Learning Across Fields (#4): The Future
Hi,
Hello,
This will be the last installment for my blog series, Learning Across Fields. If you’re familiar with the layout from my original blog post, feel free to skip this next paragraph. I hope you enjoy this month’s theme focusing on the future.
“My goal for this entire blog series is to help newer students gain perspective. I decided that the best way to do so was to also ask my close friends about their university experience. All of my friends that I’ve gathered here are from a diverse array of fields, most of whom are graduating UVic within a year (me included). My hope now is to give people a chance to engage in a reflective dialogue with themselves and maybe with others in our community. In this sense, I encourage whoever is reading this, to ponder these questions as if they were being addressed to you. After all, novel ideas only take fruition from a transdisciplinary network of people. That is why I named this mini blog series, ‘Learning Across Fields’ or LAF for short.”
Theme #4: The Future
Question #4: What is the most important thing you have learned during UVic that you will hold onto after graduation?
Aidan – Shift in Mindset
Computer Sciences
This is a hard question.
If I had to pick just one “most important” thing, it would be… to have the mindset that if I want to understand something, I absolutely can.
I used to feel that some things were simply unobtainable for myself, that I would never be able to understand because I wasn’t smart enough. I’ve come to realize that this simply isn’t true.
It may take time, be it a week, a semester, or a whole year, but if you really want to understand something, there’s nothing stopping you from understanding it except your own thoughts and self-doubts. Learning how to push these thoughts of self-doubt aside has allowed me to approach new material with the confidence that I will be able to understand it eventually…and I hope this mindset will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Jake – Outside Skills
Earth and Ocean Sciences
People-skills are far more important than getting that extra 5-10% on that exam. Spend more time developing life skills and learn enough in school to excel in what you want to do in life. Make sacrifices where you need to, but recognize when you become too focused on schoolwork.
Francis – Life
Political Science
Work isn’t everything, be human.
Jose – Balance
Financial Mathematics
Find a balance between your responsibilities and your hobbies because time will always be a finite resource.
Colin – Critical Thinking
Biomedical Engineering
The specifics of your classes are important; understanding techniques and memorizing facts have their place. But the most important thing I have learned is how to approach problems: break them down and address them from the ground up.
Only then can you figure out the fundamental principles of a given topic, especially within engineering/sciences. I suspect the same is true for any other major at UVic.
Dan – Interactions
Biopsychology/Writing
Talk to the people around you!
Sometimes it just takes the courage to talk to someone next to you to meet a lifelong friend.
I’ve met so many wonderful people through study groups, labs, and campus housing. They don’t all have to be your friend, they can just be there to help make each course more bearable and sometimes fun. It really does sound cliche, but when I reflect back on my time at UVic it’s not the classes that I’ll remember but the people I met along the way that make it worthwhile.
Ethan – Passion
Microbiology
I suppose the lesson I will cherish the most after leaving UVic is that…persistence can shape passion.
Looking back, there have been a lot of courses where I didn’t enjoy the material at first glance. I initially felt disengaged and uninterested in the heaps of coursework ahead of me. But I just told myself to stick with it and after a while, the material began to gel. It wasn’t crystal clear, but it made more sense.
I guess, what I’m trying to say is that difficult things take time to learn and you can’t always judge a concept based on your first experience. When you allow yourself to delve into a topic at such a level of personal understanding, you will feel a bond with said topic.
And…
Maybe that’s a part of why we’re all here as students.
To work through difficult concepts, in order to help awaken our individual passions later in life. In doing so, we can realize that the learning process is only beginning once we throw our hats at graduation.
