Posts tagged UWI

While the many problems that circulate around the University of the West Indies may be funding, student’s grade point averages and continued international accreditation. Student based problems have not been seriously addressed. These large overview issues affects a student learning in more ways than one. This blog post is not meant to be vague, but give my personal real life examples of how learning at the University of the West Indies has always been a challenge. These include but are not limited to, hands on learning, proper administrative processes and the lack of concise learning objectives. 

The concept of learning at the University of the West Indies for an undergrad student is quite simple. Learn the material that is given to you and regurgitate as much as possible during the exam. While application is necessary in some cases, regurgitation usually suffices an impressive grade. At the end of the day, I do not take any initiative  to do anything outside my scope of ‘learning’ unless I am awarded sufficient credits. While each students is awarded for assignments done, taking initiative is rarely awarded, and as such we have a bunch of students who are just not keen on learning. I honestly include myself in this bunch. 

As a matter of fact, I have a friend who is scholarship winner and did the same degree program as I did. She recently graduated and I am extremely proud of her for doing so with first class honours. She openly admitted to me that she never did the assigned readings for any course that she did during her three years at the University. Essentially she took key terms from the power point slides, contrasted with the objectives of the course and was able to suffice a constant ‘A’ average during her stay at UWI. I ask then, What are the point of these additional readings? 

One of the major issues that I have with my degree program is that there are very little hands on approaches to learning. The reasons for this mainly stem from a lack of funding to the University. Tertiary education is free to those who prove themselves worthy of this privilege and as such our classes can be as big as 100-400 students. In some courses labs are omitted because there is not enough material for all the students to use. Instead a tutorial usually takes it places. While I was in my first couple years of UWI battling with courses on soil and soil management, there were no practical approaches to learning the material. Instead I battled with chemistry and physics in order to attain a passing grade, despite my academic weakness in these areas.

I must admit though, that there are indeed a few environmental courses that mandates practical approaches such as Marine Ecology, Caribbean Island Ecology and Tropical Forest Ecology. I was able to try my hand at Marine and Forest Ecology and for both courses my comprehension of each was very clear. While the material was expansive to learn, I understood the crux of the information given. Everything that was learnt came to life in a realistic setting. I am now doing Tropical Aquaculture and while we are doing scenario planning, I feel as if I am doing these just for the purpose of a grade and not necessarily with the accurate intentions of setting up an actual tropical aquaculture pond. We had took a visit to Sugarcane Field Centre, a farm that produces talapia. The class is so incredibly huge that I did not get a chance to see the hand sexing process of the fishes. We were all barely able fit in areas where they were having discussions with us. Needless to say the apparent difficultly in ‘learning’

As many of my readers would know, I pursue a minor in Theatre Arts under the faculty of Humanities. I must admit that the Department of Life Sciences is efficient in administrative communications with respect to your courses and changes in timetables for the week, the Theater Arts program operates on word of mouth when it comes to administrative issues. This should not be the standard for any University. While we still do use the noticeboard, this form of communication should be eventually eradicated. When my brother attended University back in the day, the notice boards were key to valuable information on campus. I still do check it from time to time, however the information is not as important as the ones I receive via email. 

The majority of the times, I am confused. Some lecturers are not very clear about what they want from us. While they are there to just simply guide us, how is it possible that you can guide an entire class into the wrong direction. Case in point with this current aquaculture course I am taking. We were given our 2nd Scenario to do. A four page document that seem to require a host of information. We produced as much as we could, because to fight for that 2.5% of our final grade is always a dirty battle. After the assignment had been corrected, we had a full two hour classes on what we should have done. I was shocked! Why was not this guidance given to us before. The answers were meant to be quite simplistic and not as complex as we originally envisioned. There was only one group that did extremely well, and as such would be treated to lunch because of their expert analysis on the scenario.

I must admit though that this lecturer is actually feeding us a lot of information and taking the time to guide us. However she confused me so much this time around. I would have really appreciated the guidance before rather than after. Our entire group was a bit disappointed. We have 2 more of these scenarios to do and we plan to kick some serious ass!

These are just some of the many limitations that the uwi student has. While these are quite obvious and are probably known, if we continue to mute our minds to the issues, they may never be heard. I would admit that I cannot remember the majority of my academic work since year 1. The style of learning is very different.

I on the other hand seek my on the job learning experience outside of the walls of UWI. I was recently invited to a workshop that explores ecosystem services as it relates to the Caura valley. When I read the invitation that was also meant for journalists, I was more than elated to attend. It even discusses scenario planning in an entirely interactive manner, including a hike to the Caura valley. In this two day workshop we would be given a skill set to work with in our journalistic approaches.

Do you think I have a case here? Do these problems really affect the life of a tertiary student? I’d love to hear your views on this issues. Drop me a line or leave me a comment!

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel 

Recently my friends and I decided to go to the world famous Zen, a high end club in Trinidad and Tobago. It is understood that when attending this club you are paying for a brand, and not necessarily a true club experience. Zen offers the best of nightclub entertainment, but I will always beg to differ. This is not the first time that patrons had issues with this entertainment venue. Problems ranged from arrogant security to being cut by broken bottles on the floor. My issues are quite random and after this visit, I am not sure if I am interested in finding my place in this meditated universe ever again.

            While my friends and I were all coupled off, it was easy for us to get into the nightclub. There was this guy dressed in this simple white shirt and black dress pants that got pulled out of the line because he was by himself. He joined the other single fellas in a small group at the front of the nightclub. When this happens your chances of getting in to the club have just been cut down by half. In my opinion the best thing to do is count you’re loses and head back home. However, you have the option of waiting it out and hoping that they let you in. The main reason I believe most high end clubs do this, is to prevent the occurrence of a ‘piggy party’ or in other words a ‘sausage fest’

            Zen recently got refurbished, and once inside the club I was not impressed. I was more sorely disappointed. Zen has decreased in size and seems to cater for the bourgeoisie crowd that can afford private rooms and VIP areas. There is now a classy cubicle located in the centre of the dance floor, furnished with white sofas, throw pillows a black marble styled table, adorn with candles and champagne glasses.  The VIP rooms located on the upper levels are covered by white drapes and named after popular alcohol brands such as 3zero rum. I could only imagine the cost of renting out a booth at zen. 51 degrees usually rents their VIP area for close to $3000.00, however Zen facilities may be much more!

            The main bar at the Zen nightclub is now a rectangle and not circular in shape. There were at least 3-4 bartenders serving a tertiary student population that just wanted to get high and probably get laid. The Zen bartenders are complete sexists, only serving drinks to women and couldn’t care less about the men that were trying to get drinks as well. I suggest that if you are going on a crowed night at the nightclub, to make sure that a girl accompanies you to get drinks. It’s the 21^st century and we are all looking for equality, apart from that chivalry needs to go out the window if you have intentions of getting high at Zen.

            One of the things that truly astounded me that night is the crowd that Zen now attracts. It is so varied! Last Wednesday night had people of all ages. There were the young and the very old, the ghetto and the ghetto fabulous. There were people who very underdressed and looked deplorable against the standard that Zen usually caters for. However since these under dressed girls own up to a ‘tun up pum pum’ they easily get in to the club.

            The condition of the white dance floor changed very quickly. As the drinks began to fall, the dust from under the shoes of the patrons created a mud field. The field of mud also had several short black straws and the occasional plastic cup that eventually got chucked into a corner of the dance floor. It was so disgusting to see girls barefooted, some of which kept touching the floor with their hands to show off their expert skills in whinery.

            The single fellas that I mentioned earlier did get into the club. There I was dancing with my friends and then I realized that there was a swarm of guys all around us. Each of them appearing more tusty than the next. Some of the guys leaned against the stage, legs apart and awaiting the arrival of a bumsee to make contact with their pelvic area. Soon enough one of the guys did get lucky; however the expression on this guy’s face was extremely ridiculous. Have you ever seen a sponge absorb water? This guy’s face screwed into so many erotic positions while dancing, that I swear he was convinced that he was having sex.

            I must admit thought that despite the stresses, the entertainment from the people definitely filled the void. Have you guys ever been to Zen? What was your experience like? Share with meh nah…. Ah want to hear a bess Zen story lol

I have had 3 hours sleep for the last 36 hours. Sadly I was not studying nor was I working on a plan to take over the world. Insomnia can somethings deliver heavy doses when you least need it. My plan was just to go straight to bed as soon as I got home, however for us online social media junkies, this hardly is ever the case. 

This evening the course of my social events seem to take on specific theme of having a purpose in life. The discussions that I had made me realized that discovering one’s purpose is more of a journey than anything else. Today in my African and Asian Theatre class, the concept of spirituality was brought up. This spiritual concept along with the realization of one’s true life purpose seems to go hand in hand.

I do many things that I love, whether it be posting blogs on tumblr, writing for giemagazine, performing on stage or working with my environmental volunteer group. I honestly believe that doing the things you love would guarantee that direction into discovering your life purpose. Do I believe that I have found my purpose? No I do not think so. I believe that I am on the pathway, but I feel as if I am not entirely there as yet. 

Today I also had the opportunity of interviewing a very young social worker who aspires to enter the medical field as he gets older. He has been qualified in the field  of psychology and is currently practicing. Imagine that within his life span, he wants to heal both the human mind and body. I find that to be totally inspiring. I could easily imagine that he does get immense satisfaction from the tremendous amount of social work he does for citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, however with his vision, he wants to do more than what he is doing already. 

I also bounced up my good friend Alexander and one of my past Trinity College friends Dale. We were speaking about our degrees and the direction that we were taking. While all three of our career paths were very different, we all reflected that similar theme of purpose and direction. It seems to be a concept that lingers on the University campus. Thinking about it now, it makes me wonder if this is some sort of mental condition of oppressed youths who just simply do not have a variety of employment options? At the end of the day, that’s like questioning destiny, We all have a some type of plan laid out for us, and it will happen whether we like it or not. 

Alexander these days has his hands very full. I always joke with him, since his resume actually resembles mine to some degree. We actually belong to two organizations and together we have brought  some brilliant ideas to assist in the development of both organizations independently. Alexander has it very tough having to work on weekends and also serves the student body as the guild publications chair. Despite these duties Alexander maintains his cheerful smile and his sometimes overtone oddness. Not to mention his florescent kicks that brightly lights the path he walks on, but literally and figuratively. 

Alex, like Dale was also expressing the sentiments of where life would eventually take us. Today I learnt that Alexander is also acting in the festival of plays. A festival held every year by the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies. His character has a bit of speech impediment, having  a strange vocal affinity to the letter “L”, hence my header “What’s your true life plurpose?” The character is comical beyond words.

While my colleagues and I try to determine at what time that true purpose would dawn on us, do you think we all \have achieved it? Do you think its something that we would eventually realize one day? Would it be something we ever find? What about you? Have you found that life purpose? Please let me know… share a bit.. I would love to hear it :D

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel

P.S I have some uber fantastic news, but nothing has been made official as yet. As soon as it does. I would make sure to post up the full story :D 

One of the major reasons that I have not been blogging as much is because I have been involved in a national theatrical production called Nation Dance: The Pilgrimage. It is being done by the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies. I am involved in the production because currently doing a course that makes up my minor in Theatre Arts, and as such I am required to be apart of it. 

Nation Dance: The Pilgrimage focuses on one primary objective, that is to discover what it means to be Trinbagonian. It also incorporates a literal and figurative journey to discover a sense of nationhood and nation building. The production also takes a very close look at our social and political context of yesterday, today and the future. 

Like the title says, we are on a pilgrimage and thus the show has been traveling to many places across Trinidad and Tobago. For each show we visit a different community that would share with us the values that they brought to this land. Each community has taken up the responsibility of dramatically representing their history and traditions that melds with the 1 hour production that we have created. 

In this production there are four individuals that go by the name of pyong. Each one of them represent an ill of the society that is “Mauvais Langue”. After being accused and sent a way to discover their mother, who they say is the roots of the land, they set out on a journey to different communities in search of their mother. At each community they are set with real life challenges, that the pyongs have no idea what they would be. At our recent show in Waterloo, “Shooter Pyong” had to eat a red hot pepper with roti, in order to cleanse his body of beef, pork and other impurities to be accepted by the community that runs the Temple by the Sea.  He of course, was sweating beads after he consumed it. These traditions presented by the communities show different values of Trinidad and Tobago, and in this quest to find what i really means, we would present them on our final shows at the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies.

PLEASE SAVE THE REMAINING DATES…. 8 shows… and 2 have already gone!

Performances:

March 16 - Naparima Hill, San Fernando - 7 pm

March 18 - Temple in the Sea Grounds, Waterloo - 5 pm

March 23 - Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, Laventille - 7 pm

March 24 - Golden Lane, Tobago - 7 pm

March 25 - Pembroke Heritage Park, Tobago - 5 pm

March 30 - Calvary Hill, Arima - 7 pm

March 31 - DCFA, UWI - 7 pm 

April 1 - DCFA, UWI - 5 pm

NO COST for performances March 16 - March 30.

The DCFA venue admission is Adults $50, UWI students/ NDATT MEMBERS $30, children $20

The role that I have in this production is the character Mamaguy. Mamaguy is considered the Big Fish of Mauvais Langue. He is without a doubt well aware of the happenings on all levels of the country. He is a thief, channeling money from the treasury through very close friends in the royal court. His hands are clean but is very well connected. Oddly enough Mamaguy enjoys dressing up as a woman. He prides himself because he looks sexy and enjoys the comfort that no one can tell him anything about it. He is the primary reason as to why Mauvais Langue is in a serious sense of despair. 

Here are a few shots of the production at Naparima Hill where we visited the Warao  community.

Walking into the Zoology Offfice at UWI, I came face to face with a somewhat peculiar scene. There was a yellow caution sign on a clearly damp floor and sheets of newspapers in the shape of a letter “U”. As much I was trying to figure out why there was a U shape on the floor, my friend suggested that UWI itself has been leaking in more ways than one, whether it be through the air conditioning units or fine holes in the ceiling.

UWI’s obvious delapidated state is not the point of my blog today. I was in the zoology office to hand over some past paper question attempts to my lecturer. It was so disouraging that he had not corrected my previous two papers. I was planning to do some more tonight, but apart from just appearing as utterly annoying, his desk boasted of sufficient paper stress. The last thing I want is for my essay to myseriously disappear.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Stacy these days, and as much as we are studying as hard as we could. Last night I took drinking and enjoying myself to the maximum level. I was on cloud nine, and it was not even my birthday we were celebrating. Needless to say I did have a good time.

I am sooo exhausted at this point, and my text book is staring at me devioulsy and urging me to read its pages. The text itself is long, expansive and boring. Every time my eyes hover over the words I manage to suffice a yawn that can swallow a horse. I am not worried though, I have four pending essays from my lecturers. They serioulsy needs ito hurry it up!

For now I am enjoying the gentle afternoon breeze and the subtle spin of my head if  I jerk it around too fast. I would savour this moment, for my exams are 2 weeks away and I am glad I am more or less in a happy place :)

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel

A mere 3 weeks away from final exams and one of our lecturers are going in for the kill. A final 10% for “midterms” and everyone is on their toes. What’s ridiculous about the whole thing is that the exam is smack down in between two tutorials, which by the way, are quite imperative for final exams.

While all of us would be seen on Wednesday, a minority on Monday and and the majority on Thursday, this week spells STRESS. Right after this 10% exam for Pollution and the Environment, I have my Directing I internal exams. I also have a presentation for Modern Theatre, and our final group presentation for Operations and Extensions.

I choose life yes. I want to live. That paragraph right there does not make me happy, and thus I live to do the things that make me happy. I would study for the exam and I would prepare for my presentations. I have gotten A’s in all my midterms thus far, but this week spells DISASTER! 

I am feeling under the weather, but I plan on going out and lime tonight. The work is finally getting to me. I am always for self development first, and staring at slides and bussing my brain to remember the finest of points for a 15 multiple choice question paper, is quite daunting for a Saturday evening. 

Lets declare, Sunday and Tuesday prep days. Its so stupid though, I am going to be spending those days preparing for presentations and mid term exams. Where in the world am I going to get time to study for finals! UWI is such a beeyaatttccchhh….. I have such a good record running and I do not want to spoil it. I hope to god, this midterm comes easy :Sexams

God damn it! Where is the cherry soap that the Engineering Faculty is so famous for. Spending the day yesterday in this faculty of UWI, I was invigorated with the scent of cherry every time I washed my hands in the bathroom. Now that I decided to get a load of academic work done, my cherry soap is no where to be seen.

I was telling my friends that as University students we should always look forward to flavourful meals during the day. In addition to that, I was looking forward to washing my hands with cherry soap. It smelt sooooo goood.

It is without a doubt that Engineering Faculty has some of the best facilities on the entire campus. It is the only faculty whereby each department has its own building. Example, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Surveying etc. They also are in close proximity to the food court and have some really awesome work cubicles that receives the best wireless internet access. 

Today however, the Engineering Faculty has disappointed me. There is no cherry soap! I am stuck with a bar of soap that candidly gives of a scent of lavender fuzziness. How boring! The fruity scent of cherries vibrates the tired soul, and pushes you to work, because all smells good with the world.

My day started off quite positively, having completed two past paper questions and delivering them promptly to my lecturer. Its the start of what should be a fairly productive day. The semester project is still nagging me, but jump high, jump low it would be completed at the end of the week.

If I had my cherry soap, I would have been so much happier today, but one can only be so happy at a time……

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel

I have been writing for giemagazine for almost 4 years, the majority of which has been on a pro bono, non contractual basis. I decided to write for this student magazine because I had a passion for writing and I wanted to expand my knowledge in the field. I, as of today, have no qualifications with respect to journalism except the hands on experience I have have received with Guardian Media Limited. For this, I am eternally grateful. 

Through giemagazine I have learnt a lot about the ethics of journalism and as such I learnt about the responsibility a journalist must have. giemagazine may come across as soft spoken, but we try to attack the issues with as much respect as we possibly can. The majority of our focus has been on feature writing, and we have indeed highlighted a lot of youths, reserving the front cover for maximum exposure. 

I have considered writing for other youth magazines, but I started with giemagazine and I simply cannot deviate. Everyone wants to join the new buzz, and I would admit that I wanted to join that new buzz as well. However, I cannot help but recognize this new youth paper as one filled with no standards or ethics. This opinion comes on the heels of recently written articles on the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at UWI

Heckler, by English definition is a person who tries to embarrass or annoy. I understand that the paper did indeed highlight the many concerns of the Department of Creative and Festival Arts in a previous issue, but where is the standard of the paper when it ridicules the same institution in a subsequent publication.

 ”The Heckler uses satire as a medium to highlight the baselessness of certain commonly held perceptions with the intent of provoking reflection and, perhaps, positive change.”

Yes, every section of a paper has its purpose, but was it necessary to add such satire on a serious issue that the paper was trying to deal with. In my opinion it was compromising a standard that the paper is yet to create. I honestly think it was a huge compromise on the ethics of journalism, and though giemagazine has had its fair share of controversy in the past, we have managed to keep our pages very clean and void of anything that is sleazy and uncalled for. We have a standard that I am proud to be a part of.

Shazad is not peculiar, but then again he is not ordinary. He is anything but ordinary. He is different and considers himself an out of the box thinker. He lives his life outside of societal norms and calls himself The Renaissance Man.

He spoke about a lot of things with us, and to be honest I was captivated. He was well spoken, knowledgeable and deeply free spirited. Here he was, a decent you man roaming the campus of the University of the West Indies selling home made jewelry. He was good at sales having been able to extract $140.00 out of my pocket. It was money well spent though, I bought a friendship band for Ambika and myself as well as an additional gift for Ambika, since I really did not get her anything for her birthday this year. 

It was quite surprising that this guy was once a Clico agent, making quite a lot of money and “living the vida loca” as he would say. However he sees more satisfaction in being self employed. He would tell his mother that he is now working two jobs, one in which he has to make the jewelry and the other where he has to sell it. 

He went on to say that he wants to gain as much knowledge as he can, and he does this secondarily. Through the material and interactions of others, he learns quite a lot. He is very friendly to approach, but its easy for him to be misinterpreted by others. 

He would come across as unorthodox to many, but I was simply amazed at how free his life has become. He has lived a lot of years, and I was so intrigued that I asked him his age. To my amazement he was not the age that I expected him to be. He had very young features, and while I thought he was young, he was not as young as I thought he would have been. For some strange reason, he told me that if I had one bone of integrity within me, I would not tell Ambika his age. It was quite an eerie moment, but it scared the shit out of me………How awesome XD

The fact of the matter is, he makes amazing artistic jewelry, its hard for me not to buy his products. He told me that he has now marked my face, and would come looking for me.

I must admit that I feel a bit envy towards him. He is living the life the way he wants it, and I feel so dull and odd being captured within a system. Its as if I have only one life to live, and I can’t decide the way in which I want to live it :S

Shazad my friend, you are simply badass

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel

This has been the oddest semester. We are about a month away from final exams, and we have not even seen the draft exam time timetable as yet. I implore those who see this post, not to hesitate and send the draft exam timetable to shahadali18@gmail.com, for such an action would be overly appreciated. 

This is the usual time that we tease our friends for having exams back to back to back, or reveling in the joy that we have 4 day periods in between our toughest exams. I am not sure if the draft time table is not meant to be distributed, but it usually ends up in my personal email as oppose to my campus email.

The Draft Exam Timetable helps most students guide their action of study for the remaining month, but apparently we have no other choice but to predict when our exams are going to be. I am giving it at least about another 3 weeks before it comes out online officially, but by then I would already be in a hot mess for final exams.

I am in desperate need of this timetable………the key to efficient exam preparation….

Always looking at life,

Even without an exam timetable

Shahad the Sentinel

Theatre History scares the hell out of me. Apart from the reason that I tend to do terrible in midterms and final exams, the philosophical theories tend to get overly exaggerated at times. 

My last midterm was in Western Theatre History that covered such a wider range of philosophical topics that ultimately made me fail the midterm, but thankfully I was able to cram really hard and pass the final examination. I was able to suffice a C+ and to be completely honest…. I was extremely proud. :D

This semester I have undertaken the grueling task of doing Modern Theatre History. I like a challenge, a challenge that I can overcome. However my midterm is on Thursday and in essence ”my ass rel dark”. Not that I am completely unaware of what has happened in class, its just that their are finer details that can potentially tie me up.

We mostly focused on Realism and Naturalism and the dates span between 1850-1950. I’m honestly giving up on remembering too many dates. My dyslexic self would more than likely mix them up. I would however admit that we have looked at some extremely interesting authors, such as Anton Chekov, Henrik Isben and August Strienberg. All of them are brilliant writers in their own sense and I would admit I have varying levels of appreciation for each of them. What I can’t handle is the theorists.

Adolphe Appia and Gordon Craig essentially started experimenting with symbols and light, however they themselves have their own wide range of opinions. Looking at Eugene Scribe and the construct of a well made play with careful exposition seriously causes personal hibernation while revising their archaic time period.

I am about to attempt the impossible right now. I am going to try and recall Stanislavski’s 10 principles in the construct of his plays. Let’s go:

1.) Relationships

2.) Objectives

3.) Obstacles

4.)Text

5.)Subtext

6.)Strategy

7.)Interior Monologue

8.) Tactics

9.) Beats

10.) Steuppppssss u does never remember d last one… let me check my book…ohhh Evaluations……

Now seriously do not ask me to define and explain in full length what each of these means. This is the University of the West Indies…. We are like birds that feed their young…. we regurgitate information to get marks…. We are at a lost when it comes to application, Ask me to put on a play using this system, and I have no idea where to start. Its the horrible but honest truth. 

I hope to God I can suffice a passing grade. I honestly need an A for this course.

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel

UWI has reached unprecedented levels of frustration this past week. Imagine my best friend was on campus and I was not even able to see him for a split second. This week has always been back to back meetings, projects and catching up on tons of school work.

Pollution and Environmental Management is without a doubt a deep bite in the ass! The semester long project has proven to be extremely demanding. Please do not get me wrong, we finally got the opportunity to do something practical and I really am enjoying it, however, almost everyday when I got home this past week, all I could have thought about was landing on my bed, and sleeping till sunrise. 

Apart from that, I am so stressed about getting A’s in certain courses this semester. Shockingly I have never been this obsessed. I am seeing Shanaz so much more often, which is not a bad thing, but I only see Shanaz in the library, which means I am in the library too. I am usually so quick to settle for a B or even a C, but this semester I am driven to cut everybody ass in exams. I am not sure if my drive would die, and it would not matter to me if it did. I am just loving this new found determination and praying to God that it would stay.

To be honest, I am not investing much time into extra curricular activities as before, because I am slowly beginning to realize that as much as I am trying to get my activities up to a certain standard, my efforts have proven to be futile. I wonder sometimes why I try so hard. I have not given up on them completely, but I am pacing myself slowly but surely. 

This coming week is ram packed no shit! I have a billion things to do, and trust me, I do not know where to get started. I up to my neck in academic and professional paperwork and everything seems to be at such a standstill. I am flustered to be completely honest. 

I have now begun crossing out tasks on a planner, which is a very good sign as compared to the limited crosses made for last week. I am just praying for a more productive week ahead.

Always looking at life,

Shahad the Sentinel