V = int(E.dl)

They say University is a big learning experience. For most people, the education is only a part of what they gain here. Being at University exposes you to all sorts of different ideas. Pushes thoughts and raises questions. What am I willing to try? Pushing comfort zones and complacency...I'll pull a few random examples that comes to mind...

Steak -> Eating
Before University, I always have my steak medium/well done. Not really understanding that cooking time is related to the tenderness of the meat, this fact was probably one of my biggest turnoff about beef: it's hard to chew. And so even though I come from Calgary, the land of cows, I find myself favouring chicken and pork over beef. That is...until my "aunties" found out. In first year, I drew quite an adverse reaction from Elaine Ho (which was kind of amusing, for the people that knows Elaine...she generally doesn't get that worked up. Haha) when she found out that I've never eaten red meat. Karen and Ada then plopped a piece of rare meat on my plate..."eat!" ...

Oh. Hmm. That wasn't so bad. I learned that rare steak is actually pretty good. But...old habits die hard. I still order chicken when I'm at a steakhouse. Haha. I tried something that was easy to enjoy, and learned from it. Good stuff. I've never made steak before. But this event set me up for...

Steak -> Making
One random afternoon, while trying not to fall asleep in the middle of a hot sunny day, PT sent me this link:

How to Turn Cheap "Choice" Steak into Gucci "Prime" Steak

After laughing at the cheesy illustrations and the surprising easy-to-understand food sciences behind it, he instructed me to try it. "Even you can't mess this up." Well...okay...you can eat beef raw, I reasoned. There is literally no way I can screw this up. So I found myself a few victims, and armed with PT's website, some advices from Alexis, and a trip to the local Loblaws, I produced a piece of steak. Vanessa ate it and survived. Wow. I made steak. Making and eating steak...things I wouldn't have done normally...

Living in North York
A few terms ago, I landed a job with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. A bit anxious (since everyone knows that Toronto is uber-polluted, even without the civil workers strike going on right now =P...and big. and unfriendly), I found that I was able to find housing, transit and groceries fairly easily. North York became one of my more enjoyable terms, with a Zoo trip, dual-welding chickens after several games of Settlers with SCBC people, running around downtown during Doors Open, mosying in the ROM and watching Canada Day fireworks (which really wasn't worth it -_-) down at the Habour-front, as well as meeting up with random London people I haven't seen in a while (which, interestingly, included an earring shopping trip at the Pacific Mall...as well as regular lunches with some of the UWO guys at Sunnybrook)...NY was one of the more enjoyable workterms.

But it was something really out of my comfort zone.

Oh...why not. CS Lewis (and reading in general...and Christian literature in genearl)
I used to read alot as a kid. Moving out of picture books rather quickly (Magic School Bus. Haha), I started looking at elementary books, then random teen series, then ventured into adult-level scifi from late elementary to early high school. Once I hit university, leisurely reading more or less ceased, as my bookshelves became filled with textbooks. One work term, I was handed the 722 Love and Marriage series (completely not applicable to me, at the time), and CS Lewis' Mere Christianity (a moderately thick book from someone who writes elementary fiction??). Not wanting to post-work time doing stuff other than playing video games and watching anime, I reluctantly watched and read what will become one of my most endorsed sermon series and a favourite Christian book.

Okay...what's the point?
I've been thinking about the potential to grow. One of my more enjoyed passtimes is discussions and debates (in fact...I was recently in a discussion about the lack of discussions in CCF...but that's another post for another day). I once asked PT why he likes student ministry...and he said that it is because we are teachable. I walked away a bit confused...how is that a good point? Isn't everyone teachable? In said discussion about discussions, I mentioned that I've been avoiding this type of discussions (and many CCF-related issues, in general) since these are things that comes up all the time in Committee meetings, members meetings, etcetcetc...and there's never really any solutions for it. But I suppose, in a way, I've become closed-minded, precisely what I was warned against doing...

Learning and growing
Over and over again, I find myself doing tasks at work that I'm not trained for from Waterloo. I've been a database programmer. A web programmer. IT support. Data collection. Robot operation. 3D image reconstruction. A researcher. For 5 minutes this one time, a baby sitter. Never have I applied circuit theory, 3-phase transmission, electron flow speed, or triple integrals. And so my greatest asset isn't how fast I can solve drain current in MOSFET circuits, but how quickly I can learn and pick up new things at the workplace.

Adopting to change is probably shown most readily via co-op. Co-op forces one to be able to pack one's life in a suitcase (or two. or three) and move to a different city for 4 months. Some of us have learned to be able to figure out our surroundings and fit in. Some of us have learned to just get by. Where's the local grocery store? A church to attend? Transportation for weekend visits?

A bit more hypothetical questions. The topic of parenting came up a few times over the last few weeks (kind of interesting to have several girls mention that they want kids, but too bad they'd need a guy for it...says something about the quality of guys these days, I suppose -_-). Parenting would be a situation unlike any other situation we've been in. One would argue that it'd be easy to take care of your wife. You could talk to her and she'll tell you what she needs. Your kids wants all sorts of stuff (ie eating a pound of heavenly hash ice cream is within what they want...but you really shouldn't let them do it). I have an auntie who majored in psychology in university. She told me that, even though she took every course in developmental, it did not prepare her enough for her two kids.

So in this way, being ready for here and now isn't enough. Ability to learn and grow continues to be important. I guess this is one aspect of 'student living' one should strive to keep. Haha. Figure out what you're getting into. Is it okay? Pros and cons? Consult resources. Keep asking questions.