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meliaaizawa · 3 years

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TRAINING CAMP FINAL

Stole some ideas from Hunter x Hunter and Classroom of the Elite. Tried not to make it too long... but maybe I didn’t make it long enough??🤔

*Mei’s POV*

The first semester of our third year has finally finished, which means it’s summer break! The last couple of semesters have been especially difficult for our whole class, as we had to go through the loss of our classmate and friend Oboro Shirakumo. Despite this, we’ve all managed to keep moving forward and become more like the heroes we want to be. Since it’s our last year of school, Ushiwaka-sensei had an announcement in regards to our final summer break. “This semester, your final exam will take place during a training camp for the third-year hero students. Therefore, the camp is required this year. This is your last training camp before you enter the real world, so I suggest you make the most of it! Class is dismissed!!” he said.

I walked out of the class with my friend Shota, and Hizashi came to join us, coming up from behind and wrapping his arms around our two shoulders. “So!!! Are you two party animals ready for the camp or what?!? Not like you need even MORE training due to your schedule these past few semesters!” he said, as Shota shrugged Hizashi’s arm off his shoulder. “No thanks. Summer break is my break from not just school, but from classmates as well,” Shota replied. I rolled my eyes. “What about you, Hizashi? Are you excited for the training camp??” I asked, not minding his arm still around my shoulder. “You already know!!! Nemuri told me all about her training camp last year... good food, hot springs, and babes!! How could I say no to all that?!” he exclaimed, getting excited at the thought of it. “Easily,” Shota replied, unamused. I turned to our gloomy friend. “With both your perspectives of the camp aside, I think Ushiwaka-sensei is right! This will be another great learning experience.. and with us graduating in less than a year, I think we all could use more training!” I said. “Plus he said it’s going to include our final exam... which means you can’t skip out on it!” Hizashi said to Shota as we approached the lockers, where we grabbed our stuff before heading to our homes.

Before we knew it, the first day of training camp was among us, and we were told that the school would provide all we need. We just needed to wear our hero costumes. I stood in the U.A. parking lot near the bus as more and more of our classmates showed up. The kids from class B showed up as well. I talked among the girls in our class, keeping an eye on all who were showing up. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed Shota approaching... he was wearing the latest version of his costume, which I helped design. I did some dabbling in the support lab during my free time after school, so I ended up being responsible for a lot of the costumes of my classmates. “Hello?? Earth to Mei!!” I heard my friend Noki saying. “Oh, um, what?” I asked her, realizing all my friends were staring at me now. I had apparently zoned out. “Girl, you were totally checking Aizawa out... you need to get this crush of yours handled, or you won’t be able to focus on camp!!” she teased. I had been teased for liking Aizawa for years now, so I have mastered the art of defending myself. “I literally designed his costume... I was just looking to see how it looked on him,” I replied. ...well... *almost* mastered it... my comment only fueled their fire. Thankfully, Hizashi came to my rescue and flirtatiously said, “hello, ladies, how are we doing this fineeee morning???” And with that, he managed to make all the ladies disappear as I laughed at him. Our attention was soon drawn to our teacher, who was making an announcement now that everyone was here.

“Alright, students... good morning. Before we get on the bus I want to explain what is going on this year, as it is different from any other camp we’ve held before. As I mentioned, the next three weeks will be your final exam. I have assigned each student a partner based on my observations of you for the past two years. The assignments are mostly based on compatibility, both in regards to quirk and personality. Each pair will draw the name of another team. Your goal will be to capture one member of the other team, and keep them as a hostage for the remaining time of the three weeks. Keep in mind that another team has your name and will be trying to capture you as well, so you must be wary... No one will know who has whose team. Additionally, you will have to survive on the land. We are going to a wooded island, so there is no way you will stray out of bounds. The only exit is the bridge that we will be crossing. I should also mention that there are cameras throughout the premises so we can track all of your progress. We will grade you based on what we see. Are there any questions?” Ushiwaka-sensei asked after his explanation of the exercise.

Ikari, the smartest guy of the class raised his hand. “Yes, sensei... how does this help us become heroes??” he asked with a lisp in his voice. Ushiwaka-Sensei nodded. “Good question... you never know what missions you’ll face once your a pro... this exercise will help you learn how to track people, which will come in handy for future search and rescue missions. Additionally, you’ll learn teamwork, how to survive off the land, and how to be stealthy in the ways you avoid your predators and search for your prey... now, we’ll announce the teams. I suggest you sit with your partner on the bus and begin strategizing how to proceed once we arrive at the island,” he continued before stepping aside and letting the class B teacher announce the pairs. “Yamada and Sensoji... Amiyagi and Aizawa... Iwasaki and Nakamura...” As he continued to list them, I tuned out after hearing my name... paired up with Shota?! Not surprising. Ushiwaka-sensei probably paired us together since we have been training together a lot.. but three weeks alone with him? Why was I so nervous?

*Shota’s POV*

Three weeks with just Mei? I looked over at her, but she seemed to be deep in thought as sensei finished his list. “Alright. You will draw the names of your targets once we arrive. Now it’s time to get on the bus,” he said as the door to the bus flew open. I turned again to Mei, who was now walking towards me. “Well... you down for sitting together? We can start to plan our strategy,” she said, to which I nodded. “That would be smart,” I replied, simply. We got on the bus and soon began strategizing. “First off, what’s your second quirk right now?” I asked, knowing she would never replace cloud as one of her two copied quirks. “Somnambulist... I saw Nemuri the other evening and copied her quirk... not sure why I wanted to, but in hindsight it’s the perfect quirk for this. I can just cause our hostage to sleep once we find them,” she replied, both of us speaking lowly so our neighbors wouldn’t overhear. The bus ride was a few hours long, and we managed to talk for the first half of it. The second half I don’t remember, as I fell asleep without realizing it. I woke up when the bus stopped, and noticed my head resting on something... or... someone. I sat up straight and noticed Mei had fallen asleep against my shoulder, and my head had been resting on her head. As I sat up, she sat up too, startled slightly. “Er- it looks like we’re here,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck... a stupid habit I can’t help but do when I’m nervous.

All of us students got out of the bus and circled around our teachers. “Now then... time to draw who you’ll be hunting. Send one from your team to pick the names,” Ushiwaka-sensei said. I gave Mei a look and a nod, which she understood and went up to pick the names from the box. When she came back, she unwrapped the paper in between us. It read, “Tamashi and Yasumori.” *This will be fun* I thought to myself. “Right. Now that everyone has their targets, I will start the clock. You’ll have 24 hours before you’re permitted to capture someone. We are giving you a bundle containing a water canteen, some first aid supplies, a blanket, and a knife... the rest of the supplies you’ll have to forge on your own. Ready, set, GO!” he called. With that, Mei and I grabbed a bundle of supplies before she created a cloud and hopped on it, offering me her hand and pulling me up on it behind her. It was definitely the fastest form of transportation, a good way to get a headstart.

*Day 1, Mei’s POV*

Shota and I flew for a few minutes over the trees. We couldn’t see the edge of the island, it was huge, but we were able to get a bit of an idea of the surrounding area. I could feel myself getting strained from carrying two people on my cloud, and I began to feel dizzy. “Sho... sorry, but we’re gonna have to land, I’m maxed out,” I said. He nodded and said, “alright... try and land us in the middle of those trees.” He pointed towards a group of trees with his free hand, the other one holding onto my shoulder so he didn’t fly off. I nodded in acknowledgement, lowering our altitude and landing on the ground just before my cloud disappeared. “Whew, I’m beat,” I said, sitting down on the grass. “Now’s not the time to sit... we only have an hour or so before sunset, we have to set up camp... and find some food and water,” he said, looking up. “Doesn’t look like it’s gonna rain, so I guess we don’t have to make a shelter,” he continued. I nodded. “I think I saw a clearing in the trees a bit that way, which means there’s probably a stream. I’m gonna go see if I can get some water,” I said, taking the empty water canteen with me. I was able to find the clear running stream and filled up the canteen before heading back to Shota. When I returned, he had a pile of apples. “Found an apple tree not too far from here,” he said, throwing me one. I took a bite before sitting down across from him. “For the first two weeks I think we should focus on survival and stealth... there’s no point in hauling a hostage around for more time than we need,” he said, and I agreed. “We should also be sure to take turns sleeping, one of us should keep watch at all times,” I added. The sun looked like it was getting ready to set. “But since the hunt technically hasn’t started, I guess we can both sleep tonight,” I added before laying down on the soft grass, looking at the sky through the trees. “Here,” Shota said, tossing me the blanket. “I don’t need this,” he said, leaning himself against a tree and shutting his eyes. I smiled lightly at the gesture as I rolled it up and rested my head on it before drifting off to sleep.

*Day 6, Shota’s POV*

It’s day 6 now, and somehow Mei and I have managed to avoid contact with our classmates. We don’t know who has our names, so we are just trying to avoid everyone the best we can. We are sure to move around each night, never camping in the same spot twice. During the day, I try to use my capture weapon to catch rabbits and fish, while Mei floats on her cloud nearby, scouting the area for fresh water and any classmates that may be nearby... having her cloud quirk around has proven to be useful. We’ve also managed to make a successful fire whenever we need one. Apparently Shirakumo was a Cub Scout in elementary school, so he taught Mei how to make a fire a long time ago, and thankfully she still remembers how. The two of us have also managed to get along well, surprisingly... I figured having someone around me all the time would get on my nerves, but it really hasn’t. I have the first shift of watch tonight, and though I am always supposed to be looking out for any intruders... sometimes I catch myself just watching Mei as she sleeps. She just looks so peaceful.

*Day 12, Mei’s POV*

It’s been over a week, and Shota and I are still trudging along. Yesterday we ran into Yamada and his partner, but they didn’t seem to bother us, besides checking to make sure we were doing ok... I don’t think they have our names, or else they would’ve captured us then and there, as they are more powerful than us. I cant believe it’s almost been 2 weeks though... time has been flying by, honestly. We’re going to have to get serious soon about finding Tamashi and Yasumori, though. They’ll be a bit difficult to catch, but I’m sure Shota and I can do it. As I was returning to our “camp” with a fistful of berries, I heard one of the things I’m most afraid of... thunder... I’ve always been afraid of thunderstorms, but being outside in one was even scarier. I rushed to Shota’s side. “What’s wrong? Did you run into someone?” he asked, noticing I came to him in a rush. “Oh... no, I didn’t... I just heard some thunder... we should really make some kind of shelter,” I said, laying the berries down and looking around frantically. Shota looked concerned and nodded. “Good idea... let’s get some sticks and build a roof, cover it with leaves, and cover it all with the blanket.. that should help with the rain,” he said. I nodded and wordlessly began gathering sticks, branches with leaves, and whatever else I could find to create a roof. We made one in between two close trees just in time for the rain to start. I hid underneath it, with Shota right beside me. “Ok, you can sleep first,” he said, ready to keep watch. “Uhh, ok, sure,” I said, feeling my heart beat fast with fear. *Some kind of hero I am... afraid of thunderstorms* I thought to myself, knowing I wouldn’t be able to make myself fall asleep anytime soon. A huge bolt of lighting lit up the sky, followed by a loud clap of thunder. Instinctively, I jumped, and realized I had grabbed Shota’s arm beside me. I held onto it tightly, as if my life depended on it. “Are you ok?” he asked. I closed my eyes. “I’m.. I’m just a bit afraid of thunderstorms,” I said, trying not to let him feel my hands trembling as they held onto his arm. To my surprise, he didn’t shove me away, but simply said, “get some sleep.” Holding onto his arm and hearing his voice put me at ease, and I eventually fell asleep, leaning against him with my head on his shoulder.

*Day 15, Shota’s POV*

With the final week underway, Mei and I have switched out tactics slightly. We have been on the search for Yasumori and Tamashi. We’ve discovered many of the other teams... just not our target yet. I heard voices coming towards us from up ahead, so I snuck over to see who it was. Looked like it was Kawara and a guy from class B. I turned to signal to Mei that someone was coming... but didn’t see her. Once Kawara and her teammate passed by my hiding spot, I got up and headed back to where I last saw Mei. “Mei?!” I whispered. *Don’t tell me* I thought to myself. *They must’ve captured her...* I looked around to find any signs of a captor. I saw a pair of large footsteps, much larger than Mei’s feet would be. *I’ll just go in that direction* I thought, using my capture weapon to swing through the trees as quietly as possible. Why was my heart beating so hard? It’s not like she was captured by real villains or anything. I followed the footsteps for quite some time until I saw the culprit up ahead. It was the largest guy in the class, Andrei, and over his shoulder was my unconscious partner. I quickly pulled my goggles over my eyes and erased his quirk as I approached him. I swung in front of him and used my momentum to land a hard kick in his stomach. I knocked him over and he dropped Mei, causing her to roll across the hard ground. I knew Andrei was stronger than me, so before he had the chance to retaliate, I wrapped my capture weapon around Mei and strapped her to my back before using the remaining length of my scarf to swing away. Once we were far enough away, I landed near a tree and set Mei down. She was still out, so I examined her face. Looked like Andrei hit her pretty hard on the head, which must’ve knocked her out... there was a nasty bruise on her forehead. Thankfully it was almost nighttime, so the dark would soon cover us from the enemy. Due to our quick getaway, I was an idiot and lost all our supplies. With Mei injured like this, I wanted to keep her head elevated, so I rested it on my lap since there was no blanket. *What am I doing? Why am I caring about her this much? Don’t be irrational. If you care about her, it’ll only make losing her harder* I reasoned with myself as I stroked her long purple hair. Though she hasn’t bathed in two weeks, her hair was still so soft.

*Day 19, Mei’s POV*

We almost lost... one of our hunters almost captured me.. well, did capture me... but Shota managed to save me. I don’t remember everything that happened, nor will Sho tell me the details... We have really been roughing it over the past few days since we lost our stuff, though. On the bright side, we managed to find our targets. Tamashi’s quirk allows her to read people’s aura, so we have tried to keep our distance as we’ve been trailing them. We just have to ambush them when they don’t expect it. Shota will erase their quirks and I’ll fly in and make them sleep and carry Tamashi off on a cloud. It’s simple, really, but we are waiting for the perfect moment. The sun was getting ready to set when our two opponents stopped walking. They seemed to be stopping for the night, as they were gathering up sticks to start a fire. “Ok, now’s our chance,” I heard Shota whisper as he lowered his goggles over his eyes. I followed suit and pulled mine down as well. “I’m ready,” I said, jumping out of the tree we were hiding in and landing on a cloud, flying towards our target. Shota erased both their quirks from his position, and I swooped in. Before they could react, I used my somnambulist to make them both sleep as I grabbed Tamashi and pulled her onto the cloud with me. Yasumori was left in the dust, fast asleep. I smiled at the success of our plan as I flew back to where Shota was. I rested for a moment before making a cloud again, just for Tamashi this time. We walked and I floated her alongside us until we found a spot to camp for the night, a safe distance away. Shota tied her up with his scarf and bound up her mouth as well, in case she woke up.

*The final day, Shota’s POV*

Our prisoner hasn’t caused us much trouble, and we have managed to avoid her partner. We had one close call, but Mei was able to cast a large cloud around us and we were able to escape. We haven’t stopped moving for long since capturing Tamashi... we’ve come this far, and I wasn’t about to let Mei get captured again, nor let our prisoner escape. Tamashi was strapped to my back and we were walking when I heard the speaker on a nearby hidden camera make an announcement. “Time is up! All students please proceed to the rendezvous point where we arrived. If you don’t remember the direction, you will see a bright spotlight in the sky to indicate where it is,” the voice over the speaker said. “Well... it’s all over!! I guess we can let her go now that the time is up,” Mei suggested. I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so,” I said, pulling out the knife and slicing the scarf that bound our captive. “Oh my WORD, thank you!!” she exclaimed as she stretched. “Don’t mention it,” I said as I turned to the direction I knew the bridge to be and started walking that way.

*Mei’s POV*

It has been a long three weeks... I’ve been sleep and food deprived, I haven’t taken a bath, and my body and quirk have been used past their limits. I am exhausted... yet I am sad that the three weeks are over. Despite all the difficulties, they didn’t seem that bad since I was with Shota the whole time... Tamashi mentioned him caring for me, and after seeing the many ways he helped me over the past few weeks, I sort of believe her. These thoughts all swam through my head as we approached where the bus was still parked, and our two teachers stood with a long picnic table covered with food. All our other classmates were eating already, so we joined. After the rest of the students arrived and joined us in eating, Ushiwaka-sensei spoke up. “Alright.. great job this past week, students! I have all your grades and I am pleased to say most of you passed the exam. I will go over the breakdown of scores when we arrive at the school. Until then, gather up your things and board the bus! It’s time to go home,” he announced. I climbed aboard and found myself in the same seat I sat in on the trip here. Shota boarded the bus as well, and stopped right in front of where I was sitting, as if debating whether to take the seat next to me or not. I gave him a small reassuring grin, but he just looked at me with a straight face and continued going down the aisle, finding an empty seat by itself and sitting in it.

#aizawa x oc #shota aizawa #bnha #fanfic #training camp #aizawa shouta #meizawa

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atleasttheresthis · 4 years

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Project Partners (Song x Katara)

Happy day two of ATLA wlw week! This one is for the academia AU.

content warning: alcohol

@atla-wlw-week

"So, in conclusion, you and your partner will research one new surgical or oncological technique from the last five years on any of the cancer types I've included here. You'll have three weeks to complete the project." Professor Pakku pauses, lifts his eyes from his notes and turns them on the horde of bleary eyed, eight am lecture suckers in front of him. "Any questions?"

Song, who is just as tired and out of it as the rest of her classmates at 8:30 on a Monday, studies the powerpoint slide in front of her, struggling to write down all the project requirements before Professor Pakku moves on from the assignment and starts the day's lecture.

"Before you ask, Taedo," the Professor is saying from the front of the room, "no, I will not accept any late papers. If you would have read the syllabus I distributed at the beginning of the semester instead of no-doubt chucking into the garbage as I'm sure you did, you would know my policy on late assignments."

Song grins to herself as Taedo slumps down in his seat. Pakku is something of a hardass, but since Song mostly keeps to herself and stays out of his way, she's never had a problem with him. Besides, his course on cancer treatment was super popular among the pre-med and nursing students. It would take a lot more than verbal abuse to get Song to give up her seat in the course. She needed the elective to finish her third year of the nursing program at Ba Singh Se University, and since she wanted to work at a cancer ward after graduating, this course was practically a requirement.

From the front row, Katara pipes up. "You could just put the syllabus online."

Pakku sighs, rubs the bridge of his nose while Song rolls her eyes. For the entire semester, Katara seems to have made it her mission to make the Professor's life difficult, and it drives Song crazy.

"I suppose I could, but my ancient and old-fashioned ways make it quite difficult for me to use the computer, or so you told me in class last week." Even from her spot in the middle of the room, Song can hear Katara harumph.

"Any other questions?" Professor Pakku asks, then sighs when Katara shoves her hand into the air. "Yes, Katara?"

"I've noticed you didn't include the breast as part of the infected areas we could study," she begins, but the professor interrupts her.

"Yes, thank you for proving, yet again, that you know how to read," Pakku says easily. Song winces. Lately she’s found herself unable to focus in this class, devoting her energy instead to either silently cheering on Professor Pakku in his misguided quest to get Katara to be quiet for more than five minutes so he can teach, or silently (always silently) commending Katara as she points out Pakku’s rampant sexism. Their relationship confuses the shit out of her, and while right now she finds herself inclined to defend the student (because wow, that was a really asshole thing to say, Professor), she thinks both of them go way too far.

Either way, it’s threatening to wreak havoc on her GPA.

Unaffected by Pakku’s rudeness, Katara presses the point. “That’s sexist,” she says bluntly, and Song finds herself nodding. “We should be able to study whatever cancers we want to. Just because you want to ignore all the stuff that only affects women doesn’t mean we want to.” She stops for a moment, considers. “Also, will we be able to pick our own partners?"

Pakku seems to have lost his temper. "You know what, just for that, everyone else gets to pick their partners, except for you. You will be paired with," he stops, consults the class list on his podium. "Song Ma."

Um, what? Song lets out a breath, unable to believe her shit luck. Everyone in the course turns around to stare at each other, wondering who the unlucky girl is until they catch Song's face. She knows she's got a completely disbelieving, what the fuck look on, so much so that Pakku actually smiles when his eyes catch hers. He gives her a small shrug, evil grin totally upstaging his non-apology. "Good luck," he adds helpfully.

Katara sniffs, turns back around in her chair. Song resigns herself to the inevitable. It's obvious there's no getting out of this one.

***

Song finds Katara waiting in the hallway after class. Slugging her backpack over one shoulder, Song steps forward and introduces herself. "Hi. I'm Song." She briefly considers holding out a hand, then stops herself, raising it to stifle a yawn instead.

"I know," Katara says snobbishly. Jesus, this is going to be like pulling teeth, isn't it? Biting back a rude reply in kind, Song asks "do you have any ideas for what you want to research?"

"I want to research the use of dye to identify positive lymph nodes in breast cancer patients," Katara says immediately, and Song sighs. "Look, I know you're apparently cool with being on Pakku's bad side, but I don't need a shitty grade on this report because you can't pick your battles and have to stick it to the man whenever you have the chance." Katara looks a bit surprised by her outburst. Whatever. Song's grade is on the line, she's not going to risk it for some girl with a death wish, even if she is really pretty, skin somehow looking shiny and gorgeous even under the fluorescent lights of the hallway.

"I'll talk to Pakku," Katara offers begrudgingly. "See if he'll officially allow us to go beyond the project parameters."

"Fine, go ahead," Song relinquishes. Katara hadn't asked if she had any ideas, but whatever. "Your funeral."

Katara cracks a smile. "Is that okay, or did you want to research something else?"

Song is so surprised by Katara's thoughtfulness, by her apparent ability to reach into Song's head and pluck out her inner monologue, that she merely shakes her head. That's alright, though. Lymph nodes are fascinating enough.

"Cool," Katara says. "I'll swing by his office hours today and let you know how it goes." Song nods, watches Katara walk away, and realizes she never even gave the other girl her phone number.

Oh well. They have three weeks to work it out, and she'll see Katara in class on Wednesday.

Song shrugs to herself, walks out of the biology department toward the squashy chairs on the ground floor of the science building to get some reading done before her next class.

Later that day, when she's studying with her housemate Bohei after lunch, an email pops up on her phone.

Hey Song,

I talked to Pakku, he'll let us do the breast cancer project without deducting anything from our grade.

Let's find a time to talk soon so we can figure out how we should divide the work. I can handle the research part of it if you want to handle the conclusion and summary.

-Katara

Song is furious. Why is Katara relegating her to the easy stuff? Doesn't she think Song can do good work?

"What's wrong?" Bohei, one of her housemates, asks from across the table. Song reads her the email. "Isn't that the stuck up girl that's always getting into fights with the professor? Sucks that you're paired with her."

"The professor put us together," Song explains. "Ugh. Why won't she let me do the work on this project? I'm smart, I can handle a research paper!"

"I actually think you're in a golden situation," Bohei says, reaching over to snag a few of Song's chips from an open bag on the table. "Just let her do all the work, if she cares about it so much you'll probably get a good grade, free A for the project."

Song shakes her head. "No, I want to help, I can do it. Why doesn't she think I can help?"

"Why do you care?" Bohei counters, raising an eyebrow. A great question, but Song is not in the mood for self-reflection.

"I, I don't," Song splutters. "I don't care, I just, I just don't think it's fair that she's doing all the work alone! And besides, how do I know she'll do a good job?"

"Okay," Bohei says, giving Song a look that says she knows what a flimsy excuse that is. Why does Song care what Katara thinks of her? She's just some know-it-all who can't leave well enough alone. Song emails her back, tells her she's free for dinner, and gets a reply a few minutes later that Katara will meet her at the dining hall. Song tries to push the other girl out of her mind, turning back to her chemistry notes.

It's no use. By the time dinner rolls around, Song is simmering with indignation over Katara's assumption that she couldn't help with the project. She packs up her stuff, trying to tune out Bohei's pointed questions (the other girl had gotten over her instinct to leave Song alone about it and has instead spent the rest of the afternoon asking if Song likes Katara, like, like-likes Katara???) and begrudgingly makes her way over to the dining hall. After swiping her school ID to get in, she sees Katara at a table with a plate of food. Sighing, resigning herself to a confrontation, Song heads over there, dropping her bag onto an empty seat.

"Hey," she says, monotone, and Katara looks up. "Hi," she says back, a bit startled, but Song's not exactly giving her the best attitude.

"How was your day," Song asks rhetorically, and Katara raises an eyebrow but whatever, Song is just being polite.

"It was okay," Katara answers, tossing some of her long brown hair over her shoulder. Song likes it this way, better than when she puts it in the long braid that snakes down her back. "How was yours?"

An awkward moment, where Song has lost herself staring at Katara's hair. She realizes the other girl has asked her a question, and gives herself a shake. "It was fine too," she answers quickly.

"Do you want to get a plate before we start working?" Katara asks.

Song agrees, gets up to scour the dining options for something to eat. She ends up with a bowl of pasta, some carrots, and a glass of water. Reaching Katara again and sitting back down, Song pulls her laptop and notebook out of her bag before spearing a piece of pasta and angrily throwing it into her mouth.

Katara, oblivious this time to her anger, has gotten out a laptop of her own. "So, I already made a google doc, I'm sharing it with you now," she says, and Song moves to check her email, loading the document on her screen. "Like I said, I can handle the research part and you can do the conclusion, is that okay?" Katara asks, not even looking up from her computer.

Song takes a deep breath. "No, it's not really okay," she answers in a rush. That makes Katara look up. "I can help with the research part too, I think I can handle it," she says drily. "I just don't think it's fair for you to do so much of the work," she tacks hurriedly, wanting Katara to think she's doing this for more noble reasons than wanting the other girl to think she's smart.

"Oh, it's okay, I don't mind doing the work," Katara brushes Song off, turning back to the laptop.

Song groans internally. "Katara. I can help. I want to do some of the work on this project, it's my grade too," she reminds her.

Katara looks at her skeptically. "Alright," she concedes finally. "Here, want to look over some of the sources I've already gathered?"

Song takes another bite, nodding. They spend the rest of the evening compiling journal articles and studies on the use of dye to identify positive and negative lymph nodes in the armpit. It's not half as bad as Song thought it might be, both girls are focused on the work, and after an hour and a half they have enough to start working on the paper. Song drafts a preliminary outline, which Katara approves of after making only one or two small changes, and then they call it a night, agreeing to meet up again later that week. Song packs up her bag feeling good, they got work done. And she's definitely proved to Katara that she's smart enough to hold her own. Not that she cares about any of that.

***

As the week goes on, Song finds herself enjoying her study sessions with Katara more than she'd like to admit. For all her sharp edges in class, she's surprisingly laid back when she talks with Song. She's got a sharp sense of humor, and the way she vivisects Pakku and some of the other asshole idiots in their class causes Song to nearly pitch a fit. About the work itself, she's pretty anal, but Song's own standards are exacting themselves, so it's not like she can complain.

They meet again on Wednesday, but it's on Friday that Katara tells her that she's pre-med and plans to become a breast cancer surgeon. Her mother died of breast cancer, and she wants to work so other people don't suffer like she did. It only seems natural to tell her about her father's fatal car accident, in turn.

"Is that why you want to become a nurse?" Katara asks quietly. She doesn't say she's sorry, and neither does Song. What good would that do?

Song blows out a breath. "Maybe?" she offers. "I don't know. I just know that I'm good at this, I'm good at helping people when they're hurt, and if I can do it, shouldn't I?"

Katara nods. "I understand," she says, and Song gets the feeling that she really does.

***

By Friday night it becomes obvious to both Song and, unfortunately, Song's housemates, that their girl is quickly becoming enraptured with Katara. "What do I do?" Song moans into a chocolate chip cookie that D'wei made to cheer her up.

"I thought she was annoying," he asks, topping up his glass of cheap, Barefoot wine, before handing the bottle to Song.

"No, she's still annoying," Bohei chimes in. The three are sitting in their kitchen, Bohei painting her nails at the table and Song in the chair next to her while D'wei perches himself on the countertop.

"But she's annoying in a hot way," Song whines. She gives herself a generous glass of wine, her third of the evening, then slumps over the table, cheek pressed against the wood.

"Haven't you only met with her like, twice?" D'wei asks. Song opens her mouth to respond, but Bohei beats her to it.

"D'wei, come on. Song's a, you know," and she holds her wrist at shoulder height and bends it so her arm flops over.

Song chuckles, face mashed into the table.

"A what?" D'wei asks, and Bohei rolls her eyes.

"A lesbian," Song mumbles. "Exactly," Bohei says, nudging Song's head with her elbow. "Falling in love inside thirty seconds, that's classic lesbian behavior, you should know that."

"That's our M.O.," Song agrees. "Song's done that four times in the past year and half," Bohei continues.

"And once with a boy, but we don't talk about that," Song says. "But Katara's different, I can tell."

"She's stupid beautiful, I'll give you that," Bohei adds, capping her nail polish and blowing on her nails to dry.

"I know," Song grumbles, shoving the rest of the cookie in her mouth. "How do I tell her I like her?"

Bohei shrugs. "You could play 'girl in red' while you guys study, that will probably clue her in," D'wei suggests.

Song wrinkles her nose. "Too obvious," she answers. "Japanese Breakfast, then?" he asks.

Song thinks on it. "That one might work, actually."

"Hope so, or else you'll just have to pine from afar," Bohei stands up, blowing on her nails to dry them. "Or grow a pair and tell her you like her. Are we watching a movie or not?"

"We're watching," D'wei says decidedly, while Song moans, hopping off the counter and pulling Song into the living room by the wrist. "Don't worry, we'll watch something that's not about romance so you won't feel bad."

Song scoffs but settles herself on the couch between them nonetheless. D'wei's assurance turns out to be a complete lie, and they watch Pride and Prejudice, but whatever, Song's totally not thinking about Katara while the movie plays.

"Hey, Song, do you want Katara to stroll determinedly toward you through the morning mist wearing that exact unbuttoned shirt?"

Shifty silence from Song. "She does! D'wei, she does!"

"It would be super romantic," Song mumbles.

"Holy shit! Dude, you'd better tell her how you feel, or your ovaries will shrivel up!"

Eye roll. "I'm pretty sure you can only say that about people with dicks, Bohei, it's not like Katara's going to get me pregnant."

"But you want her to!"

***

On Friday, the week after their project was assigned, Song blinks the rain out of her eyes, holds her phone to her chest to keep it relatively dry under her bowed head and stares blearily at Google maps. Picking her head up she squints at the street signs, turns left, and then finally spots a sign saying "The Jasmine Dragon" above what looks like a small but cozy shop across the street. Grateful to have finally found the place, after trekking halfway across the city. Song had finished her exam earlier than expected, and with her and Katara's project deadline coming ever closer, she'd texted the other girl to see if she had any free time to work on it right now. Katara had agreed, saying she was studying with some friends at a place called the Jasmine Dragon. So here Song is.

Hurrying into the shop, Song relaxes after getting out of the rain, pulls the hood of her jacket down and snakes her braid out from where it's pressed uncomfortably between her backpack and her shoulder blades. The Jasmine Dragon tea shop is well-lit against the downpour, filled with comfortable armchairs dotting the room in twos and threes, with one long table at the back of the shop. Seated at the table are a few people working quietly by themselves, along with Katara and what must be her friends, working not at all quietly. Katara is sitting next to a boy who looks enough like her to be her brother, along with two people Song doesn't recognize, a boy with a completely bald head and shorter girl next to him. And--

"You!" Song shouts, then looks around herself, embarrassed, as she realizes how loud that was. Blushing a bit, she takes two sharp strides toward the table and says "you!" again, in a much smaller voice.

The boy on Katara's other side, with a nasty burn scar across his face and a Jasmine Dragon employee apron on, mutters "oh, shit," under his breath.

Katara is looking at Song, confused. "Hey Song, this is Zuko. How do you--"

"You're the asshole who stole my bike!" Song says angrily. Bike thief, whose name is apparently Zuko, goes bright red.

The shorter girl across from him lets out a laugh. "Oh man, Zuzu, you have the worst luck!"

"Shut up, Toph," Zuko mutters, eyes anywhere but on Song.

Katara lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Just once," she says, "just once, I would love it if someone recognized you from something nice you did for them, instead of whatever dick move you pulled."

"Never gonna happen, sweet sister!" The boy next to her crows happily. "Our Zuko was an asshole in a previous life!"

"Last year was a previous life?" The bald boy says, half-serious, and then high fives Katara's brother uncertainly.

"Fuck all of you," Zuko says. "He's doing his best," the shorter girl says dramatically, then slugs Zuko in the arm.

"Wait," the bald kid says, turning to address Song. "Are you sure it was him?"

"Yes," Song says through clenched teeth, "I saw him leave a party at my house on my bike last year!"

It was one of the only parties Song and her housemates had thrown that semester. From what she can remember, Song spent a good portion of the evening trying to get close to the moody boy who was drinking alone in her kitchen. She had definitely tried to flirt with him, she remembers, cheeks going red, before Bohei had pulled her away to do shots. At the end of the night Song had passed out on their living room sofa. She woke up some time before morning at the sound of the door closing to see the moody boy, who was definitely Zuko, pick the lock on her bike and ride away on it, but she was too drunk to realize what had happened. In the morning, it was too late. Nobody else seemed to remember the boy, and she had no luck finding it.

Back in the tea shop, the bald boy is trying to defend Zuko. "That doesn't sound like something Zuko would do," the kid says, a bit soothingly.

"No, it does," Katara counters. The shorter girl nods while Zuko hangs his head.

"Yeah, that was me." He admits. "Look, I'm really sorry. I...was in a bad place that year, and I was super drunk, and--"

"Yeah, whatever, " Song says, uncomfortable with his honesty. "Are you going to give it back or not?"

"Of course he's going to give it back," the bald kid says enthusiastically. Song wonders who died and made him group spokesperson.

"Wait, do you even still have it?" the other girl asks. Song notices that she hasn't been making eye contact or even turning her head to look at anyone talking. She catches eye of the cane lying next to the girl's chair and realizes she must be blind.

"Yeah," Zuko says uncomfortably. "I woke up the next morning and, I, uh, didn't know what to do with it? So I just...kept it in the garage." He runs a hand through his hair uncomfortably. "It's still there."

Song, who has dropped her bag to the floor and started peeling off her jacket, throws up her hands. "You haven't even been using it?"

Zuko coughs. "No?"

"Ugh!" Song shouts, furious that he didn't even seem to need the bike.

"Look, I'll, I'll bring over to your place tomorrow," Zuko says placatingly, standing up. Song shoves past him and falls into his empty chair. "Yeah, maybe you should have tried doing that eight months ago, when you drunk-stole it from me," she deadpans, before turning to Katara. "Are we working on our project or not?"

Katara looks like she wants to keep laughing at Zuko's expense, but stops herself when she sees Song's face. "Uh, yeah, sure. Guys, this is Song, from my biology class. Song, this is Aang, Toph, and my brother Sokka." She points to the bald kid, the girl, and the dark-skinned boy next to her in turn. "You already know Zuko."

Song grits her teeth. "Song, I--" he starts helplessly.

"Zuko!" Someone calls from the back of the shop. "A little help back here?" From behind her, Song hears Zuko sigh. "I'll see you guys later," he says, before walking away. "Let us know if anyone else accuses you of something awful!" Sokka calls out after him gleefully.

"Or if something else from your dark past comes up to bite you in the ass! I want to start a facebook album!" Toph adds, and Song snickers, despite herself.

"Sorry about Zuko," Katara says carefully. "He was in a really bad place last year."

"So I've heard," Song says drily, fishing out her notebook and a pen.

"I'll make sure he gives you the bike back," Sokka offers. Song nods minutely.

"Why don't you guys get out of here," Katara says after a moment. "It's not like you're getting any work done."

Sokka opens his mouth, clearly affronted, but Song beats him to it. "No, you guys don't have to go, it's okay," she starts, but Aang catches onto Katara's meaning and has started packing up his stuff.

"No, Katara's right, we'd just waste your time," he says easily. "Come on, Sokka, Toph, we can study at my place."

Sokka sighs dramatically, but helps Toph get all her stuff together nonetheless. "Ugh, fine." Then he shoots his sister a sharp grin. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Katara splutters indignantly while Toph cackles. Song can’t even begin to guess what that means. “Nice to meet you, Song!” Aang calls over his shoulder before tailing Toph and Sokka out of the shop.

Song raises an eyebrow in Katara’s direction. “Ignore my idiot brother,” she says hastily, dark skin growing rosy with a blush. Maybe Song does know what that means.

“Do you want something to drink?” Katara continues quickly. “The weather is so shit outside, a hot drink will probably make you feel better.”

“I’m studying to be a nurse, Katara,” Song says, rolling her eyes but letting a grin escape so the other girl knows she’s playing. katara’s face lights up as she sticks her nose in the air. “Well, I’m studying to be a doctor, so I don’t know what they cover in nursing school.” She gets out of her chair and flounces towards the counter.

“You don’t even know what I want,” Song says half-heartedly, eyes on Katara’s ass. “You’ll like what I get you,” she says airily, half-turning to catch Song in the act of looking. Song blushes again, but boldly meets Katara’s eyes. The other girl smirks, before turning to the woman at the counter and rattling off something Song can’t hear.

When Katara returns a few minutes later, steaming mug of tea in her hand, Song has unpacked her laptop and is half-looking over the work they’d done so far. She passes the mug to Song. “Thanks,” she says gratefully, warming her hands against the bright red ceramic of the mug. “How did you guys find this place?” She asks, fighting off a yawn. Holding onto the warm tea has suddenly reminded her how tired she is.

Katara takes the seat across from her, picking up her own cup. “Zuko’s uncle owns it,” she explains. “Zuko’s really sorry about your bike, I know he is,” she says earnestly, casting a glance across the shop at him moving around in the back. “He went through a lot in the past year, he used to be such an asshole, even to us,” she adds. “But he’s alright now.”

Song doesn’t know what to say, can’t quite believe her, so she takes a sip of her tea instead. “Oh, it is good,” she said, surprised. Katara smiles in satisfaction. “Uncle Iroh thought you were a fruit tea girl, but I told him different. Guess I was right.”

It’s cheesy, it’s so, so high school, but Song’s stomach flutters at the idea of Katara knowing what sort of tea she’d like. It's got her tongue tied, but Katara saves her by asking about her day.

“It was good,” she answers. “I finished my international relations exam early, that’s why I texted you that I had time.”

“Well look at you, smartypants," Katara says, and Song scoffs. They spend the rest of the afternoon like that, sort of but not really working on their project, until Sokka comes back to pick up Katara and gives Song a ride back to her apartment.

"See you tomorrow!" Katara calls through the car's open window. Song shoots her a confused look. "When Zuko and I come to return your bike!" She reminds her. Song agrees, but doesn't think anything will come of it, which is why she's so surprised to open her apartment door at eight o'clock the next morning to see Zuko and Katara in her doorway, bike in hand.

"Good morning!" Katara says triumphantly, and Song stares. Katara, she, she looks so incredible Song can hardly believe it. Her hair is perfect and shiny, and she looks like she's wearing extra eye makeup. Zuko, meanwhile, looks like how Song feels, bedraggled in comparison. "Told you we'd bring you the bike!" Katara says excitedly, while Zuko yawns next to her. "Here, here you go," he says, steering the bike into Song's apartment. "Uh, thanks," Song answers slowly, leaving the bike by the door.

"Put your shoes on, we're taking you for breakfast," Katara instructs, and before she realizes what's happening Song finds herself in the back of Zuko's car, sitting next to Katara and behind a girl Song vaguely knows from one of her politics courses last semester, who Zuko introduces as his girlfriend. Song thinks Mai is way too cool a girl for someone like Zuko, but keeps her mouth shut.

"Go to the diner on fifth," Katara instructs, and in front of Song Mai scoffs. "No way, their coffee is garbage."

"All diner coffee is garbage," Zuko offers from behind the wheel, and behind him Katara says "I want pancakes. We went to your shitty coffee shop last time."

"It's not shitty, you just don't appreciate aesthetics," Mai sniffs.

"It's overly minimalist and their cake is bad," Katara says bluntly, before turning to Song. "What do you want to do?"

Song blinks, slightly overwhelmed at being thrust into this dynamic of people who were clearly comfortable in each others' lives. But also, it's early, so: "I want to eat eggs."

"Diner it is, you're outvoted, Mai!" Katara crows happily.

"You didn't ask me what I wanted," Zuko protests, already steering the car in the direction of the diner. "We know you're happy with either one," Mai explains.

"Always happy when I'm with you," he says to Mai, and Song can see his face in profile, he's offering Mai a small smile. Mai meets him halfway and gives him a quick kiss.

"Eyes on the road," Katara interrupts, pulling a face to make Song laugh in the backseat. It occurs to her that this might be something of a double date.

And it's definitely a date, she realizes, or she hopes, because Katara has squeezed herself next to Song onto the vinyl covered cushion of the diner booth, and keeps knocking her knees into Song and, once, even holding her thigh flush against Song's. She eats off Song's plate with no remorse, encourages Song to do the same to her, and quietly flirts with Song for most of the meal. It's enough to give Song a pleasant whooping feeling in her gut that lasts the whole day.

The restaurant environment is certainly helping, Song loves diners. The way they all sort of look the same, the ridiculously long menus, the poor lighting, all of it. It's her and her mother's favorite place to go, and when she lived at home they used to go there almost every day, even if it was just for a cup of bad coffee. Song feels at home here, which is why she loves the diner so much.

Besides Katara's flirting, Song actually has a good time enjoying Mai and Zuko's company. Maybe he really was a different person when he stole her bike and ignored her at her own party, because now he's making an effort to include her in the conversation, filling in the gaps into which she might have fallen, being the odd one out in a group of friends who knew each other so well.

"We went to school together first," Zuko is explaining, gesturing to himself and Mai. "A different school, actually, one our parents wanted to go to. It was really close to our hometown. Caldera College."

"Our parents are in business together," Mai says. "Well, my father works for his father."

"And my father wanted me and my younger sister, Azula, to work for him too. But that, uh, didn't work out…" his hand moves to the scar on his face, and Song stifles a wince. "So I left the old school and came here. Well…"

"His Dad cut him off," Katara butts in. "But it was actually a good thing, here I met these guys." Zuko says with a small smile.

"Didn't start off as a good thing," Katara mutters, and here Zuko blushes, tilts his face to the table. "Yeah, those were my uh, my bike stealing years," he grimaces another apology at Song.

Katara yelps, it seems like Mai has kicked her under the table. "But we're good now," she adds brightly.

"Like I have to keep reminding you," Zuko says, raising his eyebrows, and now it's Katara's turn to look chagrined. Song wonders at their need to air their dirty laundry in public.

"And then I decided fuck my parents' business and followed Zuko here," Mai declares, setting her hand on top of Zuko's.

Song nods. It's a lot to process. "What about your sister?" she asks, wondering if this is the right question.

Maybe not. The emotion runs from Mai's face like colors in the wash, her mouth settles into a dull line. Zuko sighs, and, next to Song, Katara huffs out a breath. "We're working on her," Katara explains.

"My Dad was working her to the bone, putting way too much pressure on her after I left," Zuko says. "Especially after I left," he adds to himself, and on the table Mai squeezes his hand. "She snapped, dropped out," Mai picks up from him. "We're trying to make sure she gets the help she needs."

"That's really hard, I'm sorry you have to go through that," Song offers, and Zuko nods. "She'll be okay," he says, face determined.

An awkward pause, but the first of the meal and the plates are nearly clean, so that's a success. "You don't have any siblings, right Song?" Katara asks.

"Mm-mm," Song shakes her head. "Just me and my mom," and Katara nods, which she was expecting, but then Zuko does too, and maybe they have more in common than she'd thought.

"Mai has a younger brother," Katara volunteers, and Mai rolls her eyes but tells them an adorable story about Tom Tom regardless.

"That was...nice," Song says truthfully, when they've dropped her back at her place and she's got Katara on her doorstep.

"They're alright, huh? I thought you'd like them," Katara says happily.

Song, feeling warm and full of eggs and lukewarm coffee, has the confidence to say "maybe they're not the only ones I like," eyes catching Katara's before dropping to her doorstep.

"Yeah," Katara says softly, hand reaching towards hers. "I--"

She's cut off by the sound of the horn. Katara turns and Song sees that Mai's got a hand on the horn while Zuko sits by looking pained. Katara gives them the finger before turning back to Song. "I like you t--"

The horn again. "Katara, let's go!" Mai shouts, and Katara rolls her eyes and Song smiles. "I'll see you at our next study session?" she offers.

"Yeah," Katara says, looking relieved, "I'll see you then." She waved goodbye, bounds off the porch toward the car, opens the back door while yelling "jesus christ, Mai, I'm here, calm down."

Song unlocks the door of her house, still smiling, and heads inside.

***

Katara and Song meet, one last time, to go over the paper. It takes them ages, both of them are deliberately dragging it out. They go through it one line at a time, taking turns reading the paragraph aloud and double, triple checking the references. When it's finally over, i's crossed and t's dotted, Katara's hand hovers over the trackpad of her laptop, mouse on the 'submit' button. "Are we ready?" she asks one more time.

"You're sure it's cool with Pakku if we do breast cancer?" Song clarifies, and Katara scoffs. "Oh, actually Song, I forgot to tell you, he's not cool with it and we're going to fail. Whoops!"

"Okay, okay," Song laughs. "We're ready, do it."

Katara takes a deep breath, clicks the trackpad. Project over.

"It's in the lap of the gods now," Song comments, and Katara nods, shutting her computer.

"Now what should we do?" she asks, and for the first time she's almost shy. It's utterly adorable, the light blush under her eyes, and Song steals herself and says "well, I'd like to kiss you now."

Katara stiffens beside her. "You should definitely do that," she says hastily, and Song laughs, reaches up slide her hand into Katara's hair and leans in, catching her lips.

It's perfect. Katara tastes like everything Song had imagined plus more. When she pulls back Katara chases her lips. "I think you should give that another go," she murmurs, and Song laughs again, happy to oblige.

It's even better the second time. They kiss for a while, lazy, and afterward, when they're resting their foreheads against each other, Katara speaks up.

"I think I'm going to take you on a proper date," she muses.

"I'd like that," Song answers happily. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

#kira writes #avatar the last airbender #song #katara #song x katara #zuko #mai #zuko x mai #atla wlw week #atla #college au

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delciastudies · 4 years

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[04.03.20] ✧ 92 days of productivity

ft. me at the top of Storke Tower!!!

I hope everyone is KILLING their quarter or semester! I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA for nearly a month -- let’s just say it’s been the most hectic few weeks known to man.

In these past few weeks I have finished my thesis (at a grand total of 71 pages and more to go!), I have gotten accepted to TWO GRADUATE PROGRAMS, and I am planning on moving back to Colorado on 13 March. Which means I absolutely need to finish the rest of my undergraduate education with a completed 100 days of productivity!! Even though I haven’t counted the last month into my total, I really want to dedicate these last two weeks to completing that milestone, as well as the milestone of getting my BA degree from UCSB!!*~

The two graduate programs I’ve gotten accepted to?:

- University of Edinburgh College of Art - MSc Modern and Contemporary Art: History, Curating & Criticism

- Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore - MFA Curatorial Practice

I literally am beside myself -- I have worked so hard for this opportunity and I’m finally realizing all of it. It is also extremely surreal considering it is my last two weeks at UCSB, and I am trying to complete everything on my UCSB bucket list! Of course, going to the top of storke tower was the ultimate. <3

What’s left now?

To-dos: ✧ Thesis editing + add additional photographs ✧ ANTH 130 presentation notes, slides, and paper ✧ ARTHI 5B presentation tomorrow! Background research, time it out, have a script ✧ GreenTongues conference and coding ✧ Contact Eco Vista creatives team to look at creating platforms for stickers, logo, t-shirts, and other related merch (which you could feature on your portfolio!)

Tracker:   ✧ Mood: amazing  ✧ Energy: 90% ✧ Sleep: 7h   ✧ Water: 3 glasses   ✧ Listening to: coffee (side note: playyard is a local IV band!) ✧ Workout: I actually haven’t worked out since my last post LOL, but I bike quite regularly and eat extremely healthy ✧ Skincare: LOL my retinol has burnt my skin, working on it  ✧ What made me happy today: the sunshine and the ocean, this entire week it’s been 80 degrees (26.6 c) and I’m taking it all in <3 ✧ What made me proud today: graduate programs and literally achieving all of my dreams rn

I hope to send this same positive energy and luck throughout my lovely tumblr community xx

#delciastudies #studyblr #delciasustains #storke tower #ucsb #california #tracker #to-dos #graduate programs #acceptance letters #college acceptance

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probably-voldemort · 5 years

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Would you mind telling us a bit about studying linguistics? Like what do you like most/least about it? What do kind of classes do you have? What jobs can you have after? I‘m just totally clueless about what to do after finishing school this year and trying to figure out what i could like... I‘m sorry to bother you, feel free to ignore if you don‘t know how to/ want to answer or take your time answering 🙈

Yeah for sure!

(below the line cause this got kinda long lol)

So at my uni you can get either a diploma in applied linguistics, a bachelor of arts in linguistics, or a bachelor of science in linguistics. The courses you’d take for each different path are different, and I can only really speak for the bachelor of science, since that’s the one I’m doing.

So I needed basic first year science courses (a couple of bio, physics, math, maybe others I’m not 100% sure and I was a science major first year so like I definitely ended up with some sciency courses I don’t actually need for the degree) and then after that it’s basically a lot of linguistics and psychology courses.

From your ask, I’m guessing you’re graduating high school? Sorry if that ends up not being accurate but that’s what I’m going with for this answer.

So if you think you could be interested in linguistics, I would definitely recommend taking a first year linguistics course as an elective before completely setting yourself up on the path. First year is pretty basic stuff and pretty general (you learn about sentence structures and what the phonetic alphabet is and how to use it and all the other basics you’d need to know for future courses). While I personally thought it was super interesting and ended up switching my major to it, there were definitely people in my class who were not into it at all and thought it was dumb. So like basically what I’m saying is make sure you’re actually into the topic before setting yourself up to get a degree in it.

After that, classes on straight up linguistics are either in phonetics, phonology, morphology, or syntax. Phonetics and phonology are speech sounds and how they work like physically and within a language and between languages and all that fun stuff. Morphology is how words work and you learn about like affixes and compounding and that kind of thing. Syntax is like sentence structure and that kind of thing and is the bane of my existence because it’s generally really prescriptive and that’s not my thing.

So you take a bunch of classes like that, and generally they’re pretty cool. You can also take classes in like second language acquisition and child language acquisition and sociolinguistics (how language works pertaining to society) and pretty much any other area you can possibly think of.

Some linguistics degrees also make you take a second language to a certain level. The applied and BA make you do that here but the BSc doesn’t. I don’t know why. I’ve taken a lot of ASL courses, though, and some Italian because like I like languages and think they’re cool. As you can probably tell by the fact that I’m majoring in linguistics.

Also, linguistics is more focused on how languages work than actually learning languages yourself (first question you get asked every single time you say you’re a ling major: how many languages do you speak? like…no). Like you can definitely take a lot of languages if you want to and that’ll just help you with being a linguist generally but like I have profs who only speak English and they’re still highly respected in the field.

And then for my degree there’s also a lot of psych courses. As someone not super into psych, that’s tough, but like it is what it is and there are definitely psych courses I do enjoy and like learning the psychology behind speech and everything is important so like I’ll make it.

My least favourite thing about studying linguistics is the amount of research courses you have to do, at least at my uni. I can 100% say that I do not want to go into research. I have never wanted to go into research. And yet every semester I have at least one course focused on either ling or psych research. It’s rough. But there are definitely a ton of research opportunities in linguistics since it’s still a relatively recent branch of science so like if you’re into research and enjoy linguistics this is definitely somewhere you can do that.

I also really don’t like syntax classes, as I already mentioned. So in ling there’s like prescriptivism and descriptivism (both of which may be spelled wrong cause they’ve got a red underline here and I’m too lazy to look up the proper spelling but whatevs). Prescriptivism is like there is a right way to use language and that is the only way language should be used, while descriptivism is like well no like language is made up and our rules are made up and like as long as I can understand you congrats you’re using language right (obviously this doesn’t apply to a language you don’t know but like within a language). Me (and most linguists, as far as I can tell) are a lot closer to the descriptivist end. Your grandma who gets upset when you don’t say something a certain way would be at the prescriptivist end.

Syntax from what I’ve seen is generally pretty prescriptivist, because it focuses more on writing (I think. I only took like two pretty low level syntax courses because they were required and then was like nope we’re done here so like take all this with a grain of salt) and even though writing is made up there is a general stigma around it and there being a proper way to make your sentences and everything. So yeah. But I mean if that’s your thing don’t let me talk you out of doing syntax.

My favourite area would definitely be sociolinguistics in general. It looks at how languages work with regards to society and like different accents and dialects and basically just from that you can see it’s super descriptivist. Like no dialect or accent is inherently better than another. It’s really cool. I’ve taken classes on like language evolution and variation within communities and it’s honestly just a cool time. Definitely recommend looking into that.

I also really liked my courses on child language acquisition. Kids are just super cool and we got to watch a lot of videos of babies learning to talk and it was a super fun time.

So jobs. I’m gonna link you to this list which I haven’t read through entirely but just looked up for you.

You can go into speech language pathology or audiology. SLPs work with kids who are having trouble learning to speak properly (if you got speech therapy as a kid you saw an SLP). They also work with adults who have had a stroke or a brain injury or some other aspect that’s made it so they need help with their speech. There are definitely other areas, too, but if I get into a masters program I’d want to work with kids so like I don’t really know the other areas. Oh yeah, this is an area I’m thinking of going into.

Audiologists work on the hearing end of things. If you need a hearing aid or a cochlear implant or anything like that, this is where you’d go. I don’t know too much about audiology, but what I’ve heard is pretty cool.

Other areas: teaching your native language as a second language (I’ve got a friend who’s family is from Korea and her plan is to move there after and teach English classes), alternative and augmentative communications (ie working to develop software or non-electronic things for people to use when they can’t use speech), AI developers (if you want your robot to talk, better hire a linguist to help you out), interpreters and translators, you can work in like movies or tv helping coach people on their accents if that’s your thing (personally I think this is super cool but like I have no idea how to get into it), or developing fake languages (like in Lord of the Rings or Arrival. You need to understand how languages work in order for your made up one to be believable), you can work in publishing, and, like I already mentioned, there are a lot of research opportunities if research is your thing.

There’s a lot of types of jobs with a linguistic degree. A lot of them also require a masters, though, so like you might be in for a lot of schooling there.

Personally, I’ve been thinking of applying for the SLP masters programs. Not 100% set on that as a career. I also think working in publishing would be cool (especially as someone who is also a writer lol) and like I said being an accent coach for tv and movies would be super cool but I have zero idea how you’d go about doing that.

Yeah! Definitely hit me up again if you want more info. Hopefully this was helpful, and I wish you the best of luck in figuring out what you want to do!!

#linguistics

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echoes-of-realities · 5 years

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hello! this is completely random but i saw in your bio that you have a BA in anthropology. I'm currently trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and anthropology sounds really nice. Are the jobs opportunities good when you graduate? I'm also from Canada! Thank you!

Hey! I’m going to put all this under a cut cause it’s, uh, a Lot of information lmao.

So I don’t know how much you know about anthropology, but the cool thing about it if you’re going into research, is that you can do basically anything with it tbh! At its most simple, anthro is the study of humanity, so that includes literally anything to do with humans. What to study residential school experiences of Indigenous people in Canada? There’s a plethora of research opportunities about First Nations people, usually under the sub-discipline of Indigenous anthropology. What to study the effects of the lack of media representation for LGBTQ+ people? Queer Theory is a huge aspect of modern anthropology. What to study human evolution in the Horn of Africa? Paleoanthropology is a huge field. What to know Far Too Much about projectile points across the prairies? Archaeology is for you. Want to study RV-ing retirees? There’s literally a book on it.

Anthropology is broken down into four sub-disciplines:

Linguistic Anthropology: Studies relationship between culture and language; everything from language revitalization to how language usage can further oppression. This field is closely tied to linguistics, but is actually very different to it. Linguistics generally studies the structure of language, while linguistic anthropology studies how language can produce/maintain culture, and vice versa.

Biological Anthropology: Sometimes called physical anthropology, it’s the study of humans and non-human primates in terms of biology, evolution, and demography; paleoanthropology and primatology both fit here, as does forensic anthropology. I.e., the TV show Bones, except actually accurate lmao. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bones and it’s actually what got me interested in anthropology in the first place, but literally every time I watch an ep now I’m like “You can’t estimate sex from that. That’s wrong you can’t estimate race. Age estimates range from 24-82 not within two years. You can’t do that!” ff

Archaeology: There’s a Whole Bunch of specializations in arch like bioarchaeology or lithic analysis or pottery analysis; archaeology is kind of….. lagging behind the other subdisciplines in terms of feminist theory and queer theory and treating PoC respectfully. (Especially Indigenous people, NAGPRA exists because archaeologists continually dug up Indigenous graves and then refused to give the Native Americans and First Nations the remains back so……) But! There are a lot of younger archaeologists reforming the discipline and making feminist and queer theory more common in the field. Black Feminist Archaeology by Whitney Battle-Baptiste is the first archaeologists that comes to mind off the top of my head in terms of including more PoC voices in archaeology, but there’s Many others doing good work!

This is totally a self-plug lmao but if you want to know more about homophobia and sexual harassment in archaeology, which is unfortunately rather commonplace, here’s a link to my final project for my Gender in Archaeology class about the topic, it’s a narrative video game and I’ve Very Proud of it.

Cultural Anthropology: Just like it sounds, this is the study of cultures. “Culture” is a Really Contentious term in anthropology and there’s no way I’m getting into the decades of debates here lmao. But essentially, cultural anthropologists study all aspects of different cultures, from the Big Men of the Indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea to gender relations in small fishing villages in Portugal to homeless drug addicts in urban centres. Often issues of cultural appropriation, racism, homophobia, gender vs. sex (spoiler: they’re Very Different and completely depend on the culture), and oppression fall into this subdiscipline, but they can be explored in every field of anthro.

If you Really want a taste of Cultural Anthropology, watch Ongka’s Big Moka, which I’ve watched no less than seven times because basically Every Intro level anthro class plus second year classes without prereq’s show it. My best friend who’s also in anthro and I joke that we know more about Ongka than we do certain family members, which is 100% true.

So, as you can see based on the subdisciplines, there’s a Whole Realm of possibilities when it comes to jobs. The most common is basically going into research (which includes ethnographies), becoming a professor at a post-secondary institution, or going into applied anthropology.

Research: Research can be done on basically any topic, but anthropological research is rather unique (some sociology research uses the same practices, but not as commonly as anthro). Of course, there’s the research that archaeology and paleanthropology do that falls closer to a “hard science”, but cultural anthropological research is different. Ethnographic research is holistic and includes living in the community for an extended period of time (usually over a year), learning the language, and participant observation (you must participate in the community you’re studying; this is where researchers in “hard sciences” usually scoff and accuse anthropology as being subjective and not objective, which is true, but what most scientists don’t like to acknowledge is that all science is subjective because it is done by imperfect humans).

Professor: In order to become a prof, you need to have a master’s degree (people with masters can teach undergrad, people with a doctorate can teach graduate courses), so you do need an area of research to do your thesis on. Most anthropologists eventually become college/university profs once their research days end, or they teach during the school year and do their research during the summer. One of my fave profs does bioarchaeology in Tanzania every couple summers with some grad students so!

Applied Anthropology: Applied anthropology is probably the biggest area of careers tbh. Technically applied anthropology is just anthro applied to practical problems, so it can technically be anything. Most often, it includes medical anthropology (which is one of my areas of research studies how cultural ideologies of health and wellbeing go into healing, Lots of interesting commentaries on Western medicine and traditional medicine and how one culture’s idea of “healthy” is often Very Different to another’s), work with NGOs or activism organizations, archaeologists, museum or archive work, ecological or environmental anthropology, political anthropology, economic anthropology, forensic anthropology, and so many more tbh.

So yeah, that’s a rundown of anthropology and the ways your career can go. Honestly—and this isn’t me being all “my field is the Best Field” or anything lol—I think everyone would benefit from taking a couple anthro courses. I took The Anthropology of Sex, Gender, and Age in culture my first semester of my first year, and it’s still one of my favourite courses ever, and honestly I think that everyone going to college should take that course. Not only do you learn about how sex, gender, and age all culturally determined (no, sex is not biological because “biological” is culturally determined; most Papua New Guinean tribes have no concept of chromosomes, so “sex” isn’t based on chromosomes for them), but you’re also taught empathy in that class. Same with the Anthropology of Race and Racism class I took. Being uncomfortable is the most important part of unlearning toxic ideologies, and those two classes really embrace the uncomfortable. The biggest thing you need to be an anthropologist is empathy imo. The main goal of anthropology is to gain an emic perspective (i.e., an “insider’s” perspective) when doing research. I was always Really interested in social studies as a kid because I loved learning about different cultures so anthro is basically the “adult” version of that lmao and anthropology is essentially an extension of that.

I will say, that it’s pretty hard to do anything in anthro without at least a masters degree, so you have to be prepared to do A Lot of schooling. As for job prospects after grad, it depends entirely on where you live and what field you wanna go into. There’s far more job opportunities for anthropology in Toronto than in a small town with 7,000 people. And the fields really matter too. For example, if you want to practice forensic anthropology in Canada, you essentially have to wait for the current forensic anthropologist to die or retire, whichever comes first, before you even have a chance at a job. But as for medical anthropology or anthropology that involves working with or researching for Indigenous peoples, especially in Canada, there’s basically always job opportunities because they are in high demand of research or of people who can act as consultants.

Anyways, this is Long but I hope it helps, and btw, this basically only scratches the Surface of anthropology. I didn’t go into anthro’s long, uh, let’s say shitty history, for simplicity’s sake, of racism and colonialism here, not because I’m ignore it but just because it’s Long and I don’t have the time right now lol. But most modern good anthropologists don’t shy away from criticizing anthro and being vocal about it’s past and current issues, as well as advocating for how to fix them. Anyways. If you have any other questions feel free to send me another ask, or just PM me too! I’m happy to give information about anthropology!!

#anon #ask #I'm actually presenting to a high school about careers in anthro next week so this was helpful lol!#basically I'm going to use most of this for that presentation so that's partially while this is so long #the other part is that I Ramble lmao

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mygreatadventurehasbegun · 5 years

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In college, what kind of stuff do they teach you about acting? Like what sorts of exercises and work do they have you do? I'm just curious, as at university, I was mostly only ever around people studying writing or the visual arts.

Well, each school is different. I actually went to two different colleges, two years at each. The first one, I tried to get into the BFA Musical Theatre Program, but was not admitted (the auditions are at the end of the first year rather than before the school year starts). And since I wasn’t in the BFA program, I really wasn’t allowed to take any more acting classes (I had used up all my electives), so I transferred to a different school and got my BA in Theatre where I could actually, ya know, learn.

The first year was a lot of intro courses: Acting I, Audition Techniques, etc. We’d stand in front of the class, do a monologue, get feedback, etc. And at the end of the semester, we’d do a scene for our final.

After I transferred, I took a variety of different classes...trying to fit as much as possible in the two years I had left. I was actually very lucky that I managed to graduate on time. Only had to take one summer class!

The two more “basic” acting classes I took where a little more physical...the idea of letting outside influences affect your acting. Felt a little like experimental theatre. I remember there was this one assignment where we all had to create a five minute play (without much, if any, dialogue) and then you were assigned your cast and then we put it together in about 30 minutes. Mine wasn’t very interesting, but the ones I got to act in were really cool. There was one that was about addiction and I played an addicted mom....

I did take one Stanislavski class senior year....the main focus was scene study. We were given our scenes at the beginning of the semester and presenting them at the end, doing improvs based on our characters in the meantime. That class only met once a week actually, because our teacher was a professional actor and could only teach on Mondays. There was a second level to the class that I could have taken the following fall if I had been there. That would have focused on acting in period pieces, and all the ladies would’ve had to learn how to work in corsets and petticoats. I was so bummed I couldn’t take that one!

But my two favorite were the Musical Theatre classes and the Acting for Camera class! The Musical Theatre focused on acting songs as well as dancing in character. The dance teacher was amazing, she was actually a former Broadway dancer who was in Jerome Robbin’s Broadway and Beauty and the Beast! She taught us actual Jerome Robbins choreography from West Side Story and it was so cool! And Acting for Camera was a ton of fun! Totally different from anything I’d done before. The teacher said she would have made me her TA the following semester if I wasn’t graduating that spring.

But, due to my transfer and trying to finish on time, there were some classes that I missed out on that I was so bummed that I couldn’t take! Especially Stage Combat and Circus Training!

Honestly, I feel like I’ve learned more about acting after graduating from college. James Stewart actually said that acting is something that you learn by doing and to an extent, I agree with him! I learned a lot from each show I’ve done, especially the first ones after graduating.

But I did have a private coach for a while, and we’d work on monologues, do sense memories, etc. And I did take a class for a couple years that met once a week at a big theater in town. That was mostly scene work, with the occasional guest artist that would teach us combat, Shakespeare or different ways to utilize our voice.

But in terms of exercises, there have been a couple that have been really effective for me.

-Sense Memory: I did my first one at a workshop taught by the woman who would eventually become my acting coach. She hosted this workshop for the cast of the show I was in (she was Assistant Director) and she walked me through this memory and sort of “snapped me out of it” and I did a scene with two cast members based on what they saw on my face.

-She also did this cool exercise with me that helped me get out of my head and to stop worrying about what other people thought about my choices! It helped that she knew us from the show, so she knew what each person’s strengths and weaknesses were. And mine was definitely getting in my head.

-I actually did an exercise at a callback not too long ago which was so fun and freeing. The director had us lie on the ground, as though we were Frankenstein’s monster and we had to slowly bring life back into our bodies. He would instruct us when a part of our body should “wake up” and we had to eventually make it to our feet and speak a line that he gave us. It was so cool! There were ten other people in the room and you don’t even notice them because you’re so deep into what you’re doing.

I could keep going, but I just realized how long this post is.... :)

But I think every actor is going to have a different answer to what they were taught in college. I think some are kind of “cold” in a way and focus on the business side and kind of tell you what you need to be, not as individualized, if that makes sense. And some are more hands on where you’re rolling around on the floor and screaming. And every actor is different in what works for them. Some need the classes, some learn better on the job!

Thanks for asking!

#acting

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godfirstgodalways · 5 years

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Hi. I graduated this semester with a degree in Visual arts and psychology but I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know if God is leading me somewhere else. I can’t really get a job with these degrees.. I kind of want to go into biomedical engineering but I’m not up for another BA. What do you think I should do? Should I take a year off or go into art therapy? I feel lost...

Congratulations for graduating! :) I can totally relate. Art was my first passion. I’m so passionate about health too. School was never for me though and I knew that for so long but denied it.

If you already know without a doubt that you don’t want to go back to school, then save yourself from disappointments by being true to yourself. Can you say you are more passionate about God on top of all this confusion? Or if not, is your relationship with Him something you know you could put a little more work into? Honestly if I were you, I would get a job anywhere (part-time or full, if you aren’t already doing some kind of work), and I would take this whole year to focus more on my relationship with God. You will learn so much about yourself by getting to know Christ first. THREE things will happen. 1, you will love Him so much and will want to be more like Him, striving to have His traits and characteristics… 2, you will attract like-minded people who will have an influence on you, not just people who are already into what you’re into, but faithful and genuine company who can connect you with others to help you see your potential. 3, as you mature in faith, you will get better at discerning where God is leading you, therefore you’ll be more confident knowing what your purpose is.

If you’re feeling lost, a year of self-development in light of God’s guidance is the best advice I can give. And towards the year ending, if you’re confident about going back to school then do so, if you believe you can still fulfill God’s purpose for you without going back to school, then be blessed with all the faith you will have. He knows all the desires of your heart whether or not you struggle to express them, so abide in Him because He knows how you will attain them. To me taking a year off is worth it because even if you still hadn’t made a confident decision regarding your career path within that year, you would still be closer to the wiser decision that’s going to make a difference than if you were to impulsively get busy with anything where you’ll lack direction. I am praying that you will grow with creativity using what talents and abilities God has already given you to further His Kingdom, and that you will find motivation in your testimony. God bless you!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 32:19 great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you reward each person according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

By His Grace, Sheela (Via godfirstgodalways)

FOR MORE ANSWERED QUESTIONS VISIT sheelaleigh.com

#godfirstgodalwaysreply #reply to anon #God’s purpose #wordsofwisdom #christian advice and help #words of encouragement #words of wisdom #christian encouragemement #wordsofencouragement #faith and hope #hearing from God #school #reply to ask

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saltandlimes · 6 years

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I know it's not Sleepover Saturday anymore, but do you have any advice for writing a thesis? I'm trying to hard not to let my anxiety take over and also to not tip too far onto the other side (apathy), but it's really difficult and I'm worried I won't finish, or that I'll fail, because I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and I have less than two months left to write basically the whole thing. I've been crying a lot because of it; I'm not sure I'd be able to live with myself if I failed.

*giant hug*

(Finally! A question that I have professional qualifications to answer! I’m going to include a possible detailed plan of work for 7 weeks under a cut that assumes you’ve got with most of the research done, but not much writing.)

You have two months left, give or take a bit. That’s definitely enough time to write a passing thesis, but there are a few things you’re going to have to do to both make yourself feel better about the work and make sure it happens.

First of all, spend some time (a day maybe) skimming other MA theses written for your program. While an MA thesis is supposed to be significantly more original than a BA thesis, it isn’t a substantial contribution to the field like a Ph.D. dissertation. Reading through a few recent ones will give you a chance to see this, and make sure that you’re not freaking yourself out by trying to do something too big.

Let yourself internalize this. It doesn’t have to be the best thesis ever written - if you’re thinking about trying for a Ph.D. some day, then your MA thesis isn’t going to be the document getting you jobs. If you’re interested in jobs that only need an MA, those are going to be less research focused, and thus, again, it isn’t going to be the sole document getting you jobs. So take a deep breath and remember that it has to be a reasonable representation of your work and thought, but not the best thing you’ve ever done!

There’s one other thing you’ve got to let sit in the back of your mind. Graduate education isn’t like undergrad. Your advisor will not let you get to the point of submitting your thesis if there’s a substantial chance you’ll fail. That just doesn’t happen, just as it doesn’t happen that a department will let you defend a dissertation if there’s a huge likelihood that it won’t pass. So your only worry here should be finishing a document that you’re reasonably happy with. You’re going to pass as long as your advisor lets you turn it in!

(As an aside, in most MA programs, if you’re actually not ready to submit at the deadline, they’ll let you have an extra semester! Again, the magic of grad school)

Last but not least (before I give you an example plan below a cut), here’s a wonderful secret of thesis or dissertation writing. No one ever feels like they know what they’re doing. Obviously senior scholars with tenor have generally gotten past this feeling, but other than that, the rest of us are just bumbling through. I’ve had a chaired professor ask me how a part of our Ph.D. program works, even though he’s been teaching here for much longer than I’ve been alive. Academia is a little of flying by the seat of your pants, a little of pretending to be the most confident person in the room, and a little of reminding yourself that you are more educated than the undergrads, at least. What you’re feeling is totally normal. That doesn’t make is less stressful, but I find it helps to remind myself that everyone else also got through this.

Ok. So here’s how I would go about getting this done if I were you! I’m basing this on a thesis length of about 15K-20K words, because that’s the average (about 50 pages).

Week 1 (this week): 1 day reading old theses, 1 day outlining exactly how your thesis will look. Make this a really detailed outline, filling in as many subsections as you can right now, and linking to everything you have written already. This will help you figure out exactly what you have left to write. Spend the rest of the week consolidating your research and inserting citations into each section of the outline where they belong. It will really speed up the writing process to have all these on hand so that you don’t have to look for them when you’re chugging along.

Week 2: Finish the methodology sections. JUST FINISH THEM. I know they suck. Get them done if you haven’t already. Then work on the body, but not after you finish the boring structural stuff. Aim to write at least 750 words 5 days out of the week.

Week 3-6: Keep writing. Keep up that 750 words per day pace. Only work 5 days of the week. By the end of week 6, you should have almost 18K written. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE WEEKENDS OFF. It will help you avoid burn out, and keep up the 750 wpd pace.

Week 7: Take the whole week to polish, read over, correct, and edit the work. Get a trusted friend to read over it for you and make notes. Submit your thesis and BE FREE. (Take a vacation afterwards).

Broken down like this, it looks a lot more manageable. You’re a great writer. You can easily manage 750 words a day on a subject you’re knowledgeable about. That’s fewer words than this post, and I wrote this in less than an hour!

#academia #ma thesis

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poetrysherd · 6 years

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Hey! I'm about to head into my sophomore year in my History - American/Latin American BA program (I'm also a socio minor). I should be finishing up my prereqs/gen ed courses next semester. Any tips for once I get into the more upper-level history/social science courses?

Oh boy do I ever!

Make sure what you’re taking counts. Be sure to get extra familiar with your degree plan, and check that the classes you are signing up for check off your degree requirements. If you have a pretty good advisor, this shouldn't be difficult for you at all, but if you’re in a less than favorable advising situation and you’re on your own and SOL and bitter (me) it’s a touch harder. I can walk you through that more in depth too if you need. If you plan to go to grad school, especially if it’s a niche program (American Studies, Classics, Historical Anthropology, Museum Studies) chose your electives in that field of study. You’re going to be one step ahead of everyone else when it comes to the grad app game and also you’ll be a little less lost when you get to your graduate program.

THE SYLLABUS IS YOUR BIBLE. I cant stress this enough. Everything you ever need is usually on there. Class materials, reading assignments, project deadlines, papers you will have to write, exam dates. All of it. I usually put all of mine in one folder and keep it on my desk so if I have a question I can check the syllabus before emailing someone.

Your professors are your friends. Well, not really. Unless you happen to just absolutely luck out with some really chill profs, which has been known to happen. Anyway, get friendly-ish with them. Most professors are totally on your side and genuinely want you to do well in your classes. Go to office hours, even if you totally have to make up a reason to be there (within reason, ok. dont show up just to chat). Ask them to help you narrow down your topic for their research paper, ask them if they don’t mind looking over your rough draft of said paper (preferably 2 weeks or more from the due date), ask them if they have a minute to answer some questions of yours that you came up with from the reading, or about their research thesis because it interests you (they loooove this one). You will need them later for things like rec letters and they probably won’t remember you if you never interact with them outside of class. Humans pack bond, and you have to get them to pack bond with you by interacting with them.

Do your readings, go the fuck to class. Seriously. You or someone is paying a lot of money for you to go. Professors like students who attend almost always and make good contributions to the discussions and ask good questions, which you cant do if you don’t do the reading.

Start your papers early. Start them during syllabus week if you can. Most upper level history/social sci courses don’t have much in the way of coursework. Maybe a few exams outside the midterm and final. Maybe a project. Maybe a few other little papers here and there. But in my experience, all of them are going to have one big kahuna daddy research paper, if not that plus a midterm and final exam in the form of a research paper.

If you get in hot water, beg for mercy. Again, your professors are on your side and want you to pass unless they are a dick. When you get in to your upper levels, there is going to be at least one semester when you end up taking four or five 3000 or 4000 level courses that all have 15 page papers due the same week. It sounds like a horror story and it totally does happen. Sorry. Anyway, if you get in a crunch, figure out what your profs late work policies are (SYLLABUS!!!), and do the paper for the class with the no late work policy first, and the paper for the class with the prof that is only going to dock you 5pts a day last. If you cant make it work, email your profs as soon as there is a problem, and ESPECIALLY email them if a problem comes up that is out of your control (got the flu, bad depressive episode, family emergency). Most are totally willing to work with you, but you have to be brave and humble enough to go beg for mercy. (Avoid this all together though by following 4 & 5)

Get hella familiar with Chicago/Turabian Style Format. That’s your life now, bud.

Other Helpful Things

Mendeley, a godsend for research projects

Purdue Owl Chicago Guide

Reading, Writing, and Researching for History article (very helpful)

I can think of a lot more tips but it’s late so I’ll let others add on for now and come back to it as I think of it! Good Luck!

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survivinglu · 6 years

Text

Registration Guide 2018-2019

Hello all! I have written a registration guide a couple years in a row now (save for last year), and while not much has changed to warrant a new guide, I decided to write a new one anyway and attempt to simplify it. This will still be long, but each point will be...well, straight to the point.

Firstly, you will be creating your Laurentian account sometime before registration opens. When you register on WebAdvisor, you will already have created your account, so you should already know your login credentials (username - NOT student number - and password). Once logged in, you will be brought to this page:

From here, you click on “Student.”

You will then click on “Register for sections.” This is the only link where you can actually register for any courses -- “Search for Sections” allows you to search through courses currently offered, but not register for them.

From here, you want to click “Search and Register for Sections.” This will allow you to search for the courses, and then select them for registration.

On the following page, you will have a number of search factors open to you. I would suggest not choosing anything besides the Term, Subject, and Course Level -- you do not know what sections will be offered when registering, what time they will be offered at, who is teaching them, etc. The more detail you put into the search, the fewer results you will get, and potentially miss the courses you need. You can choose the language of the course if you wish not to see results in either English or French.

Under term, you will focus on three specific terms: 2018 Fall Term, 2019 Winter Term, and 2018 Fall/Winter Term. You register for the entire school year at once, so you do not want to simply register for the fall and not for the winter -- you can make changes after registering, up until the end of the second week of each semester (with late fees after each semester begins).

Your course level is reflective of the number of the course code. Some programs require you to take a second year course (2000-level) during first year, so note that you will not find that course if your course level is not “Second Year.” Your course code is also where you find whether the course is on-campus or online. If the two digit section number at the end is 10 or higher, the course is online. Below 10 means it’s on-campus.

You need to know what courses you have to look for. Your MyLaurentian portal may tell you this, however if you are unsure, you can check your program page on the Laurentian website. You must register for your required courses, you are not automatically registered for them. As for electives, you must choose each class individually based on the requirements you might have (such as six credits in science, or six credits in Indigenous content).

For information on what counts as scientific literacy, Indigenous content, or linguistic awareness, please view this regulation document on the Laurentian website. You can also view this document for any other information on BA and BSc degrees. For information on what subjects sit in what specific categories, you can view this image below (updated because it was produced in 2015 and there have been changes in that time):

Three credit courses are offered in the 2018 Fall Term and 2019 Winter Term, and six credit courses are offered in the 2018 Fall/Winter Term. What is the difference? The fall term and winter term are the individual semesters, and the fall/winter term is the whole school year (save for the spring and summer terms). Some courses are offered straight from September to April, and thus are often six credits. Most courses are offered from September to December or January to April, and thus are three credits.

You will be asked, once you have selected your search criteria, to confirm your information. This includes your program, you student association, your gender, and your Francophone status:

If you have not already been assigned to a student association, this is where they will assign yours. Generally, students who identify as Francophone or are in a French program will be assigned to the AEF (the Francophone student association) and all other students will be assigned to the SGA. As a graduate student, I am a member of the GSA (or, as they categorize it, GRAD). If your information is correct, you’ll click “submit” at the bottom of the page.

To register for courses, you simply click the box next to the course you have chosen.

Note that the “Meeting Information” will tell you the days, times, and locations of these courses. Sometimes your meeting information will fill the entire box, and will leave off on ellipses -- this is often because the class meets twice a week, either at different times or in different locations. You can see that the title and course code of these courses are links, they’re blue -- click on the link to see the meeting information in full (as well as any prerequisites for the course, and the professor’s contact information).

Once you have selected a course and pressed “submit” at the bottom of the page, you will be brought to the “Register and Drop Sections” page.

In order to register for the course, you simply select “Register” and click “submit” at the bottom.

Courses that are offered at the same time conflict, and WebAdvisor will not allow you to register for conflicting courses, so if you attempt to then you will receive an error message. If you have not completed the prerequisites for a course, you will also face an error message. You can only register for a total of thirty credits during the year (in most programs, select programs allow you to register for more) so if you select more than thirty credits, you will also receive an error message.

Once you are registered for your courses, you can click the “Main Menu” button at the top of every page, and click the “Student” button again.

From here, click on “My Class Schedule.” This is where you will go to see your actual schedule once you are registered for your courses. You will have to select the proper term for each course, as in the term for which each course was found in registration (2018 Fall Term, 2019 Winter Term, 2018 Fall/Winter Term). You can view your entire school year by clicking the 2018 Winter Academic Term (not viewable below since registration has yet to open):

You class schedule will then be presented to you in the form of a list (this is my current 2018 Spring Full Term schedule because it is the only one currently available to me -- courses are removed from previous schedules once your final grades are submitted):

You are unable to access the schedule in a calendar form, this is not offered on WebAdvisor. Many students create their own calendar schedules using programs on the internet or spreadsheets on their computer. For example, I use Numbers (the Mac version of Excel) in order to create a calendar schedule where I can view my courses better. Here is an example of a schedule that I created in Numbers during my undergraduate education:

All this is a gross simplification, since different programs will have different requirements. You may want to speak to an academic advisor prior to registration, or even the program director -- you can also feel free to ask me questions, and I can walk you through registration. I have done this for many students in the past, spending many hours on the phone or the internet to help find courses and create schedules with students -- I cannot promise to have an everlasting knowledge of what is required for each program and I will consult the Laurentian website, so your program director or academic advisor may be able to do more for you. What I offer, however, is instant responses and availability outside the working hours of the school (8:30AM to 4:30PM). I am available on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at [email protected]

I still recommend that you contact your program director or academic advisor even after having gone through registration with myself. Note that there is sometimes a miscommunication, and students do not receive the same information from their program director as they do academic advisors -- in this case, you always go with the information that your program director gives you. There are changes often, and the advisors in the Centre for Academic Excellence are not always updated instantly.

In the previous year, I also made an OSAP application guide video. OSAP applications have changed slightly in the past year, and therefore my video is already outdated, but you can take a look if you are currently applying for OSAP. I also highly encourage you to read my OSAP FAQ because this information is still rather current -- and do so soon, I recommend applying for OSAP (if you need apply) by the beginning of July since OSAP applications can take six to eight weeks to process. You do want it to process before school begins.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me! Make sure to take a look at the Laurentian website in the next couple weeks before registration opens so that you can see what will be required of you when the time comes!

Ryan Michael Wildgoose, M.A., B.A Ph.D. Student in Human Studies Sexual and Gender Diversity Commissioner of the Graduate Students’ Association Co-Director of Pride Laurentian / Co-Directeur de Fierté Laurentienne

#Laurentian University #Course Registration #Guide #Guideline #Instructions #OSAP #Information #Pride Laurentian

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