By Anu Dev
Well I’ve survived my first week of actual schoolwork! Can I still say schoolwork? “University work” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. Sure it’s only supposed to get even more intense from now, but for now I’m just relieved to have made it through my first week.
I’m also still adapting to living in Trinidad. Over here I’m definitely seeing why they came up with the phrase “as changeable as the weather”. It’s really lovely dressing to deal with the morning’s heat and then coming out of class two hours later to be greeted by a sudden and quite violent downpour. The raindrops are really larger than ours! One really nice thing about living on campus is that classes are literally five minutes walking- distance away.
That’s a pleasant change from having to leave home one and a half hours early to get to QC. And as all West Coast commuters know, the traffic at the bridge usually makes you want to pull your hair out. (I’ve been told it’s a sign of progress: we’re getting New York- style traffic jams.)
But another personal achievement for me is that on Friday I used the public buses! (Hey! I only used a minibus a couple of times in the last term at QC – to prepare me for this!) And I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable and efficient everything was: they’re big and air conditioned. (That’s a New York-like innovation I wouldn’t mind in Guyana!) And Curepe Junction, where I had to go to buy my textbook, reminded me so much of Regent Street. I felt like someone teleported me back to Georgetown. But then I heard the sing-song Trini accent everywhere and I realised I was actually in Trinidad.
I snuffed out the reflex to amble over to QC to check-out how things are going. There I go again! Three QC references so far. It’s hard to let go of somewhere you’ve spent seven years of your life at. Well, we have to move on, don’t we? But there will always be the old school ties: there are three other QC grads ahead of me and they’ve been wonderful.
But university life’s quite different from high school life in so many ways. There’s no bell at 12 to let you out for lunch (freedom?).
Classes start from eight and end at seven in the evening on some days.
But of everything, the biggest difference is freedom. Freedom. There’s so much of it. It’s a bit frightening really. I keep getting that nagging feeling that I need to ask permission for more decisions. There’s been no epiphany on how to deal with being treated like an adult.
After all those years listening to adults, seeing them making their own decisions, having responsibilities, it’s a bit disconcerting knowing I’m at that stage of my life. Living on my own, cooking my own meals, doing my own laundry.
I can understand why someone once wrote about “Escape from Freedom”. It’s seductive having everything done for you. But ultimately debilitating.
At UWI med school, there’s a heavy emphasis on the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) model of learning, where students when confronted with a problem have to come up with their own learning objectives for self-study.
With great power comes great responsibility (*dramatic music*).
But it’s only been two weeks. I’m enjoying it so far and I hope I’ll still be enjoying it when they start piling on even more work on us. As promised. They did say our university years will be the best years of our life, right?