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Today: A third year con-ed student celebrates HOCO with homemade pancakes and makes it home the next day for his camp gig.
School: Queen’s University
Program: Con-Ed/LLCU
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Salary: $0
Total Spend: $57.98
Day 1
9:30 am - Mondays are my light days. I only have one class at 1:00 pm so I decide to sleep in a bit and make myself a nice brunch with eggs and toast. It’s important to live life one day at a time, especially in the height of midterm season, also known as “Week 6”.
1:00 pm - I walk over to Mac-Corry (yes, the labyrinth itself) for FREN 231, which is a French writing course about different writing styles and formatting. It can be dry at some points, but overall, it’s fairly interesting.
2:30 pm - Time to head home and get some schoolwork done. Tuesdays are my heavier days and Wednesday of this week had many things going on, including a French reading as well as a big English essay. I try to use the library most of the time, but I wasn’t feeling it today! It doesn’t make sense to go, especially if I only have one class.
5:00 pm - I get a text from my neighbours inviting me over for dinner and to catch up!! I smile at the text; it’s been weeks since I’ve seen them, and I was super excited to go!
7:30 pm - I headed over to their place and we ordered a pizza! This was not normally how my Mondays would go, but I believe that friends can truly brighten up someone’s day!
9:30 pm - This English essay is not writing itself. While going over to a friend’s house was so nice and catching up with them is always a great feeling, it’s important to make sure you have enough time for academics as well!
Day 2
8:30 am - We love having 8:30 am classes on a cold, cloudy Tuesday. This class is FREN 352, another French course but on Haitian history and culture with one of the best profs in the department – Michael Reyes. Currently we’re discussing a 19th-century play about the Spanish colonizers in Hispaniola during the 15th century, and Reyes’ optimism makes the 8:30 worth it!
10:00 am - I decide to stay on campus and get some last-minute studying for my INUK 101 language test at 1! I really love learning languages and I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn about Inuit culture and the Inuktitut language!!
12:00 pm - Gotta grab that Pita Pit lunch before a 1:00 pm class. Real talk – if you’re in first year, the Pita Pit TAMs are the best option. I truly miss having TAMs and a meal plan, but Pita Pit is always a good time! A whole-wheat chicken shawarma pita with guac, lettuce, onion, green pepper, cheese, and mayo really hits the spot.
1:00 pm - Heading over to Kingston Hall (my second home due to how many classes I have there) for INUK, feeling confident for this language test! In today’s class, we also discussed our reading for the week, which was about 18th-century trade and the trading goods that were most valuable to Inuit societies.
2:30 pm - This day is still not over! Headed home to get some crucial hours done on my essay for tomorrow and to also prep some food before my night class. I think on days like this, it’s important to have a full schedule so that you don’t panic about how you structure the day, especially if you have a big assignment due.
6:30 pm - LLCU 303 is my last class of the day, and I had already brought food and snacks to accompany me at Stauffer afterwards to eat while I finish my essay. This class is extremely interesting if you’re an LLCU major (and it’s mandatory too!) because it’s all about intercultural communication and how to apply the best strategies when communicating with those from other cultures.
Day 3
7:30 am - The essay is done. I repeat, the essay is done. Did I have to stay up till 1am to finish it? Yes. Is that healthy? No. I strongly recommend making a plan for stressful weeks like these so that you can get enough sleep! The only reason I’m up early on this particular Wednesday is for headshots for one of my many extracurriculars – Queen’s Television! (shameless plug #1).
11:30 am - Time for two back-to-back classes – FREN 231 and ENGL 284. This English course is decent, it’s about Canadian literature and focusing on identity and nationhood in 18th and 19th century literature. While there are only 15 people that show up, the class itself isn’t terrible!
2:30 pm - It’s time for a snack. If you’re stuck on campus with loose change and need a quick snack, go to the vending machine in the JDUC across from QP. There’s lots of options and it’s relatively cheap as well!
4:00 pm - Finishing off the day with the first of my two meetings, I went to Stauffer to meet with my Jack.org internal team to discuss our future events and to plan out the logistics of our most recent upcoming events. I strongly encourage everyone to get involved with Jack.org as it’s such a great organization and it focuses on empowering young people to start the conversation about mental health (shameless plug #2).
9:00 pm - Meeting #2 with the whole Jack.org team! At this meeting, we went over the presentation for our training and education coordinators as well as discussed updates from each team (internal, external, and summit).
Day 4
10:00 am - This week is going by fairly quickly! I slept in longer after a long Wednesday night and made an omelette for breakfast. I try to make sure that I’m eating enough protein and getting enough Vitamin C throughout the day in order to stay healthy!
11:30 am - INUK 101 again, this time we’re learning more dialogue and reviewing the reading once again.
5:30 pm - Off to Vic Hall to do some outreach for the COR (shameless plug #3), which I highly recommend using if you have had too much to drink and need a safe place to rest and sleep. This outreach was to showcase our Homecoming hours and to also educate others about what the COR is.
8:00 pm - Queen’s Television meeting in the ARC – I swear I’m managing all my extracurriculars!!
Day 5
8:30 am - Finally, we made it to the end of the week!! Weeks with big assignments always stress me out and I believe that having time for self-care is so important, whether that is having dinner with friends, helping out or volunteering with clubs, or even taking time to chill and let your mind rest!!
10:00 am - We’re back with Michael Reyes in FREN 352, the first of my back-to-back classes. Next will be ENGL 284.
1:00 pm - This week will be remembered in Queen’s history due to the racist and homophobic note left on the fourth floor of Chown Hall residence, which is also an Indigenous students and Allies LLC. The University organized a march in solidarity, and I planned ahead to make time to attend this march due to how important it is not only for the students, but for the whole community to be accepting and supportive in this time of crisis. We marched along the Queen’s campus and ended the event with a unity stomp.
4:00 pm - I went home to take time for myself after this busy week. Watching Netflix and clearing my mind of all the stress that was in my life this past week is what I needed.
10:00 pm - Got to get an early night before Homecoming!!
Day 6 (HOCO)
7:30 am - Oh, you already know this day is going to be a long one, but I’ll try to keep it short and sweet!
8:30 am - Made a bunch of pancakes for my friends as we got ready to hit the streets for HOCO!! A lot of our friend group showed up, we took loads of photos, and prepared to hit Aberdeen for a fun day ahead of us.
12:00 pm - The peak of Aberdeen. Somehow, we all managed to stay together and make our way to the middle of Aberdeen, where we ran into many people and almost fell down too many times to count.
3:00 pm - It’s nap time for the friend group, but I had to pack up as I was headed home for a couple days for a camp gig and to celebrate my mom’s birthday!
7:00 pm - We made it to the bus depot to find out that the bus would be delayed. :( Meanwhile, lots of FOMO ensuing from all the fun snaps as HOCO came to a close.
11:00 pm - I finally arrived back at home.
Day 7
9:00 am - Woke up early to get ready for the camp gig! I work as a day camp counsellor over the summer and each autumn, we have a pumpkin picking day that you can work at! So, I made my way over to the camp and found out I would be boiling hot dogs all day for the camp to sell as food. Not the best way to spend your Sunday.
3:00 pm - As the event came to a close, it was truly so nice to come back to camp for a day and to see a lot of campers and staff!
9:30 am - Mondays are my light days. I only have one class at 1:00 pm so I decide to sleep in a bit and make myself a nice brunch with eggs and toast. It’s important to live life one day at a time, especially in the height of midterm season, also known as “Week 6”.
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