I’m a big-city girl who came to an even bigger city to study abroad at SFU. Looking back at my freshman days, I realize that a lot has occurred and a lot has changed; those things have shaped me far more than anyone could’ve predicted.

Stereotypical hurdles like the freshman fifteen might’ve been a myth for me, but my first year consisted of a lot of other failures, including a failing grade among the marks on my transcript.  I thought, how could I be salvaged? My redemption seemed to be out of the question. So at the first sight of danger, I ran back to my big city in India for the entire summer.

I did return, though, and my sophomore year was a year of transition. I mellowed my natural tendency to party, I tried to be more organized and disciplined, and I managed to turn my Cs into lousy Bs. Even though there were times where I was critically harsh on myself for making what I felt wasn’t nearly enough progress, I just kept swimming.

Sure enough, I made it to shore. My third year took a complete turn: I hit my first A, while taking a bunch of extra curriculars and managing time as if I were running on a 25-hour clock. I made all the time I needed.

But, hey! I gave myself three years to get to a healthy position, and contrary to expectations, healthy doesn’t have to translate into perfect. I still hand in assignments at 11:59 a.m. on Turnitin, each time telling myself that I’ll never do it again. I reach my lecture halls panting and I still get distracted during lectures as I scroll through food pages on Instagram.

I make all of these mistakes as a third year student. Who cares? I’m ready to stomp through this spring, not because I have a universal solution to academic success, but because I know I have to keep going forward — quite simply, because it’s my ambition.

It’s not about getting As, or even an undergraduate degree. It’s growth in my academic field; learning more of what I’m studying, for the sake of learning. It’s showing up on time for meetings and lectures, catapulting myself into an unshakeable routine. It’s developing the necessary zeal to not fall back into a slump. Most of all, my ambition is to be as self-reflective as I can be.

I’ve realized a few things over the course of my SFU experience. My procrastination isn’t a result of my incapability to manage time; it’s because I’m lackadaisical, and sometimes cocky about my abilities. I grumble or struggle with assignments when I haven’t put enough thorough research into them. I repeatedly justify myself with, “I could have easily scored better if I had put in more time.” Realizing that these justifications were excuses, not reasons, was what led me to connect the dots of my shortcomings.

I formed bad habits and let myself believe I was hardwired to behave the way I did, but that is so not true. Breaking habits requires a lot of conscious effort, but believe me, a little time and introspection can break through the thickest habit that you have.

You’re a sinner if, for one second, you believe that you aren’t capable of ridding yourself of the person you’ve been before — even worse, a convict for letting yourself stay stagnant. Keep swimming.

Going home for the holidays is always a welcome escape from school and the everyday hustle and bustle of life. However, ‘back home’ for me is the boonies, the sticks, the country. While the slower pace is nice, I always get a little more slow than I bargain for. Slow Internet, that is.

Sometimes, it’s slow enough to be deemed unusable. The idea of Internet in the bush is more of a symbol or an idea, a technological feat to strive for, than an actual service. With the United Nations declaring the Internet a basic human right in today’s technology-minded world, it’s astonishing that some rural areas still don’t even have basic access.

I’m not just a millennial with a socially acceptable addiction to being connected: the Internet is essential and crucial to functioning in our current society. So, it’s about time the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) decided to treat broadband Internet access as a “basic telecommunications service,” which means it’s finally time for them to give us in the countryside all the Internet.

They report that they hope to reduce the 18% of Canadian homes without adequate Internet to 10% in the next five years, and eradicate it entirely within the next 10 or 15. They’re also requiring service providers to put money into a fund — projected to grow to about $750 million worth — to facilitate these changes.

This may translate to increased prices on services to compensate. With no regulation on rates accompanying the new mandate, consumers are in a tight spot: if the CRTC makes service providers pay more money, those providers will take it straight from our pockets, and without proper policies in place, there’s no telling whether or not we’re going to be charged fairly.

The overall goal is to be able to offer high-speed Internet services to rural areas, with only the hope that they will be affordable. This isn’t good enough. This doesn’t equate to providing adequate Internet to all citizens, not when that access might itself be unfairly inaccessible for financial reasons. This lack of foresight demonstrates a real failure to provide the fundamental human right. What, exactly, is the CRTC doing?

The CRTC has come under fire for being stuck in the past and an obsolete regulator, but in spite of those flaws, it’s still the only credible Canadian regulator which is separate from government. While policing the Internet has always been frowned upon, financial regulation done in the interest of providing it for everyone at an affordable price would be in the best interests of Canadians.

The Internet has become key to meeting our most basic human needs. Newspaper classifieds have gone the way of the dodo. Finding a job, finding a place to live, and, not to mention, socializing is all done via a broadband connection. Even inmates have the right to access the web. Providing Internet service to all at a respectable speed is imperative, but not the final goal — it needs to be at a reasonable price, and we need to do more to ensure that.

Canada is ranked only 33rd in the world for Internet speed. If the CRTC is going to be relevant in our expanding technological society, it needs to work harder to protect the ‘public interest,’ even if the regulations and policies necessary to truly accomplish that are at the expense of the companies which provide Internet services.

Did you know that your hobbies and interests are subject to review by a jury of Reddit users with ugly neckbeards, elderly people with control issues, coworkers who think the whole world is a high school, and countless others? No? Good, because they aren’t, and you’re allowed to like whatever you like.

Unfortunately, a lot of people miss that memo. A shocking number have quite a lot of shit to say about the food, movies, games, etc. that others love, and if you’re not sure which rude busybodies I’m referring to, let me break down a few examples for you.

The snobby film buff

Wearing glasses fatter than Andrew Petter’s wallet and sweltering under that quirkily mismatched infinity scarf-vest combo, his voice echoes every time you turn on Mean Girls: “You obviously don’t know real movies.”

Um, no, I just have concerns beyond who had the deepest and artsiest cinematography or who’s closest to your vision of “Hollywood in its prime,” such as. . . enjoying myself. I’m not following the crowd by preferring pop culture icons over whatever obscure ‘60s movie you pulled out of your ass to prove your heightened taste. I’m just appreciating that film quality comes in a lot of varieties.

Overly conservative parental figures

No, playing Grand Theft Auto won’t instantly transform me into a delinquent. No, your kid didn’t become a sexual deviant because I introduced them to Spring Awakening, or because they like trashy magazines. On that note, if you are not, in fact, my parent, then I don’t know why you’d think you have any right to tell me what I can and can’t spend my time on, or to place any moral judgment on me.

Even if you are, please trust that you probably raised a good child, and that the world won’t flip inside-out if they consume some media you don’t agree with. If they trust you enough to be open with you about their interests, please return that, and let them be their own people.

The bigoted greaser in the fedora

People who think you can’t like, or must like, a piece of art due to your particular arrangement of gender, sexuality, or race are the enemy. These people might not tell you to your face that they feel that way, but you can see it in their attitudes: girls can’t like comics and still be feminine, straight boys can’t like magical girl anime, and all Asian people listen to K-pop.

This isn’t just being a dick; it’s outright discrimination and ignorance. Also, your 30-plus-year-old ass doesn’t get to tell me I’m ‘too young’ to ‘really appreciate’ Neon Genesis Evangelion until you lay off the friendship-wielding ponies.

The health nut

If you think you can change my diet when I, living in my own body, haven’t — think again. Other people’s eating habits can be a sensitive topic, and unless you really know what the other person is okay with and have a very legitimate reason for worry, it is absolutely not your job to micromanage them.

There are more categories than these for sure, and, not everyone who seems to fit the above descriptions is really malicious. I’m also not saying you can’t speak honestly about disliking what others love. But be aware of the line between sharing your feelings and crapping all over somebody else’s.

Ultimately, use your common sense and don’t be a colossal asshole when there’s zero interest in your rude opinion.