Kaitlyn Fernandes – The Medium Blog

If the UTM Buildings Were Students

April 24, 2016Kaitlyn Fernandes

Sometimes after you’ve been in a certain place long enough, it can start to take on a personality of its own. Since each of UTM’s buildings has a distinct style and character, here’s a look at what UTM’s buildings might be like if they were students.

DAVIS (South): The Seasoned Sixth-Year

Davis is a little old-school, but he’s allowed to be because he’s finishing off a sixth year at UTM. I imagine he likes to watch black and white movies and enjoys a good bag of trail mix. He also loves to use the “back in my day phrase” to bring up his pioneer days of dial-up Internet and Hanson. Davis’ secret fears include creepy basements, empty hallways, and tiny desks.

Five Tips For Keeping Your Desk Organized

April 24, 2016Kaitlyn Fernandes

Exam season can be kind of chaotic and often times the end of finals can be a great time to reorganize the study space. Here are five great ways to clean up that desk area:

1) Less is more.

I know you bought the 100-pack of blue pens from Costco because you figured you’d need them, but that doesn’t mean you should cram all 100 pens into your pen holder. Things don’t need to get complicated. Grab a fun mug and fill it with no more than five pens. On that note, as soon as you notice that a pen is dying, toss it out. I guarantee that if you were to go through the pens on your desk right now, at least a third of them wouldn’t work. Save yourself the time and frustration and only keep what works.

Dear First Year Student: Embrace the Tough Choices

April 24, 2016April 24, 2016Kaitlyn Fernandes

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably elated that all the dilemmas and decisions you faced during your senior year of high school are now behind you. You’ve picked your university (great choice by the way), you’ve picked a general stream of study, and that all-too-stressful decision of what to wear to prom is now a distant memory. When I was in your position last year, I thought the tough decisions were behind me. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that that isn’t the case. Since beginning university, I’ve had to face more tough decisions that involve asking questions with answers that aren’t so clear.

The Choices I Don’t Regret

March 15, 2016March 15, 2016Kaitlyn Fernandes

We’ve all experienced that moment when you realize that the decision you just made could change the entire course of your life. And while that thought can be anxiety-inducing, more often than not things have a way of working themselves out. Here are two stories of decisions or events that at first I completely regretted, but have now shaped my life in a positive way.

Give Me Comfortable Clothing or Give Me Nothing

November 7, 2015November 10, 2015Kaitlyn Fernandes

Has anyone else noticed that UTM is really stylish?

I’m never bored when I find myself walking across campus these days because everyone seems to have taken their fashion game to the next level. I see people in outfits I would never dream of putting together, and yet somehow they make it work.

A Note on Horror

October 29, 2015October 29, 2015Kaitlyn Fernandes

Sometimes I think that the only people who can honestly say they enjoy horror movies must be serial killers. My relationship with the entire genre of horror has always been a bit strained. Even though I know the movies are make-believe, (or mostly, seeing as how those 5 little words “based on a true story” seem to be worming their way onto the big screen more often these days), I just can’t bring myself to watch them. I want to watch Anne Hathaway find out that she’s a princess, or Batman saving Gotham, not people getting chopped up, or hunted, or haunted. The way I see it, there’s enough terrifying stuff on the news to put me into a permanently paranoid state of mind. Why feed the fear with horror movies?

A Quick Note about the Bigger Picture

October 16, 2015Kaitlyn Fernandes

My Midterm Mantra: “This is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

A lot of the time, it’s easy to think that a certain test or assignment will define your education. But it’s important to remember that one bad test will not change who you are or drastically change your life. During midterms, I put in 100% effort, but what I see on the faces of my fellow students is, for the most part, not determination or the acceptance that their best is going to be good enough. What I see instead is usually a mix of fear, stress, and anxiety. Remember that that all-important test or assignment is not what defines your education. Celebrate your successes and learn from your failures. Because really, in the grand scheme of things, that test is a miniscule challenge on one day of one month of one year, and you will get past it.

Tip of the Iceberg: the Value of a Theoretical Education

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015Kaitlyn Fernandes

When people ask me what I’m studying, sometimes I just want to answer “everything”. I don’t say that because I’d probably come off as sounding pretentious and because I don’t think people want to deal with my opinions on education.

At UTM, I study commerce, broadly. No, that doesn’t mean that I study money or how to get rich quick. My area of study can cover anything from how businesses run to how to keep the Canadian economy from self-destructing.