited about. I won’t find out if there’s extra tickets for the ceremony until mid-May. I ordered the cap and gown (paid a deposit). The word “science” appears in the title of my degree four times. Yeah, they really want to emphasize my science prowess.

As for the future? I’ve applied to several schools for their nursing programs. I got rejected by one school (average wasn’t high enough, even though it was well above the minimum average), didn’t get enough “education points” from another school (it’s 0pts if you don’t have a completed degree, even though I was 9 credits away from finishing mine, that was disappointing and felt like a waste of money), I’ll find out about one school sometime in May (but it has 16 spots, so I’m not entirely sure about that one… Depends on my competition) and then there’s school #4. I’ll be finding out on Monday (30th) if I’m in or not. I hope I am… I have really strong references for it, decent grades, hopefully a good Letter of Intent that I agonized over before sending it in.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Studying and pausing to reflect

Michelle — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:26:03 +0000

Do I get some kind of award for being a horribly inactive blogger? Although I’m sure there are other people much worse at updating than I am… I hope so, anyways!

It’s April! Which means that it is spring time and that also means finals season. I handed in my term project (website + paper) last week for my Animal Ethics class (website + paper was 45% of my final grade) – thankfully there’s no final exam for that class so I really just need to focus on my two other finals. I have my Health Psychology final this week and then I have my Human Sexuality final online anywhere from the 11th to the 23rd (thank goodness for online finals!). I’m quite looking forward to being done as it will be the last two finals for my Bachelors! I’m graduating in late May with my B.Sc, which is quite exciting!

Of course, because I’m about to graduate means that I’ve been pulling out my resume and tweaking it and updating it. Just need to wait until after I actually graduate to be like “Yay, my degree is no longer in progress and I’m not longer a B.Sc candidate because I’ve actually got it now!”. Job searching is scary. Sigh. Such is the life of growing up. I’m still waiting to hear back from schools that I’ve applied to for August/September. Getting all my ducks in a row for that, which is fun and fantastic.

I just finished writing the finals for my two upgrade classes (Chemistry 11 and Biology 12) today (wrote them between 10am-12pm!) so I need to wait for my high school transcript to get updated before really starting the application process for that school, but should be soon! I’m quite looking forward to being able to check that off on the list of schools to apply to.

Having scheduled classes twice a week this term has been fantastic. It made it possible for me to volunteer more on a weekly basis (Fridays) and also made it possible for me to go and write the tests and work on the upgrade classes (Mondays and Wednesdays). I’ve really enjoyed Animal Ethics (plus, I got to do a website as part of my term project, how awesome is that?) and I did my term project on the Animal Welfare Issues in the Australian Wool Industry – because I’m a crafter and I like wool products. I’ve also really enjoyed my Human Sexuality class which was distance ed and completely online (including assignments, tests, debates and the final will be online as well!). It’s a different dynamic and I kind of wish I had taken more online classes, but at the same time, it’s all about self-discipline and I probably wouldn’t have been able handle that kind of self-discipline in the earlier years of my undergrad.
Next time that I post, it’ll probably be after my finals for this term. Hope everyone’s been having a good spring so far!

Wait, March?

Michelle — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 03:47:29 +0000

I really did think that I would post more during February, but apparently I didn’t. Hello, March! We’re getting closer to spring (yay!).

Since my last post I have gotten my grad portraits done. It ended up being about 18 shots of me looking incredibly awkward (in my opinion) in a cap and gown holding onto a rather nice looking folder with my school’s name on it in gold. I’m pretty sure the bookstore sells them too, they’re pretty sweet. I’ve gotten the proofs (online) and have been trying to decide which one I’m going to get. I’ll probably only be getting one print, and it’ll be a similar size to the one that my sisters had gotten when they graduated from university. (My ego isn’t that big that I’m going to get one double the size of theirs, haha.)

Reading Week also has come and gone. I spent it studying and working on my upgrade courses (Biology 12 and Chemistry 11) and got a lot more of both classes done. I’m currently getting high 90s for both classes and my grades are based solely on the test scores, which is fine by me. I get worksheets for chemistry and practice problems for biology, but I don’t get marks based on those. I just go in and write as many tests as I’ve prepared for and move onto the next units as I go, which is pretty nice. I’ve gone through over half of each class so far in about a month and half. I’m planning on getting them all done by the end of March, which should be interesting as the teachers in BC are striking for three days (March 5-7) and I can’t go in take tests during that time, and then they get two weeks off (!) for spring break, so no test taking then either! So while they’re busy striking, I’ll be just working to get my notes ready and to just know everything so when they reopen, I can just go in and take all the tests and get it over with.

I need to start working on my term project soon (due at the beginning of April), but we all know how well that will probably go… I have to do a 10-15 page paper on an animal welfare topic of my choice (topic that I’m going to be doing is the justifiable welfare issues with the use of Merino sheep in fibre production) and then I’m doing a web presentation (as opposed to an oral presentation). My school has this blog system where we use WordPress and we have to use it, which I’m fine with because clearly I have experience using WordPress. But we have to sit through a class on learning how to use WordPress (seriously) and I’m not entirely sure if we get to change the themes or add plugins or not (if it’s on school servers, I’m thinking it’s probably a no for the plugins…).

And… yeah. That’s my life and what I did during February. I went to a doll meet in the middle of February and I’m currently on working on restoring two vintage Blythes, which is quite fun and they’re great new additions to my collection (a blonde and a brunette). I’ve been knitting a bunch, but not working on the sock that I started in January (horrible, I know, I’m planning on working on the sock this month though!) and I’ve been doing a lot of doll-sized knits. So some of the knits I did in February:

Classes, graduation, excitement?

Michelle — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:53:46 +0000

What has Michelle been doing lately? That is a very good question…

I had my first midterms for both Human Sexuality & Health Psychology (just this week’s Monday and Tuesday). I’ve also been working on my ‘upgrade’ courses for Biology 12 and Chemistry 11, so yay for that. Animal Ethics is heavily involved with class discussions, we also get assignments right after class for the next class, so there’s quite a bit to do for that course. I’m not a fan of needing to speak in class, I will if I have something that I feel that I need to say, but it sucks when you’re being graded on participation and therefore end up feeling like you need to say something.

I’ve been working on knitting a lot lately, it’s what I do when I procrastinate (at least I’ll be stressed and warm? I don’t know how that’s suppose to work). I booked my appointment for getting my grad portrait done, which is kind of exciting. It means that I’m nearly done (!) and I’ll have both the degree paper and a photograph of me in a cap and gown to show for it. It almost doesn’t seem as big of a deal as graduating high school was. In high school, everyone was getting cap and gown photos, trading the wallet-size photos and there was just this huge sense of excitement in the air. For university, there is no time to pause and really go “Yeah, we are graduating this year” because not everyone in my classes is graduating. Even though I’m taking upper-level courses, not everyone is in the same year level as me (there’s even a 2nd year student in one of my courses).

Maybe I just don’t find it as exciting because I’m taking courses that involve so much more work, hah. That and I’ve been applying for programs for the upcoming school year so there’s no definite “ending” to it. It’s not like when I was graduating high school because I knew from January on that I had already been offered spots in my top 3 schools with my interim grades so I didn’t really need to worry. Plus I had been offered entrance scholarships right off the bat (it wasn’t a huge scholarship, mind you, but it was better than nothing). This time around, it’s all nerves for me because I won’t be hearing back for final enrolment decisions for August/September until about April-June and that’s still going to be a while.

And… yeah, that’s all for now. How have you been?

New year, new term, new schedule

Michelle — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:06:35 +0000

Hello 2012! I started my second term on January 5th. I’m taking three courses this term: Animal Ethics and Welfare, Health Psychology and Human Sexuality. It’s also my first time taking an online course (Human Sexuality). I’m currently waiting on my textbooks to arrive – I won’t really need them until the end of the month. My courses this term involve a group blog (Human Sexuality), a term project with a website presentation (Animal Ethics and Welfare) and nothing but 3 tests (Health Psychology).

In other news, my application for graduation means that this is my last term for my degree. And I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday – which means I get four day weekends all the time. Yes, I’m quite happy about that. Maybe not with the sheer amount of work for 3 credits in some of my classes, but still, quite happy with my long weekends all the time (yes, I’m rubbing that in now). I’m going to be retaking three high school courses though, because it’s been more than 5 years since I took them and I need them to apply for one of the schools that I was hoping to apply to. Other applications are going well, just waiting for transcripts to be mailed from my current school to the other ones and to hand in high school transcripts. So I think I’ll be working on those three classes (Math 11, Chem 11, Biology 12) when I can, along with other course work and volunteering and other commitments.

Other than school, that’s all that is currently going on in my life (yay…). School, school and… more school.