“There was nothing left to do

And the butterflies turned to dust they covered my whole room”

Ever since September began, time for relaxation has pretty much been non-existent and boredom has become moments of luxury. There’s always more work, more studying, more readings to be done, and more often than not, I feel so overwhelmed with work that I feel like I’m trapped in a whirlwind of academia. Yes, I do enjoy learning to an extent, but when you new concepts are shooting at you at the speed of 13 assignments a week, material just doesn’t absorb into my fried brain; hence, i turn to crash course youtube videos. Shout out to Hank and John Green for enlightening me with knowledge when professors fail to do their job.

“Hung my head as I lost the war,

and the sky turned black like a perfect storm”

is exactly how I feel when I receive a less-than-stellar mid-term mark back. And also when it is 2am and I have yet to understand a very particular concept of a chemistry question. It drives me nuts when I’ve spent hours trying to figure a question out and then realizing that the professor does not even care enough to post the answers to the practices he gives us… k. thnx. but no thnx. bye.

My marks have dropped significantly although my effort has increased significantly from high school. In grades 9-12, I would start my homework at 9pm and would be finished by 11pm. Nowadays, you’ll find me either be asleep at 10pm and awake at 3am scrambling to finish work, or bed at 3am and up at 8am. What is a sleep schedule? I just know I really need one.

“Rain came pouring down when I was drowning

That’s when I could finally breathe”

Although my description of my university life involves a lot of me drowning in work, I am happy to announce that I am still hanging on. Maybe I haven’t drowned yet because I can swim one whole length only coming up to breathe once (thanks to my synchro coach who literally dunk my head back into the water when I was gasping for air doing those deadly “unders” post 400m freestyle warm-ups). I’m pretty sure I’ve lost a lot of brain cells during those swimming days from hitting my head so aggressively on the wall (dang backstroke and backflips). And thinking back, I remember how every time I tried to come up and breathe when doing the “fly” stroke from IM, the neighbouring lanes would somehow splash water at that same second I take a breath and make me choke on chlorinated water. So many good times at the pool. Being there 6 days out of the week for 2 hours a day, it was actually my home away from home. And then boom, crack, zap, pow, bang, sploosh, injuries came pouring in like rain in Vancouver.

“10 months sober I must admit

Just because you’re clean don’t mean you don’t miss it”

I may actually be 10 months sober from pools, but in contrast to the lyrics, I’m not “clean” from my sudden foot spasms (sorry if you have me on snapchat and witness my agonizing moments) and charley horses, nor am I “clean” from my runner’s knee and recurring shin splints (I hate dislike you so much shin splints. You won’t understand how much you continue to fail me). I’m a little messed up here and there, and I won’t deny that. It is also a little messed up that I’m writing this post at 12:49am and I am getting super delirious and my eyes are blinking every 2 seconds out of sheer dryness and sleepiness.

Guess I should either make myself a mug of matcha latte to keep me running, or go to bed. Right after this though. #priorities

This matcha latte is perfect for a little super good-for-you caffeine boost in the morning without being too strong for the early morning senses. I personally love matcha (it’s my favourite type of tea!), so I put a whole lot in. The photos don’t look super green because the colour really depends on the brand of matcha powder used. For me, I just used what I found in my pantry!