Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas

In my last post I talked a little about my future as a teacher, but I left out where I was going for teacher’s college. At the time I hadn’t even heard back from all the schools, but last night I received my last letter and sent in my acceptance. If you have a minute or two, I’ll tell you the story of it all.

The application process started at the beginning of November when I applied to five schools: Toronto, Queens, Western, York, and Ottawa (in that order of preference). Each cost about $100, but I wanted to apply to enough schools so that I would have at least somewhere to go to. Next I had to send to each university personal experience profiles, which was made difficult by procrastination and food poisoning. By the time they were due I had done all of them but York’s, as it was insanely long. Thus in short time I was down to four possible schools.

When January arrived, I started thinking about Donning at U of T. I decided to only apply to Don at U of T since it was the school I most wanted to go to, and it was also the easiest to travel to for interviews. When I finally did check into the due dates for the applications, I found out that one of them was due the very next day (for Victoria University). So I quickly put together my application (yes, partly on the bus down), and went to Toronto to hand in the application, as well as hang out with Amie.

The next time I went to Toronto was to hand in another application (yes partly done on the bus) for UC (another college at U of T), which coincided with my carousel interview. I also was able to hang out with Trish at the ROM, which I consider one on the best adventures of this term. I should mention that each time I went down to Toronto, I made sure to involve something fun with it. I knew that I would be going to Toronto a lot, and the last thing I wanted was to regret putting all this time and effort into something that I was rejected from in the end (be it from teacher’s college or Donning).

My next few trips to Toronto still provided adventure. I went to my Sister [in law’s] baby shower, and I got to go see a deaf magician, which was an adventure in itself and which I might as well share with you now.

After my personal interview for Victoria, I was going to meet Tricia to see a deaf magician (or more importantly, a magician presenting to a deaf crowd). I didn’t realize how long it would take to ride the subway to the bus stop I needed to go to, so when I arrived to wait for my bus, I only had about five minutes to get to the show.

Luckily (or at least I thought), at the bus stop was a man who pointed out that the bus we were waiting for just left and that the next wouldn’t come for a while (I think he said 20 minutes). I wasn’t exactly sure how far I had to run, but I figured I might be able to beat 20 minutes, and since I was going to be late anyway, I figured I had to at least try.

So I said goodbye and started my run. I ran as hard as could with my fairly stuffed backpack and dress shoes still on. For motivation, as I ran past houses, I yelled out the house number (usually preceded by some profanity), and made a little motivational song out of it. As I ran, I kept an eye out for passing buses because the last thing I wanted was to see that I pick the wrong choice. Finally, about 15 minutes into my painful run, I did see a bus pass me by, and inside I saw a man who looked a little confused at me (I didn’t have my glasses on, but he had large mannerisms). I quickly realized that this was the man who I had talked to at the bus shelter, so I gave him a wave, and he gave me an encouraging wave back.

I finally got to the centre in a massive ball of sweat, where I quickly changed into cleaner, less offensive clothing. I proceed to watch the show, where I realized that I was amongst a group a people who I couldn’t communicate with. This is what led to my current desire to learn sign language; at least to learn enough so that if I had to exchange information with someone that was deaf, I could.

Anyway, I’m getting way off topic.

Clearly I was making sure to have fun with the applications, and when they were all done, I just had to wait to hear back from them.

I first heard back from UC, who rejected me. This was really hard for me to swallow, not because I was shocked, just because I really wanted to be a Don next year, and I had assumed that Victoria, since they hadn’t got back to me by then, probably had also rejected me. Surprisingly, my rejection from UC was one of the best things that happened to me during the Don application process. It made me realize that my current residents might be my last, and if I had anything that I wanted to get done, I would have to do it soon. So I quickly squeezed in all my remaining plans, and made sure I wouldn’t leave Donning with any regrets.

Two days after I got rejected from UC I got accepted to be a Don at Victoria. I was VERY excited, but my rejection from UC taught me that I should never assume that things will work out, so I kept my excitement as much to myself as possible, and decided to celebrate when I got accepted to U of T.

By April 2nd, I found myself on the eve of hearing news from teacher’s colleges. I went to hang out with Donkers and Jordan, and we watched Lord of the Rings, while every 20 minutes stopping it to see if Donkers or I got into teacher’s college. That night I found out that Ottawa accepted me, which was great to hear since I at least knew then that I was going somewhere next year.

By Tuesday I found out that Queens and Western also accepted me; all I had left to hear from was Toronto, which I didn’t finally hear from until the following Monday (yesterday). When I opened my rejection letter, I felt at least relieved to have an answer from Toronto. I was also angry with Toronto, as I had assumed that I would be accepted to the school, and was insulted that I wasn’t.

I was upset, but I knew what I had to do. I accepted my application to Queens and emailed Victoria to let them know that I really appreciated their offer, but with greatest regrets, I had to leave the Don position. They emailed me back, and told me that they were sorry to hear the news, and to reapply if anything changed. It was nice to hear, but I knew that nothing was going to change.

Of all the schools I applied to, Queens, was my favourite, but Toronto held so much that I wouldn’t get from the other schools. The programming plans I had made for Donning in Victoria had to be abandoned, and the people and places there that I wanted to see would no longer be sharing time with me. But at least I could be satisfied with the idea that my date with Toronto just might have to wait until another year, when I can experience Friday nights at the ROM, and one of the meanest (in a good way) public transit systems the country has to offer.

I could go on about Toronto, but there would be no good point to that. Instead my thoughts are with Kingston now, and how I will spend my time there. I figure that even though one opportunity passed me by, there are still many opportunities ahead of me, and I just have to put enough effort into finding them. For now, I’ll keep those plans with Queens to myself, but I will let you know if anything particularly interesting develops.

In the mean time, I leave you with a picture of the new shield I will be wearing come September.