Things you learn in school....

I'm not much of a physics person...okay, that's a bit of an understatement. I really, really don't like physics. Albert Einstein once said "Too much physics isn't good for you" and I completely agree! Although, I am able to calculate if King Kong was real, would his body be able to support his weight? The answer is of course no. Which brings me to question if anybody in Hollywood ever passed first year physics. I don't really see the usefulness of calculating the momentum of a rod spinning, but I guess knowing the tension in an artery could be useful, or the volume of blood pumped in one heartbeat. So as I study in gloom and fear for my 8:30 physics final tomorrow, I can't help but admit that what I am learning may actually be useful, and that if I don't get into med school, I could always go into Hollywood and do a better job then the people who made King Kong (1 and 2).

On a really happy note, by about 11 am tomorrow, I will never have to pick up a physics text book or get another physics headache again!!! Whooohooo!

So today's post is a tribute to physics, even if I hate it, it still deserves at least one day of love every 100 years.

Exams, bikes, and Toronto.

On Saturday I went to Toronto with a very good friend to go to a bike shop. He hooked me up with the same team that sponsors him this year, which is pretty wicked. Cycle Solutions is a pretty awesome bike shop with super friendly staff, and I am lucky to have them as sponsors. I also can't wait to race!!

Toronto is a massive city and I rode a street car for the first time, they are kinda cool, but it also kinda sucks when you miss your stop!! We went pretty much all over the city on Saturday, we started in some random old part of town after we got a ride in from a friend in Guelph who works at MEC in Toronto, and ended up in the "Beaches." The Beaches is the rich area of Toronto, with cool little stores and water front views of Lake Ontario. We did a lot of walking...and because we are both not city kids, we definitely took the longest routes possible!

At Cycle Solutions I got some new tires, a water bottle, some toe covers and ordered some new Speed Play Zero pedals. I am already to race! (Well...after I get a kit that is...)

We did kind of run into a crisis though. We missed the 5:30 bus back to Guelph, they wouldn't let my friend put his bike frame on the bus, and the next bus wasn't until 8:00. I sort of started to freak out because I have six exams over the next two weeks, and I really needed to study physics and chemistry, not mention my biology finals is today at 6! My friend's wonderful aunt saved the day, and offered to drive us back to Guelph. I owe her a lot! And I am very great full for what she did.

So yeah, I had a fun time in Toronto, exploring the city by street car, bus and by foot. It was a good day, and it was super sunny for once!

Time to get back to the books...

So close I can almost taste it

Whooo!

First year is so close to being done I can hardly handle it! Its actually ridiculous to think that I have almost finished a year of university. I can still remember, way back when I was just starting high school, that university seemed like centuries away. Well...now grade 8 seems like centuries away, but I guess that is really what growing up is all about. Its also weird to think that people younger than me, might view me as grown up...I still feel like I'm about 13!

It is interesting to see how perspectives change as we grow up, as we grow into the world. Today was the last team session of the Altitude Health Care Mentoring program, and I don't know if I have changed throughout this past year, I don't feel like I have at all. I am sure that I have in some ways, but you never really do feel like you are growing up, until you think back to when you weren't so 'grown up.' I have learned a lot this year, a lot about life, about learning how to deal with life and about who I can become.

I have faced a few challenges this year, like almost losing my right foot, a few disappointments in school, but most importantly I have learned that you can always rely on friends to get you through the dark times. There is always light at then end of the tunnel, and that darkness must come before the dawn. I don't know when the dawn in terms of pain will finally break through the night, but I do that it will, it has to.

So here is to a my first year. The first year that I realized there is more to life than just school, or friends, its about the experiences you chose to have and the ones you don't that make your life what it is and what it can be. 

Georgia on my mind

For the past 5 days I have been riding up and down the Appalachian mountains of Georgia with a couple of cool guys from the U of G Cycling team. Its has been awesome, and really tough at some points.

The 16 hour car ride down here also had some interesting moments, but hey, what can you expect when driving through Kentucky? We had to stop a Waffle House because we saw a sign every 2 minutes, I just sucked it up and and ate a gluten filled pecan and chocolate chip waffle for $3.75. We also could not resist stopping at an outlet mall...why is everything so cheap in  America? We also saw caught up to an other car filled with Ontario university students, and of course we exchanged phone numbers through car windows while having a duel between which car could pull the best window stunt. They won...and there was some bare bottoms involved.

The hostel we are staying at is too nice to be called a hostel. It is honestly better than almost any hotel, and probably better than my dorm room. They also feed you the best breakfast on earth. Its awesome, and all for $17 a night!!

On top of Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. 

I have also come to the conclusion of why so many people in America are overweight....chocolate bars are 50 cents, and junk food is so cheep that it makes perfect, logical sense to buy it. We can't resist buying chocolate bars every time to we go to Walmart...which is every day.

flex it.

I can almost flex my right foot at much as my left foot now! Who would of thought physio could actually help! Small victories are worth every cent of effort that you put into it.

The Obvious

Why are some professors so horribly mean? Honestly, I don't understand. Sorry that I can't make my medical condition go away, sorry I can't control when my appointments and tests are. I thought people would be more fair in university, that they would take into account people's situations. Is getting electrocuted for an hour not reasons for "compassionate grounds?" If you have never been sick, then I can see why you wouldn't get it, but losing 5% of my mark because I physically can't be in two places at once just doesn't make sense. Trust me, I would much rather sit through the horribly ridiculous 1070 seminars than have needles stuck in my muscle with electric current flowing through them. Isn't that obvious?

 

RSD and School

I know life isn't fair, I know nobody's life is 'fair.' Everybody has their challenges, mine just happens to be pain. For the past four years my life has been centered around doctor's appointments, physio appointments and waiting in the emergency rooms of hospitals. It sucks. But based on the "Pain Centered Life" charts, I don't fit into it because my grades have never dropped, I still bike, I ski, I kayak, I do everything I did before, but not quite as well. Nobody else seems to be able to tell my life has changed by talking to me, or looking at me, but it has. I used to do thing because I enjoyed them, now I do them as a distraction.

Who goes to university for a distraction? Who takes six courses to distract themselves from pain? Who races bikes as distraction? I do. I don't know what else to do. My pain isn't even near manageable, it just seems like it is because I can do some many things. Lately my pain has been getting worse, lately I have been exercising twice as hard.

I am the only student on campus with this condition, the only one. I know this because if there was another one, they would be registered with the CSD, and the people at the CSD said this is the first time they have heard of this condition. That also sucks. My friends understand what I have, but they don't understand what it is like. Its hard to be a 'normal' university student when nothing is normal about you.

Just walking down Pain St.