(almost) the end of my academic life

Hello!!

We are almost near the magical month of May!!

Anyways, I have some exciting news to share!! So first, I think I am officially done with school forever, academically anyways!! I just finished my last exam on the 22nd of April (IRONIC HOW ITS THE SAME DATE THAT I HAD MY LAST EXAM AT UOFT TOO) so now I am waiting for my final exam and final marks back!! So excited. Bad news is that I will not be having a cGPA of 4.0 anymore lol. I had this one course called HR planning and I have all my marks back, so when I calculated my mark, my final would be a 82%. So close yet so far LOL. Depending on how I do for the rest of my classes, I hope I earn high enough to graduate with an honours still! I think you need a 3.5 gpa for that?

**update as of April 28: I got all my marks back and basically, I got <85 on everything but HR planning, SO since my GPA was 4.0 last term and this term has only that one 3.7, when I calculate my cumulative GPA, I expect to get a 3.97...this is so dissatisfying lol but I am proud of myself. I still remember the time when I first enrolled to this program and thought that I'd never be capable of getting a GPA of 3.5+. I proven my past self wrong!!

Another exciting news is that I finally secured a summer co-op!! So over this past term, I have applied to over 100 jobs, and I got roughly 25 interviews out of those jobs. However, I kept getting nonstop rejections or no responses (except for one early April for an unpaid internship at a hospital but I ended up rejecting it). I had high hopes for this one big gaming company and managed to make it to the final rounds of the interview. I even rejected an unpaid internship offer (at the hospital) early April hoping that I'd get that offer. The recruitment process was really long (took literally a month) but ended officially on Thursday evening (April 22) when I got that rejection letter. I admit I shed some tears for it because it would have been ideal to work for this company. The rejection letter felt different from the others because it was really long and I felt that the recruiter added her own words to a part of the rejection letter. Anyways, I think it was one of the first times I responded back to a rejection email. I do have hopes to work for this company in the future. So the whole Thursday evening and night, I felt truly hopeless. But I had another interview on Friday morning for this computer software company.

Zoom to Friday morning, I woke up early to prepare for the interview, since I usually focus better that way if I prepare the bulk the day before, and prepare again a few hours before the actual interview. The interview went really well in my opinion. It was really interesting that the job ad itself hit one of the areas that I wanted to focus in for HR!! And you know what was great?? The interviewer said how she'd get back to me with a response by the end of the day. Obviously, I was so shook and blurted out that I appreciated that since most of the time, responses take a week or even more. As time passed, I was kind of checking my email often, mainly in hopes that I'd get another interview offer and to see the response. Thankfully I was using my phone for most of the afternoon since I think my sister was using my laptop. I got a call in the evening so I had a feeling it was the interviewer from this morning...and it was!! I was holding my breathe as she spoke because there was a lot of dialogue and I immediately thought of a month ago when I received a rejection through a phone call. But to my surprise, she was like "I'd like to extend an offer for this co-op." I was so stunned that I barely said anything at first and it took a while for me to process it as she spoke. It was only til the end of the call that I got excited and started speaking fast LOL. Anyways, I felt so happy that I literally screamed after the call ended. As you can tell, my mood has been pretty positive ever since. What a contrast to my negative mood for Thursday.

I found it interesting that the timing of me getting the offer happened around 24 hours after I got the rejection from the other company. I am a firm believer of things happening for a reason so I think there are great things to come from this company!! I am excited because the position itself is REALLY interesting, its in a tech company (which is the industry that I want to work in), the people seem really nice so far, and its a company that creates a service that I actually use myself (in school). I would have never thought I'd be able to secure a summer co-op because the competition was fierce and I do believe there are much better people out there. Omg do you know an additional bonus of this position?? It is remote, which is great because I do not have the covid-19 vaccine yet (side note: OMG I COULD HAVE GOTTEN IT ON WEDNESDAY WITH MY MOM, BUT BECAUSE I HAD A DENTIST APPOINTMENT AT 5 AND MOM LEFT AT 3, I THOUGHT THE LINEUP WOULD TAKE HOURS ONLY FOR HER TO GET IT WITHIN HALF AN HOUR). ALSO!!! IT. IS. A. PAID. POSITION. A paid position....I would have never thought. It was definitely a bonus since I just don't want to work the whole summer for free lol. Even though my dad is the only one working right now and we are doing fine financially, I still want to be an additional support if needed.

So yeah, I am excited! I was talking to a bunch of my friends and its so nice to see so many changes occurring for them as well. Some of them are done school as well and set to start full time work on the same date as me!! Some are in the middle of applying for summer work positions as well. It's just so nice to see the start of May as the beginning of a new chapter for most of their lives, including mine. I really love May as you can tell (no bias ;) LMAO). I really do see May as the best time to start something new because its just so comfy and fresh of a month.

So yeah, I am excited for the beginning of next week because of all the documents and stuff that I have to finalize with my co-op coordinator. I keep checking my email out of excitement lol. I am excited to see my marks for my HRM classes. I am also excited to start this position...SO EXCITED that I already posted it on my linkedin profile LMAO. I'll just edit it to start month of may when may comes LMAO.

So now my priorities for this week is to relax as much as possible. I do have to continue taking my master excel courses, create a new monthly spread for my agenda (for May), and hope that more pop-up covid-19 vaccination sites show up for IDEALLY 16+ hotspots. Since my mom got her first shot already, and dad has an appointment booked for next month, it is just me and my sister left. Unfortunately, my sister is a teen so it would be so ideal if me and sis go together at once....but knowing how Ontario is handling covid-19 and the vaccine rollouts now?? LMAO. Wishful thinking. It is so messy and not clear. I cannot believe I had to rely on a volunteer run twitter account in order to keep track of any new vaccine clinic information...I really love twitter for that. Best social media there is and I will never ditch that website.

Anyways, I am excited and hopeful to start this new chapter of my life. Since my interviewer chose to take a chance on me, I am forever grateful. I literally feel my life has changed. I would like to say I built resilience from this summer co-op hunting but eh. A plus is that I do think I improved for interviews. I never had this much interviews before in my life. Usually I would apply to a few jobs back then, get one interview, and then secure that interview lol. So my interview experience was limited. This whole job searching process was a learning experience. Maybe it would have been easier if I actually engaged in networking. Everyone keeps saying networking and building connections is key to finding a job but idk...it feels so fake and transactional for me. I just dont like the idea of messaging someone for the purpose of using them in the future. I want genuine relationships lol.

Overall, I really will miss my time at GBC for this post-grad program. The online experience was nice. I felt that I benefited greatly from this experience since I usually participate (through class), have an easier time contacting my professors, meeting good group mates, and HAVING NO COMMUTE. Will never miss TTC LOL. Usually an in-person experience for me is shetty because I didn't have the time to stay after class to ask the professor questions, and I tried to maximize my time in the library since I could not focus at home. I think a big key to my success this term was the forest app. I kept track of my time spent on school work and it made me more well aware of myself. The professors here were really good (well most). The content was so interesting and I sometimes think back on how my life would have been if I knew what I knew now. Would I have went to uoft for HRM? Who would I have met? I met really great people here at GBC for sure. I hope I keep in contact with some of them. I truly do not regret choosing uoft though...I dont know why I keep thinking back on uoft lol. What a defining time of my life I guess.

Anyways, I think I am done with my post. I was listening to IU's Lilac album while writing this post and since I kept getting interrupted by my sister, the flow of my thoughts got interrupted lol. So please bare with me for this post. I usually write whatever comes to my mind anyways. Also, I really hope my friend that I made from this post-grad program (and any other classmates) secure a co-op as well!! It is disheartening to see them feeling demotivated and discouraged and I really hope they get one in May at least!! I have been sending lots of positive thoughts and energy to the universe??? and I truly believe May is the magical month of change. So yes, if anyone reads this, please wish positive thoughts for them too. I would appreciate it!!

Overall, wishing all of you the best for the month of May.

Until then!!!!

PS. I started this game called Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville (available through EA) and IT IS SO FUN. My most fav character is the sunflower. I will make sure to screenshot the character tomorrow and upload it here, since I really want the thumbnail to be of the sunflower. Here it is!!!