#also your writing teachers/profs need to fail you for all current and past writing classes

[bionic-penis]

hey uhm.. I don't know how to tell you this.. but Sk8 has been spreading rumors about you being a groomer among other things on a few servers, mostly through voice chat when they've gotten him talking about artfight. so i was just wondering.. why are you sticking up for someone who spreads heinous rumors about you?

Hi. I has a question. Do you guys think that when someone says "proof" they mean "testimony"? Or are you all just willfully ignorant? Fuck if words alone were enough to condemn someone we'd all be in jail.

No but in all seriousness, this is one of three asks I came home to, all one right after the other (yeah.... that's not curious at all....). Two of which mentioned (alleged) grooming allegations against me. So I think I deserve a lil bit of a long response.

See, the thing is, even if Awodee was saying that about me, I would not change my stance. The fact of the matter is no actual evidence has been provided for the claims made against them. Not in the original journal made by CandyRotten, the subsequent asks sent to an (admittedly) mismanaged drama blog, nor in the asks that have been sent to me regarding the situation (save for the initial ask that just.... linked the "evidence" in the journal???). Even if Awodee DID do what people are claiming they did, you can't claim that someone did something without proof. It sets a horrible precedent and can make it more difficult to help and support victims in the future.

That's not even mentioning the doubts I have that these alleged rumours are even being spread. I have had zero contact with Awodee on any platform and even have them blocked here on Tumblr. The only way they'd know about me is if they found me before the block, or if someone else helped them get my info. Regarding Artfight, Awodee hasn't been active for a month so... yeah I doubt they'd be talking about me in accordance to Artfight (especially since my handle is different there than it is here). Whatever it is, I don't care. It wouldn't make sense considering spreading rumours about someone who is defending them would in turn make themself look worse.

This is all ignoring just how fucking internet-poisoned you have to be to come into a third party's inbox in order to bark at him for false rumours being spread with absolutely zero evidence.

This is the sixth ask out of eight that I've been sent regarding this situation and the fourth one in an inbox of six. All anonymous. All with various levels of aggression. One even posited that I knew Awodee. I haven't been answering those asks because I don't find it productive and because I thought that, given enough time, y'all would leave me the fuck alone. Clearly that is not happening since the first ask I answered was on September 10th meaning it's been almost a month. I'm hesitant to call it harassment but....

For a while it was fine and even a little funny. I would screenshot the ask, send it to a group chat, and me and my friends would take turns poking holes in the arguments presented. It's not funny anymore. The asks I have received have been manipulative, lacking in empathy, and antagonistic. One of the asks I received today even said that they thought it was "kinda hilarious" that I've been (allegedly) accused of being a groomer considering my defense of Awodee.... So you admit false grooming allegations are funny as long as you view the victim of said allegations as someone less than or opposed to you?

Below I've included a screenshot of said ask with full context and image description. Even with this, take it with a grain of salt as screenshots can be faked.

You guys want to stake claim to some kind of moral high ground, but you are so lacking in so many departments you've contradicted your own sense of moral purity. Because if Awodee WAS saying something like this about me, someone who had defended them, wouldn't that make me one of you guys? A victim? Someone who had fallen prey to Awodee's nasty, manipulative behaviour? But instead of compassion or sympathy you come into my inbox with the intention to make me feel bad for my choices. Then again, this isn't the first time I've seen victim-blaming behaviour pop up in this whole situation. Not only that but.... if they're so bad why are you hanging out with them?

But to answer your question: I'm "sticking up" for Awodee because I looked at the evidence, analysed the journal and subsequent asks sent, and came to the conclusion that the evidence was flawed, that the asks were simply testimony (or hearsay in other cases), and that there are other factors clearly at play. Again, even if they are spreading rumours about me I would not change my mind. Even if I hate someone that doesn't mean I can condemn them for something that that haven't been proven to do. That's irresponsible and, again, sets a bad precedent.

TLDR: You have no proof of any of the claims made in this ask, but you are also one of MANY anon's I have received asks from over an extensive period of time. I doubt these rumors are being spread, but even if they were my stance remains unchanged until actual evidence is provided. Also you all fucking suck for trying to turn this shit around on me when I would be the victim in this situation. Also you're bad at evidence.

#CADA Drama #ask #anon #also your writing teachers/profs need to fail you for all current and past writing classes #because holy shit you all suck at providing sources for your claims #fuck yooooouuuuuuu i literally was on cloud nine cause i went for a walk w a friend and i have to deal w this shit?

[seasonalherpes]

Gratefulness Post on the Eve of my 21st Birthday

I never write text posts, but somehow I had to get this joy nugget off my chest. When I was a kid, my only dream was to work hard, live in a big town, and work in a lab. My childhood idol was Marie Curie, so while it was rather vague, I knew that at some point in my life I wanted to write some stuff down in a chart while wearing a white coat.  Two years ago, I got accepted in the Psychology program at McGill, which is a few hours from where I come from. I also got accepted (with bursaries covering full tuition) at some universities near my hometown, and my parents offered to pay for an apartment back home for my partner and I to live in. I didn’t have savings past a few thousand bucks, which apparently is not even enough to buy all your textbooks for the first semester, but I knew what I wanted to do. I moved to Montreal!!!! It was so scary!!! So many of my close friends were genuinely hurt - and I felt their pain - because I chose to move away and my dedication to my studies and work was gonna prevent me from visiting. I also had little to no money, and I had - at the most - two friends in this new town. My boyfriend was finishing up a contract back home before joining me, so I spent the first two months fully alone, sleeping with a hunting knife like a mature and responsible adult. Two weeks after I moved was my birthday, and I was working at Walmart at the time. It was honestly extremely humiliating, because people in big towns apparently love dehumanizing retail employees, and I would get belittled so many times a day most of my breaks were spent crying. And I have been in retail since I was 14; I have had my share of assholes. However, there had never been so many so often, and it was almost impossible to handle. So on my 19th birthday, I worked a whole eight hour shift at Walmart, ate my lunch in silence in a terrifyingly small breakroom, got a plate thrown at me because I said we ran out of bubble wrap, and then left at 4pm with absolutely no clue what to do with myself. I ended up eating a crêpe at a frozen yogurt place, and then went to the movie theater all alone. Honestly, the second I heard my first lecture, it felt like a thousand additional plates could have been thrown at me and it would’ve been worth it. I really thought it was only gonna be uphill from there. But then I made a bunch of mistakes, and out of a true lack of confidence, missed out on a ton of opportunities. I tend to be a very assertive and bold person when I want to, but that trait always gets turned off when I don’t know what I’m doing. And I definitely did not know what I was doing then. So I stayed in a cute little corner, sent a few emails around looking for work, and actually never found anything remotely close to my field for my first summer break. So, on my 20th birthday, one year after moving to Montreal, I worked on that exact day as a phone lady for a furniture company. I had to lie to get the job, saying I was taking a break from my studies, and the lady seemed weirdly excited to meet me. I quickly found out why: while I tend to show up at every workplace in incredibly chic, professional clothes, everyone there was dressed like they had given up on life. I had also studied everything about that company to get that job, making me sound like the next CEO of Apple.

So on my 20th birthday, I showed up for my first day at a job I didn’t intend to do for more than a month, and actually got sent to the boss’ office to be told I was going to be trained to become a manager in a few months. For someone who wants a job in customer service, this would have been a dream. But for me, who had lied my way through thinking there would be no repercussions, it was nauseating. I was terrified of letting this nice woman boss down, I was terrified of all the employees getting to know me and seeing that I was a major nerd who would never ever quit school, and worst of all I was terrified at the thought of riding a train of lies for forty hours a week for the next month. So, I spent the entire day working, hiding in the bathroom, and running out as fast as I could at 5 o’clock. I remember discovering that the next bus out was in 30 minutes while I was straight up in the middle of an industrial desert, and choosing to run back home in my fancy loafers because I was terrified of staying near the office for a second more. 

That night, I went to dinner with my partner, tried not to cry the entire time, and then I ran back home to work on my disappearance. I made all of my social media accounts insanely private, blocked the company’s emails, blocked the company’s fifty phone numbers, turned my wifi off, put my phone on airplane mode, then put it on night mode on top of it, and then finally lost my mind and took the SIM card out of my phone and cried myself to sleep. I never showed up for work the next day, staying off the grid for the following week (I even took my friend’s phone to call my parents and tell them I was doing a “technology cleanse”.). 

This takes us to this last year. That year, something in me changed. I realized that as long as I was working towards my goals and doing what I wanted, nothing could take me down. I took out a loan to stop doing crazy jobs, booked some extra classes to advance me as a student, and vowed to be “extra”. 

Being extra meant always going one step further. I would show up to class dressed up. I would go see the teacher after class. I’d send them emails about fun youtube videos related to class materials. I’d contact every single person who worked in a Psychology lab in town. I would go to all the mixers, regardless of how long it would take me to recharge. Knowing I was aiming for a doctorate, I studied for entrance exams exactly one year before most people would start thinking about taking them. I kept up with current researchers like a true stalker. If you want to know what Simon Baron-Cohen is doing right now, trust and believe that I can tell you. 

I can’t actually say this was easy, because it was honestly the hardest year of my entire life. My partner of countless years briefly left me because of mental health issues we both had not seen coming, I spent a whole month selling my book collection to pay for groceries, I failed one of my favourite classes because I kept falling asleep in the days before the final, then learned I was falling asleep because I had contracted mono, and two weeks later I was told I needed heart surgery due to a disease I had had under control since birth. I actually started laughing in the cardiologist’s office, because of how ridiculous that year was. He did not laugh, but I was thorougly entertained.

Still, being extra paid off. In November, an Honour student asked me to help with her research project, and I got so excited I spent night after night in the school’s library. I read and tweaked and rewrote pieces of her paper countless times, and she got an A! She loved my work and energy so much that she recommended me at her lab, and they immediately hired me!!! Then, some fantastic profs agreed to help me with my applications, and with their help I was handpicked to work at a top hospital in a rehabilitation program. As an undergrad!!!!! At that point, I could already have died happy.

I actually took a step back for a month to get my heart fixed, so while this incredible interview happened a few weeks ago, I only started working today. On the eve of my 21st birthday. In the morning, I went to my lab, put on a white coat, pulled out my files, and tested some participants. Then, I had a super fun conversation with a friend from work, who giggled at the sunburns my partner and I got at the waterpark this weekend. He also told me I got the approval on one of the projects I want to run, so (if I work hard enough) I will now have numerous projects under my name published even before I graduate . Then, in the afternoon, I took off my white coat, walked a few meters to the neurological hospital, put on another lab coat, took the cart with the girl training me, and we went around helping out patients. The work was so unbelievably gratifying, I still can’t believe it. One patient was apathetic when we arrived, but actually grew so happy that by the time that we left, she thanked me for reminding her of her youth again.

That was the eve of my 21st birthday. After two whole years of messes, confusion and fear, I actually finally got everything I was aiming for. Since I want to be a Clinical Psychology Doctorate student, I still have a long way to go before I get where I want to be. But for now, one whole year before I finish my Bachelor’s degree, I am already changing people’s lives in a concrete, tangible way, and writing up research that will influence my field and hopefully make a dent in the mystery that is the human brain. 

I work hard, I live in a big town, and I work in a lab. I don’t have everything figured out, but on the eve of my 21st birthday, I got to write stuff down in a bunch of charts and wear a white coat. 

Tomorrow, I cleared my schedule so I wouldn’t have to work. Thankfully, my budget can now handle it. I am going to go eat a crêpe at a frozen yogurt place, before watching a movie all on my own. I want to relive that 19th birthday as a way to commemorate it, as a way to remind myself that it will always get better. Those crêpes are gonna be delightful, and I won’t be wearing a Walmart uniform while eating them. And that movie is gonna be so great; I will go see it because this type of movie is my guilty pleasure, not because I am alone in a big scary town. 

Remember that things always get better. They don’t always evolve at the speed we would want them to, and god knows there are going to be numerous setbacks on the way. Your mono could put you to sleep right as you’re cramming for that big final, your relationship could be on a break for weeks, or your heart could quit on you just for the heck of it. That’s okay. You can do it. You can lift mountains, you can split oceans apart, and you can absolutely conquer the world. Keep holding on, stand by everything you believe in, and your hard work will pay off. 

#lab #research #psychology #mcgill university #self love #self care #marie curie #hospital #birthday #growth #love

[firstyearstories]

6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting University

http://anotherangle.eu/posts/the-stunning-architecture-of-the-university-of-alberta/

1. Studying in university is way different than studying in high school.

In high school, I used to be able to sit down at 7pm the night before a test, study for a few hours, still get my 8 hours of sleep, and go and get a pretty good grade on the test the next day. You’ll quickly find that in university, this isn’t realistic. If I tried doing that in uni, I would have flunked out by now. Try your best to keep on top of your readings (more on that later) and any little assignments or extra not-for-credit work that your professor may recommend doing. If you study even just for an hour every night, then by the time it’s midterms season you’ll feel significantly less stressed. The same applies for finals; a little goes a long way. When it comes to studying for the exams themselves, give yourself a week minimum to really make sure you know the content. If you have any questions or are confused on any topic, ask! Your profs and teacher assistants are there to help, and they want you to do well too. 

2. Keep on top of your assignments.

For myself, the biggest difference between high school and university is that in high school, I did the homework every. single. night. whether I wanted to or not. In university, it’s so easy to just decide to skip the readings or the assignments for class the next day. Nobody will be chasing you down, making sure you’re doing your readings and are prepared for exams. If you choose to not keep on top of your work, then that’s your problem. And trust me, once you decide to skip a reading once, then you will not feel like doing a single reading the rest of the semester. Once finals roll around, you’re going to be kicking yourself and asking yourself why you didn’t just suck it up and do the couple hours of reading every night. As for the major assignments like essays, don’t let them sneak up on you and all of a sudden holy cow; it’s the day before your 10 page essay is due and you don’t have a thesis yet. (Been there, done that. It’s really not fun.) Once the due date is a about month away, try to start forming an idea about what you’re going to write about, and start looking for any resources and articles you’ll want to reference. Do a little at a time, that way you won’t be stressing out the night before needing to pull an all-nighter to write a subpar paper when you could get have received a higher grade by taking it little by little, and really taking your time to read over your work and make edits. 

3. Explore your options.

Out of my group of friends that went on to post-secondary, I am the only one that finished in the program I started in four years ago. It’s okay to change your mind, and university allows for a greater degree of flexibility and independent choice than high school does. In sum, people change, and the university understands this. Nobody is going to stand between you and the experience you are trying to cultivate for yourself. As you grow and develop through your experiences at university and elsewhere, so do your interests and your dislikes. One of my friends made it to his third year of nursing before coming to the realization that his heart wasn’t truly in it. He said that he simply could not see himself working as a nurse for the rest of his life. A program that you thought was perfect for you when you first started post-secondary may not fit the person you become after you get some more life experience. Don’t be afraid to switch programs and study something that truly interests you, you’ll thank yourself in the end.

4. You can use Wikipedia as a reference.

Ok, so technically I did learn this in first year, but it’s such a good tip I can’t not share it with all of you. During my MUSIC 103 lecture one day, my prof was talking to us about our essays we had to write. My world was changed when she gave us this incredible piece of advice: she said “If you’re trying to find a good scholarly reference, go to Wikipedia, look up the article of the topic you’re writing on, and look at the reference list. There you can find plenty of acceptable, scholarly references and you’re good to go.” And there you have it. It works for pretty much everything since, you know, there’s a WIkipedia article for pretty much everything. I’ve carried it with me ever since and still use it to this day. That said, it’s not a great idea to limit yourself to Wikipedia for sources, and I’d really encourage you to learn how to use the databases available to you as a student. Campus librarians are really helpful if you’re having troubles figuring out how to navigate the databases, and may also be able to point you in the direction of some great books you could use for your assignment. If you’re still having a hard time finding an appropriate source after exhausting all of the options listed above, there might be limited information or research on the topic (something to consider if you’re interested in pursuing graduate studies), or your topic might be too narrow. In this case, I’d recommend visiting office hours with your professor or scheduling an appointment if you’re unable to make it to their office hours. 

5. University is not just a place where you go to get a degree

If you’ve decided to go to post-secondary, you are likely very serious about your education. First of all, to attain a high enough average to apply into your chosen program takes hard work. However, compared to the work you will have to put in to complete a university degree, high school will seem like a cakewalk. Cakewalk: a word which here means an absurdly or surprisingly easy task. University costs a lot of money and most people want to get their money’s worth. Speaking from personal experience, take your classes seriously, but don’t forget to enjoy your university experience. It’s all about having a healthy balance. If you don’t balance out hard work with some extracurricular activities, you will burn out fast. Take the time to give your body and your mind a break and your ability to keep up with the rigors of university education will improve drastically. Volunteering on or off campus, playing sports, or picking up a new hobby are great ways to give your mind and body a much needed break. And don’t hesitate to check out involvement fairs, mixers, or informational sessions. You just might find the thing you’ve been looking for all along. During Week of Welcome, there will be a massive tent set up in the middle of campus (Main QUAD), where many of the university’s 400 student groups will gather to talk to you about the various ways you can get involved on campus and with their club. Some of the clubs will change day-to-day, so feel free to visit each day if you haven’t found something yet.

6. You are not your GPA.

If there is any one thing that I truly hope you take away from this article, I hope it's this: you are not your GPA. At the end of the day, your first year really doesn't matter. Now I'm not telling you to slack off and not try, but you might find yourself enrolled in a class that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you study, you just don't understand the course material. And that's fine. It happens to everyone. For me, it was CHEM 101. When I got my final mark back, I was just happy to see that I passed. But I'm going to be an elementary teacher, and it’s highly unlikely that my future employer will care about my CHEM 101 mark from my first year. First year is hard. It's a huge transition from high school, and can honestly be a bit of a eye opener. Even if you're going to apply for a graduate program, they'll only look at your last 2-3 years, never the first. So don't be afraid to fail, experiment, or put yourself out of your comfort zone if it means you’ve learned something (even if it’s something about yourself). Try your best, but don't beat yourself up over one bad grade during your first year. We've all been there, and trust me, it only gets better.

About the Authors

Michael graduated from the U of A Faculty of Nursing this past year and is currently working as a Registered Nurse in the OR at the University Hospital. He has volunteered with the Week of Welcome/UAlberta Orientation program since 2015 as both a General Volunteer and a Team Facilitator. Michael’s all-time favorite spot on campus is the Butterdome where he and his classmates would go to play badminton between classes.

Sydney is going into her fourth year of a Bachelor of Elementary Education degree and will be doing her Advanced Field Experience (student teaching) this fall. This is her second year with the Week of Welcome program, and her first year as a Team Facilitator. Sydney’s favourite places on campus are the tenth floor education lounge and the arts lounge in the old Arts building, purely because they’re great spots to take a quick nap in between classes.

[tonjabarron78-blog]

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[sweetsuccesssociety]

Back to School to Become the Ultimate Girl Boss: 10 Lessons I’ve Learned About Being an Entrepreneur

Whoa, hello there friends! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a post on here! Thanks for being patient with me while I worked out the logistics of balancing my life. I’m now back at school and although my workload is heavy I do actually have more free time to spend on writing stellar content, so that’s what I’m here to do!

As I said, this year I decided to go back to school for entrepreneurship at one of the colleges in Toronto. I just finished my first week and oh my goodness – what a ride it has been! I literally went to school two days this week because of the holiday Monday (I only have classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, hollaaaaa) and I’ve already learned so many amazingly applicable things that I’ll absolutely be implementing for my business, and some things that may not be as applicable to my business but still relevant nonetheless. Here’s the rundown from week one.

1. 5:00am wake up is the worst, but there are some positives to it!

Let’s just get this out there into the world – I am NOT a morning person. I hate waking up early and I’m at my most productive around 10:00pm-2:00am. Pretty sure I get that from my grandma, who’s in her mid-80s and still stays up till 2 every night! The point is, when I realized I had to get up at 5am in order to make the commute from the suburbs into the city for my 8am classes, I was not impressed in the slightest. I’m pretty sure the moment I realized this, I spent about 20 minutes ranting to my boyfriend on the phone about how society is catered to morning people and the world sucks – very dramatic, I know (but is it not a little bit true though?).

When I actually had to do it this week though, I had an incredibly odd experience. I actually enjoyed being out and about before the sun came up! The actual waking up part was a struggle, there’s no fooling anyone there. But there were no cars, no people on sidewalks cutting me off, nothing like that. The train station I go to is also right on Lake Ontario, so I get a pretty nice view of the sunrise while waiting for my train!

Am I a fully transformed morning person? Absolutely not, I slept in till about 10:30 this morning and have no shame about it. However, do I think waking up early is much more doable than I originally had anticipated? When you’re excited about what you’re doing and want to get up and work and learn, absolutely!

2. Network, network, network – and do it properly!

Ahh, networking. The dreaded word that our introverted sides absolutely cringe at. Girlfriend, if that’s you, just know I’m totally with you on that one. I love networking with other bloggers and such online, but when it comes to face-to-face actually talking to someone, I freeze. I’ve never been to a networking event for this reason, but all of that is about to change… that’s right, one of my assignments is actually to attend a networking event! First of all, terrifying, right? But second of all, how incredibly applicable that is! As someone who is generally quite shy, I need something like this to push me out of my comfort zone. You can’t get better at something without practice, so although I’m freaking out about it, I’m also so glad I can do it in the safety of being in school.

Something I learned about networking events this week is that a lot of people have the wrong idea for how to go about it. Many people think that if they leave at the end of the night and have run out of business cards they were successful at the event. As my HR prof pointed out though this week, this isn’t necessarily the case. If you leave without collecting any business cards from anyone else, how are you supposed to contact them? If they have your contact info and you don’t have theirs, who has the upper hand? That means the ball is in their court to contact you, which may or may not happen.

3. Know exactly what’s happening in your business’ Supply Chain Process

In my entrepreneurship program, I have to take a course called “supply chain management”. Do you think I knew what that was? Absolutely not! I thought it had to do with places like staples that supply items for other businesses, which yes it is, but it’s so much more than that. Essentially, it’s about the process of creating your product or service and all of the little steps involved. And when I say little, I mean EVERY LITTLE STEP. You used a piece of tape to package a box for shipment? That’s part of the supply chain. You need a specific type of paper to create your journals? Again, that’s another part of it.

The reason it’s important as a business owner to know everything about your supply chain process is so you can know exactly what amount of money is going into a product from beginning to end. This is relevant, of course, in figuring out how to make a profit while still keeping things at a reasonable price. I can’t go into super specific details, as it’s only the first week, but I do know that it’s important to have control of the finances in your business, which is why supply chain management is so important.

4. A Handshake is more than just a handshake

In one of my classes this week, we did one of those icebreaker introduce yourself exercises. Sounds pretty generic, right? It was, except our prof insisted that she needed to shake each of our hands in the process. Some people were pretty weirded out by it, while others like myself hardly noticed. Afterwards, however, she pointed out in a general sense that most of us had strong handshakes while others needed a lot of work. This was strange, as your handshake isn’t really something you tend to think much about in everyday life, but isn’t it so true that a handshake can tell a lot about a person during that small first impression window of meeting someone?

When shaking hands with someone, here are a couple of tips I learned during this exercise. A firm grip is preferable over one of those handshakes where someone holds out two fingers (isn’t that so awkward?! Omg I’ve had that happen to me a few too many times). Eye contact, squaring your shoulders with the person, and smiling are amongst other qualities of a good handshake that were mentioned.

5. It is absolutely possible to make friends as an adult

You guys! After the past year of having pretty much no one around except my boyfriend, I finally am developing somewhat of a girl group at school! Maybe I’m fangirling a bit too much about this, but it’s so exciting to me to have a group of girls to eat lunch with and do group projects with – we even have a WhatsApp group chat! And yes, I am in college again, so I suppose it’s again one of those places that make it a bit easier to make friends, but it happened so organically that I’m not even sure college had a lot to do with it.

We’re all entrepreneurs and we’re in the same class. But perhaps if we had met at a networking event or something like that we would have hit it off there too. The point is that I’m 23 years old and I’m starting to develop new friendships, so it is absolutely doable. That’s a crazy exciting epiphany for me!

6. You need to be comfortable with criticism if you’re going to be successful as an entrepreneur

Criticism has always been like my arch nemesis, both giving and receiving. I have a very difficult time not taking things personally and I hate saying things to others that they might take personally. It’s a double edged sword. That being said, I’m fully aware of the importance of being able to handle giving and receiving criticism as an entrepreneur. There will be a day when I have to manage other employees. There will be a time even sooner when I’m pitching my business ideas to investors, who will absolutely tell me exactly what they think, what they like, and what they don’t like.

These concepts are terrifying. Luckily, I’m currently in college where my professors encourage us to practice in a safe space. We’re required to work in a group not of our choosing and give in-person peer evaluations to each person in the group on a weekly basis. I was extremely uncomfortable with this activity at first, probably because I grew up in this millennial generation where teachers always sugar-coated things for us growing up (for instance, whenever I’ve had to do a peer-evaluation it was always written anonymously). But that’s not how the real world works. There’s an entire generation of us who aren’t prepared to handle criticism, which is why I think activities like this are so important and relevant, especially within an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

7. Entrepreneurial traits for the most part can be learned

There’s a lot of debate going around about whether the common traits of successful entrepreneurs can be learned or not. The verdict by professionals in the industry, however, is that for the most part these traits can be learned. This was interesting as I was among those who believe you either have what it takes or you don’t. Among some of the top traits successful entrepreneurs tend to possess are a tolerance for ambiguity, a drive to achieve success, persistence and perseverance, personable, and an ability to be a critical thinker.

8. We weren’t given strict deadlines in school for no reason

Have you ever actually thought about what deadlines mean in the real world? Maybe this is just me, but I never made the connection between our teachers giving us strict deadlines growing up and what that would teach us for when we step out into the workforce. I honestly thought they were just being hard-asses!

One of my profs used an example to explain this that really got me thinking. If a bakery owner takes an order for a cake to be ready for Saturday at 2pm for a little boy’s birthday party, and then at 1:30 calls the mom who ordered the cake to tell her that she won’t have it ready in time, what are the implications? It’s more than just a failing grade on a test. It’s a little boy’s dream of having a Pikachu cake for his 5th birthday crushed! Now the mother has to run around last minute to find a grocery store cake which her kid may or may not like (you know how kids are lol).

Okay, so maybe it’s not the end of the world. But those are real life implications impacting real people because that one person didn’t meet their deadline. It causes a lot of stress for everyone involved. In order for the world to function properly, we need to have discipline and we need to have deadlines. No matter how large or small the issue, we as entrepreneurs must make sure we’re setting and meeting deadlines. Otherwise our businesses aren’t going to succeed in the ways that we probably want them to.

9. We’re not always going to like the people we work with and they’re not always going to like us

Going back to the group I was assigned (which I don’t think has happened since I was like 14). There’s a reason my prof assigned us groups to work with instead of allowing us to choose our groups. As an entrepreneur, it’s likely that we’ll have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals, some of whom we may like and others of whom we won’t so much. We need to learn to work with anyone, regardless of whether we want to be their best friend or not.

10. I’m finally excited about the path that I’m on!

This one is more personal, but it feels so great to finally be on the right path! I’m actually excited to wake up early in the morning and get to work on building my business. That’s something I haven’t been able to say, like, ever. It’s been a long road, but I feel like I’ve finally found my passion, and it’s an amazing feeling!

If you had told me a year ago that I would be this happy in a year, I would have laughed and then cried because that’s how shit things were at this time last year (pretty sure I had just gotten back from PEI after having a meltdown and loosing my housing so it wasn’t a good time to say the least). Every decision I’ve made up to this point has led me down this path, and I don’t have any regrets about either the good times or the hardships. They’ve made me who I am today, and I’m proud to be that person.

The takeaway…

Overall, my first week at school was a successful one. I’m incredibly glad to have chosen an entrepreneurship college certificate. This is exactly what I need to get my business off the ground and learn important skills along the way.

What is your number one tip for entrepreneurs who are just starting out? Let’s get a conversation started in the comments to support each other through this process. I’d love to hear your thoughts! Also, have you heard about our brand new membership? The Society is for the woman who is driven, ambitious and wants to find success in all areas of life. If this sounds like you, then you need to head over there to check it out! We’re looking forward to having you join our fabulous community.

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