Thursday, September 03, 2009

What's your favourite era?

I really should not make blog promises that I can't keep. I think I promised a lighter post. I'm not quite sure what this one is.

So today, I delivered a tender at Kwantlen. I've described this tender closing process before. It's sort of like the "spy" part of my administrative assistant job. I stand in a room with four strangers, and frantically scramble down a price, hoping I have the lowest one (so that we get the job). I am very careful that no one overhears my price, and steals it. Then I relish in the results, and stare down all the people we beat. Today, we got second place, so someone else got to stare me down. That was a full paragraph of context right there. On to the real story:

I am driving into Kwantlen, and this wave of nostalgia overtakes me. I saw all these students, on this, their first day of university, scrambling through the parking lot, arms loaded with books. It's that mix of anticipation and fear in their eyes. You sort of want to stop them and say: "it's only Kwantlen, you'll be fine". They have conversations like this one:

Student 1: "I am sooo tired, I was up so late last night"
Student 2: "Why, were you studying or something?"
Student 1: "Oh no, I was just on facebook"

That was real. Fantastic (Tragically, that still is my life sometimes. ha). But really, the whole thing got me thinking about my own university-era.

I think I can say, without fear of regret, that university was my favourite era.

I mean, obviously there will other great eras - there is no denying that. Some people want to choose High School, but I don't think so. In my opinion, University is so much better. You get the social environment of high school, but with more freedom, and ability to develop identity outside of a fishbowl. You get to learn, and even though you feel busy (and you are), you also have daytime hours off. I mean, obviously I am biased because I have always enjoyed school. But, I can't even be accused of "rose-colored glasses" for the past, because I felt this way during university.

It's sort of a strange thing, to realize an era you loved so much is over. But maybe it doesn't have to be? I guess we'll see about that. What about you, what would you say is your favourite era so far?

3 comments:

afterthoughtcomposer said...

well as a Nostalgic person (to a fault) I am tempted to say that I loved every era I have had so far. That would be a lie though, since I hated highschool with a fiery burning passion (and still feel bad that kids actually have to attend...poor souls).

So I will pick one: My favorite one so far was definitely college.

That being said, life is pretty sweet right now, and I have this pretty unshakable feeling that in a few years I'll be reminiscing about THIS era. Good times.

a.

Margaret said...

I agree. College was the best.

Ben S. said...

i thought grade 4 was pretty awesome. both of the cutest boys in the class liked me and i had a great teacher....haha. no, in all seriousness...i really enjoyed after uni/pre-baby era. teaching for real, being married. it was a good 4 years. but i'm betting baby era is going to be an interesting one too...