writing

How to: Survive a Long Day on Campus

Christine Sharma

On Thursdays, I start class at 9 a.m. and finish at 8 p.m. I’m at UTM until 11, followed by a three-hour break, and then I commute to Sheridan for two back-to-back three-hour lectures.

Thursdays stress me out.

Long-day students, unite! Whether you have an 11-hour day like me, a 12-hour day, or (scary!) even longer, there are methods of survival for this potentially stressful day (or days D:).

I’ve picked up a few useful tips I wanted to share with anyone reading this from my experience with the 9–7, 9–8, 10–9 types of days.

Have an awesome bag for your stuff

First and foremost, your bag has to be efficient. Obtain a sizeable bag that you are comfortable carrying around all day—not too large or too heavy. Test your bag on your body! My bag is a bottomless pit that slings over my arm or my shoulder.

Ask yourself: Will the bag fit my books, my laptop, and my food?

You’re going to need a water bottle.

There are water bottle refilling stations all around campus. Ensure that your water bottle is always full and you are always hydrating yourself. I have a UTSU water bottle and down at least three bottles of water a day to help me focus and stay energized.

Ask yourself: Will the bottle fit in my bag and remain easily accessible?

Let’s not forget about food.

Hunger can totally make or break your day. Pack food in your bag! Even a bunch of little snacks tossed in your bag will keep you focused. An apple, a granola bar, and some pasta is usually what I keep, and some money just in case I want tea or coffee.

Ask yourself: Will I be full all day?

Your wallet is bae.

Excuse my slang. Your wallet is the key to your day. A few important things to keep in your wallet are your T-Card, your U-Pass, your Presto card, your debit card, and some change. You can’t predict how your long day will unfold, and having transportation options and money on hand really helps you feel independent and able to take on your day. I forgot my wallet on my bed yesterday—that was not a fun 10-hour day.

Ask yourself: Is my wallet in my bag at all times?

Have something to do during any breaks.

Readings, assignments, gym, food. Usually what will keep you going through a break—be sure to pack according to what you plan to use your break for.

In my opinion, long days are all about planning efficiently. Even if you have to make a list of what you need to survive your long day, take five minutes and write reminders for yourself the night before!

For me, the most important part of getting through a long day is in the mind. Don’t think about how long your day is—breathe, and just do it.

Long days are survivable—share your survival tips with me below :). Please… Help…

The Right Way… Or The Easy Way?

Darren Clift

 

“Life is easy,”… said no one seriously, ever! What will you ever learn from treading the path of least resistance, from forsaking what is challenging for what is simple? Not a whole lot. Life isn’t a walk in the park, nor should it be for anyone. Humans are meant to be challenged throughout our daily lives. It keeps our minds honed and prepared for wherever we go or whatever we choose to pursue next. Yet, we don’t think in this way most days; we live busy lives already. What’s the use of going out of our way to do something that we deem a good but unnecessary idea, for ourselves or another person? What’s the use of inconveniencing ourselves today for the gain of someone else or for a goal we have that is many years down the road?

Well, as much as we try to convince ourselves otherwise, the easy way is not always the right way to live our lives in most cases. Fulfillment can rarely be achieved in the same old daily routine; for example: eat breakfast, go to work or school, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, repeat. When put in words, the daily routine sounds incredibly boring, and it is! When you can forecast exactly what you’ll be doing in a week’s time, and how each day will more or less play out for you, that’s when you know you’d do well with a little change in your life. It might make your time more constrained throughout the day, but if you have the right attitude, you’ll surely succeed.

Vice versa, the right way will rarely be the easy way to do things. It’s difficult to decipher the difference on days when you’re not in the best of shape, and that is perfectly acceptable. On your off-days, doing things for yourself is often the best course of action for a rapid recovery. But on the days when you’re bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and as ready as ever to face the day ahead—that’s when you should realize that the easy way should leave you unfulfilled after all is said and done.

So what exactly is the right way to do things, to live your daily life? It’s important to note that “right” is a subjective term; there is no “right” way to do anything, really. Everyone is entitled to their own ideas on what they deem is right for them. What I’m referring to as the “right” way here is essentially being in a state of mind that openly seeks out and accepts opportunities, experiences, and challenges that are outside of your established daily routine (I hope that you agree. If not, please hear me out).

Always having enough tasks or short-term goals to complete throughout the year, aside from the toils of the week, is a way to be proactive, experience lasting fulfillment, and involve yourself in the community. For students, a proactive task that you can start right now is to research and apply for scholarships. Applying for one relevant (and preferably local) scholarship a month is a rewarding endeavor that will inevitably pay off down the road. Alternately, one of the best ways to live life for the right reasons is to do things for others on a regular basis—for your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and even complete strangers! Looking for ways to help others that are most deserving almost every day will reward you tenfold.

This could be giving back to the community, helping out a family member or friend with a job that needs doing, or smiling and saying hello to strangers that you pass. Incredibly simple, yet surprisingly difficult for most people, myself included! However, you won’t regret doing it. Stepping outside of your comfort zone, of what comes easy to you, is a very brave endeavour and is something to be proud of.

The hardest part of this “right” lifestyle is finding or rediscovering balance. My suggestion: estimate how much time outside of work or class that you have to dedicate each week to get projects, readings, and other schoolwork completed on time. With the remainder of your time, identify three activities or hobbies you would like to get involved in each week that will still allow you to have some deserved free time. Perhaps you already go to the gym each week; that’s a great start! What else can you get involved in that will keep you engaged with others and allow you to set personal goals, or will be a productive activity that will benefit you down the road? Do your research and don’t be afraid to prioritize your precious time. It’s not going to be easy… But who ever said it was going to be?

Yeah, this has been a long-winded blog, but one that I hope resonates with you. Life is not going to be easy, but live yours to the fullest! Make yours one that you can be proud of when you look back on it. The right way isn’t going to be easy, but the easy way isn’t always right. Be brave, because you can do anything you set your mind to!

12 New Year’s Resolutions to Create and Actually Follow Through On

Hamna Awan

 

1. No more complaining (okay, slightly less complaining).

Try to make the best out of situations. No matter how annoyed you are, just try not to translate that annoyance into words—it honestly makes the situation so much more unbearable than it needs to be.

2. No more procrastination.

I’m talking to you, person reading this blog who should be studying right now. I suppose, then, that I’m also talking to me…

3. Be more social

Take people up on invitations, invite people out, and maintain friendships and relationships so you can stop complaining about how alone you are (am I the only one guilty of this??).

4. Get enough sleep.

No more of that stumbling out of bed 40 minutes before class and rolling into lectures with bed-head, sweatpants, and your breakfast in your hand.

5. Make an effort with your appearance.

You look good, you feel good. Confidence is an investment, and can have a ripple affect on other areas of your life, including, school, friends, romantic relationships, and so on.

6. Make time for a social life.

A little party never killed nobody—although I suppose those who have had a different experience of partying cannot attest to that.

7. Stop worrying about your romantic life (or the lack thereof).

Stop trying to find the right person and start being the right person. Yes, I did read that on Tumblr.

8. Focus on your future.

You’re young now, and you have many opportunities available to you. Don’t get distracted by little things that don’t ultimately matter. Keep in mind the grand scheme of things.

9. Do not define yourself on other peoples’s terms.

You decide who you’re going to be in the world and the kind of place you’re going to occupy in society, and the only standards you need to hold yourself to are your own.

10. Take initiative.

There are opportunities out there, but it’s your responsibility to go out of your way to seek them.

11. Take responsibility for your actions.

If there’s one thing that pretty much never fails to bother me, it’s people who blame the world for their problems (within reason). Taking responsibility for your behaviours and actions can be one of the most empowering things that happen to you—it allows you to realize you have some control in what happens to you in life.

12. Get into shape.

Even if that shape is round.

Breaking Up With Friends: Is It Time to Call It Quits?

Hamna Awan

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Breakups. We all go through them at one point or another in our lives. I mean, even Marshall and Lilly (from How I Met Your Mother) called it quits for a short while (a time we would all like to forget, I’m sure). The experience is practically unavoidable. But what I’d like to talk about are a different—and arguably more painful—kind of breakups: friendship breakups.

Now, friendships are weird. I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat down with a friend and said something along the lines of, “I think it’s time we stop this thing we’ve got going on here”, or “This friendship is just not working out… You’re great, though”. It’s just not something that’s ever occurred to me to do, and I can’t say it’s ever happened to me either, although we have broken up in many different ways.

Again, friendships are weird.

In a vacuum, our lives are basically an ongoing process of meeting new people and letting go of old ones (not all of them, of course). It’s just that, as we get older and grow as people and progress in our lives, it’s inevitable that we outgrow some friendships and simply drift away from others.

The way I see it, when it comes to any friendship, there are four possible pathways down which one can travel.

a)    Keep them around.

Keep that friendship alive and healthy because you love them and they are kind, wonderful, supportive people who love and care for you and fill important spaces in your life.

b)    Let the drifting occur.

It’s not that you two don’t love and care for each other—your lives are just different. When you hang out, you have nothing to talk about, and keeping up with someone whose life is so different from yours can be tough and takes a lot of energy.

I feel like this is particularly difficult for young adults like ourselves. As students attending the number one university in Canada, we can barely keep our heads above the water between painful amounts of schoolwork, extracurricular activities, resume-builders, part-time jobs, etc. etc.

Ain’t nobody got time to chase people!

Note—it’s okay to let drifting happen. Sometimes people are just not right to be in your life at that time and in that capacity; this is okay.

c) You rarely see them, but (and this is how C differs from B) that doesn’t affect your friendship.

Now, personally I find that this is rare, and when it does occur, you should consider yourself one lucky goose. You know you’ve found something special when you cannot be around them for a considerable amount of time, but once the two of you are together, it feels like you were never apart.

I mean, I have friends I only see a couple of times a year. My best friend from high school—at the time we were inseparable (we even changed our last names on Facebook to each other’s first names… Some serious best-friendship going on there)—now goes to a different school and we see each other only during holidays and big events. We even live three blocks from each other, but we both just have our own busy lives.

Sounds super depressing, but it’s not, because the second we’re reunited, we have an absolute blast. There are no secrets or fears of judgement, and we could literally sit there in silence doing nothing whatsoever and have an amazing time.

At this point, I’d really like to stress—friendships are weird.

But also wonderful.

d) Formally break up with them.

This option should be reserved for special cases—I like to call them “toxic friendships”.

These are the people who bring you down. They take every opportunity to remind you of your past mistakes and your flaws, and are all around just a source of negativity in your life. These people must be formally cut out, because you need to ensure that that source of negativity is not linked to you in any way, and thus has no way of worming its way back in.

Well, there ya have it, folks. Friend breakups. They’re difficult, no denying that. But you gotta know which people to keep around and which people to let go.

The important thing to remember is: if they love you, care about you, support you, have your best interests at heart—and you feel the same way about them—and the two of you have a great time together, they are a catch. Keep them. Love them. Nurture them.

They is kind. They is smart. They is important. (The Help reference, anyone??)

Do You Need Others to Make You Happy?

Hamna Awan

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Well, do you?

Personally, I think yes and no. I mean, social relationships are important. Having a group of people around you who love and care for you—family, friends, significant others… They make life more colourful.

In all fairness though, I’m an introvert. That is to say, I don’t mind being alone most of the time. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say I prefer it. But that’s not to say that I don’t need people in life—I do.

In high school, I used to be really insecure about losing friendships—that my friends would leave me or develop better friendships with other people.

The result of that? I became clingy. I needed constant reassuring that the people in my life intended to stay in my life. And I mean, no one likes a stage five cling-on. I felt like I was constantly defining myself by who my group of friends were, and when I was alone, who was I? I felt so part of a unit that, when I was alone, I felt weirdly incomplete.

For example, when I was doing things alone, I was genuinely bored. I didn’t know how to enjoy things by myself. I thought, “What’s the point of having experiences if you have them all by your lonesome?”

So, when starting university, I made a conscious choice to not let people have that kind of effect on me. To make a real effort to define myself by my own standards. I wanted to feel like a whole and complete person all the time, not just around others.

So, I began doing things on my own: commuting, sitting alone in lectures, going to the library alone, etc. That’s not to say that I went out of my way to not spend time with people—if I happened to bump into someone I knew, of course I hung out with them. The difference now was that I just wasn’t constantly looking for people to fill every moment of every day.

At first, it was super uncomfortable. I mean, I had no one to talk to. It was just…boring. But you know what they say (whether it’s in reference to this point or most others)—it just takes time. And surely enough, it slowly got better. Over time, I felt more and more comfortable doing things on my own, and now when I’m in a situation where I don’t have friends around me to lean on, I’m completely and utterly all right.

Again, that’s not to say that I cut my friends out completely—I still see them and hang out with them a lot. And they’re still very important people in my life. The major difference now is that I don’t need to be around them constantly to feel good about myself. The time I spend with them now is not the only time I’m having fun. I can do it by myself too.

So, “Do you need others to make you happy?”

By the way I’ve been rambling on, it sounds like I’m about to say “No, all you need is yourself!”, right? But I’m not.

Social relationships are still important. We just need to be careful to not define ourselves based on them. It’s important that we have people to spend time with and have fun with, but it’s also important to make sure that those aren’t the only times we’re having fun. There needs to be a balance.

Yin and Yang, my friend. Yin and Yang.

These relationships should be there in your life because you want them, not because you need them. Ya know what I’m saying?

So, then…

Do I need others to make me happy? Heck nah.

Do I want others in my life who make it better, richer, and happier just by being in it? Heck yes.

Driftwood Friendships

Marium Faisal

 

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When we’re five, six, eight years old, our friendships don’t have many criteria. You like playing with the same toys as I do and love colouring outside the lines? Great! Bestest friends forever. As young tiny children, we collected friends like candy. We had lunch with them during our break time, we played with them during playground time, and we exchanged juice boxes when we didn’t like what our mother had packed for us. Friendship as kids had an aura of innocence around it—long-lasting relationships with no end in sight. You grew up with the same people through elementary, middle, and high school. In middle school, you started developing personalities but your group of friends had become so familiar to you, there was no need to find new ones. You shared new secrets with them and had lots of sleepovers and just as much laughter. But then high school came along and things started changing; your relationships with your friends started wading through deep waters and into this weird realm between friendship and acquaintances.

There are so many reasons why friends just drift apart no matter how strong they think their bond is. One is that personalities really start to show themselves and you begin to realize that the group of friends you had since second grade have almost nothing in common with you. But you can’t just leave them behind. After all, they know everything there is to know about you and they never left you behind for anything. It would be so hard to find a new group of friends who accept all your weird and quirky habits as they do, so you stay, but then things get quiet because you find less and less to talk about and the only thing you have in common is that math homework. You stay because you’re comfortable and they’re familiar. But friendships also fade away because of distance. People say long-distance relationships are hard, but who said they’re only talking about romantic relationships? Platonic relationships can be just as hard to maintain. Your schedules no longer match, you’re in completely different time zones, and finding time to fit in Skype becomes a struggle you don’t want to face anymore. It starts with Skype every week, to Skype once a month, to Skype when you have time, until occasionally catching up on WhatsApp becomes regular.

But then there are those friendships that are like a whole piece of driftwood that broke in half for no reason other than it happened—friendships where two people are joined at the hip and for no other reason than life or fate, they break apart and float in separate directions. It’s very likely that this is on the list of “some of the worst tragedies that have happened to people” because there is just no explanation for why it happened. Sometimes people come into your life just to leave you and you come into their life just to leave them so soon. These are the ones with lasting impacts—the ones that drift apart so slowly you could swear there wasn’t an exact moment when everything changed.

If you have a friendship that is worth a thousand moons, hold onto it like the world holds onto gravity because both don’t exist without the other.

Please Don’t Take Offence… I’m Just a Little Weird.

Darren Clift

 

We all have those days when we just don’t feel like talking to other people. It’s not that we don’t like them… It’s just that the particular day you’re having is what you would define as an “off day”. Perhaps you’re bummed out by an unpleasant mark or you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Perhaps conversations with others have never come easy to you, simply because you’re shy or you don’t know how to carry a conversation and respond to social cues. Or, you avoid talking to others in any way possible, in which case, I’m afraid to say, you’re a socially awkward person. Take it from someone—yeah, me—who is just now starting to explore what it means to have dynamic and meaningful discussions for the first time as a young adult. Yes, many of my attempts at conversation come across as forced and uncoordinated, but they reflect the kind of person I’ve been for most of my life.

I’ve always struggled to make conversation with others; it’s been a constant struggle of mine ever since I outgrew my overconfident personality in grade school. That doesn’t mean I’m rude or that I dislike other people—I’m just a little unsure about how to respond and act around others in social settings. This tendency of mine to shy away from talking to others has led me to live a quiet lifestyle: I read a lot of books, watch a lot of YouTube, I don’t attend very many parties or social gatherings and I rarely use social media. Does that mean I’m weird? Well… Maybe a little, but by no means am I a rude or inconsiderate person. I often go out of my way to accommodate others, even if they choose not to acknowledge it. It’s just the way that I am: I’m an introvert who makes subtle attempts at being extroverted. They may not always have the desired effect, but they are just that: attempts to finally put myself out there.

If these qualities are reflective of you as well, socially awkward weirdoes unite! But seriously, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Try to outgrow your necessity to avoid conversations, and instead find some other way to interact meaningfully with others. At our core, we all have the desire to get along with everyone. Sometimes that gets lost in translation, or by an apparent inability to communicate effectively.

To those that love to talk, please don’t take offence. We socially awkward students just take time to come out of our shells. Please don’t confuse our reluctance to share information with abrasiveness—we want to get to know you, but we might not know how to do so effectively. We all have ideas that are worthy of being shared. Just remember to be patient and to give others a chance, because there is surely some social context in which we all feel a little weird.

Social interaction, Our Long Lost Friend

Christine Sharma

 

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By myself, as usual.

I spot an available Mac in the Mac lab in IB.

I slide into a chair and fire up the computer, tea in hand, iPhone tangled in wires, earphones rested in ears.

I click on Microsoft Word.

I see the girl to my right lean towards me and whisper:

“Can you watch my bag?”

What do I say?

  1. NAH.
  2. *tight head nod, still staring at screen*
  3. *look over and smile* Of course!

Ten points if you guessed the second one.

Ah, the day-to-day struggle of a UTM student. Watching other people’s things, participating in class, taking public transit, being a group member—a series of social interactions. I don’t know about you, but as the years have passed and I’ve developed into an average third-year UTMer, I have become less and less inclined to interact with people even though my day is full of potential interactions.

Imagine yourself as a first-year student. You just got out of high school, super-involved, super-excited. You hop off the bus; you thank the bus driver. You walk into lecture; you smile at the prof and your peers. You take a seat; you try and make conversation with the people next to you. Someone asks you to watch their bag; you smile and say okay and wonder if your new best friend just asked you to watch their things. The possibilities! The people! Life!

Naiveté. Yes, I am blaming university for my decreasing social skills and general life excitement.

Personally, as the years have passed, I prefer to stick my earphones in my ears, keep my head down and text through the hallways, and grunt as opposed to talk. Often, I find that I don’t want to say things anymore, don’t want to meet people anymore. Is something wrong with me, or do the years of solo studying, music-listening, texting, reduced social events, and oversized classes have an isolating impact on the average UTMer?

I’m going to guess the latter. Haven’t you seen the posts on Spotted? You know, the ones about being sad and not having made any friends at UTM.

Let’s think back to my impromptu list of social interactions that we all have in an average day, and some more: passing your bus driver, sitting beside people in lecture, being a group member, buying food, coffee, or a book from a cashier. These interactions are what we make of them, and, personally, I haven’t made much.

I’m not going to advise you to join a club. I’m not even going to advise you to do a 180 and magically keep your head up in the hallways and smile at everyone.

I think that it’s more important to make the few social interactions that you are presented with worthwhile. Think of them as practicing your social skills in the little time you get to be social on campus, for the real world.

You know, the place with jobs and lives we all work for in our time here.

Can we make a pact to work on our social skills together? University should not be the land of retreating into our shells—these are supposed to be some of the best years of our lives.

So, the next time we get off the bus, let’s thank the bus driver. Let’s say “hi” to our cashiers, let’s put our hand up once in lecture, let’s smile at two people a day, let’s create quality small talk, let’s make eye contact with people we talk to, even the people who ask us to watch their things.

Together, we can get our social skills back, UTMers! This is not the end of our personalities.

Tackling the Abyss – Life After University

Hamna Awan

“So, What’re Your Plans After University?”

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Should I be a scientist?

Should I be a teacher?

Should I be a building???

Should I be a cat?????

Ah, the great existential question. Perhaps the most important of our young adult lives—and certainly one on all our minds as we near the end of our undergraduate careers and prepare to be launched into the bloodbath that is the job market.

The truth is, the possibilities are endless. All we really have to do is weigh our preferences with our talents and skills, and match those up with real world opportunities.

So then, what is it about this question that makes it seem so absolutely terrifying?

Personally, I think it’s fear.

The fear of incompetence. The fear that what we are setting out to do is beyond our measure of talent and ability.

We fear that a few years from now, we’ll be struggling while our friends and classmates are thriving—that we’ll have to return to the herd hanging our heads in defeat because we failed. I mean, we’re terrified that we’ll be knocking back a few with all our accountant and lawyer friends who knew exactly what they were going to do and who they were going to be right from freshman year, and who now earn six-figure salaries. (Guess who’s picking up the tab tonight…)

And this fear can be all-consuming—if we let it.

As a third-year student myself, I feel like I’m standing right at the edge of the cliff, preparing to take the plunge. And the closer I get to the summer of 2016, the more time I spend trying to tackle the uncertainty of life after university. I find these thoughts and fears flying through my mind on almost a daily basis. Scratch that—definitely on a daily basis. Multiple times a day, really.

What is it that I really want to do in the world? Where can my degree take me? Will I be earning enough money to lead a comfortable and happy lifestyle? Is this field something I can see myself in for the next 40 years or so? Will I be good at it?

And believe me, there are times when I get so confused and frustrated in trying to figure out my life that I just want to curl into a fetal position and let the emotional roller coaster take me where it may. (If you ever find me in this position—you now know why. Do not be alarmed.)

With that said, there are a couple of things I think is important to keep in mind.

Número uno: It’s not about the money.

Okay, kind of. Money is important, because we need it to survive and exist in today’s consumer-driven culture. But really, money is not everything.

I once read a Buzzfeed article and something from it stayed with me. It was about a nurse who documented the things the elderly would say on their deathbeds, and specifically what their biggest regrets were—the most common of them being that they had spent too much time trying to earn more and more money, and not enough time with their loved ones.

Am I alone in saying this gives me chills?

Lesson? Do not waste your youth trying to obtain wealth—the best kind of wealth is in the form of experiences and loved ones. I mean, no one on their deathbed is gonna talk about how happy they are that they still have a million dollars in the bank.

Número dos: You answer to you.

And no one else. The only standards you have to live up to are your own.

You decide your life. You decide what it is you’re going to do and how you’re going to spend your time. If you truly believe that the only way you’re going to be happy in the world is to obtain mass amounts of material wealth—hey man, by all means, go for it. You’re the only one who has to live with your decisions at the end of the day.

I realize this blog post was a bit of a whirlwind experience, but if there’s anything you take away from it, I hope it’s this:

  • You can do whatever it is you want in the world—you just have to know what that is.
  • Establish your priorities, and keep in mind the grand scheme of life.

How To: Absolutely “Kill” a Presentation

Christine Sharma

 

So your prof assigned a presentation and you’re tired of Googling presentation tips. You’ve come to the right place, grasshopper.

November is my least favourite month—university students are loaded with tests, quizzes, midterms, assignments, essays, and, yes, presentations! As a third-year student in CCIT, English, and French, I’ve been through my fair share of presentations and have about three this month, too. Throughout my journey, I’ve picked up three all-encompassing tips on turning your daunting presentation into a breeze.

Read on, and the next time your prof says “presentation”, you’ll be volunteering to go first.

There are two components to any presentation: the verbal and the visual. My usual method is to create the verbal part first, then decide the visual part.

                       1.  Ooh, Kill ’Em: Verbally

The key to the verbal aspect of your presentation is simplicity. The verbal part of your presentation shows how well you know your topic in terms of how well you can explain it. If your topic is complicated, divide it into sections.

Tell your audience what section of the topic you’re about to talk about and, briefly, why it’s important. You don’t want to confuse your audience with complicated jargon (Google: “special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand”). Define difficult words and break your topic down to its simplest terms.

Ensure eye contact with your audience (or random eye-level wall corners), a clear voice, and a smile now and again. Use cue cards with maximum three points on each card. Sometimes, I only write a sentence per card. Speak with passion—if you sound interested, your audience will be too.

                        2.  Ooh, Kill ’Em: Visually

The key to the visual aspect of your presentation is also simplicity. You’ve probably heard the phrase “death by PowerPoint”—I know I have. But PowerPoint is not a “deadly” visual as long as you keep your slides simple.

With any visual you choose (skits? Prezi? PowerPoint? Posters? Hand gestures?), take the main point of your presentation and make it explicit. Save the text for talking points; the visuals are your clarity tools. Keep a two-colour minimum on your visuals, and minimize text to stress only the main points of your topic to your audience. You can limit yourself to one point, or one word, or one picture per slide on a PowerPoint, for example.

And remember, a presentation is not just an assignment worth marks for a class.

I mean, that’s one way to think of it. But a presentation is literally anything that you present, or anything that you show other people.

You present yourself to the world every day through how you dress, how you speak, what you say, and even how you walk. Store branding presents a store to consumers. The Internet presents information to people with Internet access. Any situation where communication is happening is essentially a presentation.

I like to think of communication with a simple goal in mind: what do I want to get across? What’s the point?

The underlying component of your presentation once you figure out your goal is creativity.

                         3.  Ooh, Kill ’Em: Creatively

Even the key to the creative aspect of your presentation is simplicity: using a simple, straightforward design. How are you going to get your point across to a lecture hall full of your peers, to a potential employer in an interview, or to the date that you have tonight?

The best part about presentations is that you get to be creative: papers and tests have formats, but for the most part, presentations don’t. You can use the space in the room, your peers’ participation, your group members if you have any, posters, skits, props, anything! For the brief time that you present, you are in complete control—how will you use it?

Presentation is an art—get creative!