The end of a sandwich. You’ve eaten through most of your stacked meal and your thick fingers have squeezed the meat toward your mouth, leaving the last bite empty.
It’s two pieces of bread. Maybe there’s some mustard stuck between them. The end of a sandwich sucks.
But, all sandwiches end and, like my favourite hand-held meal, so do all semesters.
I have finished semester one of the Creative Communications program at Red River College and, somehow, it sucks.
It sucks that for a month I don’t get to surround myself with uber-creative and ultra-good-looking people. It’s disappointing, like the empty end of a sandwich.
The best thing about the empty end of the sandwich, however, is that it means the bites before must have been extra meaty. They were. While I race around to print and submit my last assignments, I can’t help but look back on the past few months.
When I do, I realize something ‘amazenuts’, as Tammy Schuster would say.
I’ve learned.
I’ve actually learned.
In such a fast-pace program I rarely have time to pause, turn around, and take a look at just how shitty I was three months ago. Which means I also don’t have a chance to see how much I’ve grown since then. Through all of the auto-fails (auto fails, autofails, aut0failz) and late-nights on InDesign, I’ve actually learned.
I can see where I’ve improved. Not only do my marks suggest an upward trend, but I actually feel like I’ve learned.
Yeah, so what, you may say. Everybody learns. All the time.
Fair enough.
But usually, for me at least, it’s gradual. I went through two years of university without ever sensing an improvement in my ability to write an essay or structure a thesis. I wrote many of each, but never felt like they were improvements on the one before.
Here, I’ve actually learned. In three months. I’m so excited.
I’m excited for next semester. I’m excited for next year. I’m excited for the next five years. Five-hundred years.
I’m especially excited to put what I’ve learned into practice at the Winnipeg Free Press this winter. I’ll be an intern there for a couple weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll try to post all about the sandwiches I eat over the break. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see a sandwich review of mine in the Free Press this winter.
I’m so excited.
Power Goes Out (to eat) 
“I’m excited for the next five years. five-hundred years.”
This just in, everybody: Jordan’s immortal.
But I do agree, the other day I had a similar epiphany. It’s a great feeling to realize that all the pain and suffering of the past few months has made a difference.
I am excited to see you live for five hundred years
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Great post, Jordan! I completely agree with you. I’ve learned so much, I can actually walk away from this semester saying, “I learned how to do these USEFUL things.” That’s a first. I’m also not asking myself, “What were those courses about anyway?”
I’ve been so caught up lately in finishing everything on time, and just getting through the last bit of the semester that I haven’t taken the time to let it sink it – we’re a quarter of the way through the program, but more importantly, the uber-creative and ultra-good-looking people I’ve been with all term won’t be together next term. I feel like this is the end of a really good sandwich, one that leaves you satisfied, but wanting another one.
Good luck at the Free Press! I can’t wait to read your stuff 🙂