UBC Alumni.

When I was in high school and I was presented with the chance to choose which ever university I wanted to apply to, I only chose one. I chose Okanagan University College. I chose OUC because it was close to my grannie who was quite ill. I thought that I would do 2 years at home then move on to a larger, more recognized institution to get my degree.

However, the world had other plans. All of the relatives moved away, including my mom, leaving me as the only caregiver for my grannie. Some people might see this as unfair to me, but I loved my grannie to the ends of the earth and it didn't even occur to me that I should transfer to a larger institution. I was aware that applying for jobs would be a little more difficult, but in true young person style, that was in the future and thereby didn't warrant much thinking about. I went on with my life, spending a lot of time with my grannie, and even taking a pile of extra classes to make me more appealing to UBC when I would apply to get into the Post Degree Program for my BEd.

In my last year (5th) of university my grannie got really sick during the spring semester. At the same time I wanted to make sure that I had taken every education related class that I could, so I had 125% course load. I spent a lot of time with her and missed a lot of classes. Most of my professors really understood, except for one who wouldn't give me an extension citing that I had known about the paper all semester. I ended up failing that class, but Grannie pulled though and I graduated.

That summer I applied to UBC while I was in Calgary, but I still had all of my mail going to my mom's address in Peachland where I was living while she was away. Apparently on my application to UBC I made a mistake and they sent me a letter asking me to rectify it. Unfortunately I didn't receive the letter in time and I missed the application. I never went to UBC, I didn't get my BEd. I went to Korea.

While I was in Korea my grannie died. It was the worst gut wrenching feeling I had ever felt to read the email from my mom telling me that the most important person in my life had died. I didn't go home to go to her funeral. I didn't want to deal with all of the family crap that accompanied her death. I feel I got the best thing from her; I spent more time with her than anyone. I didn't need her jewelry, or any of her other possessions which were distributed through out the family. I had the best memories and I was grateful for that.

After I got back from Korea, life went on as it does and I never applied to UBC again. I ended up in a completely different industry than I ever thought I would be in and I met Adam etc. But a few years ago OUC was sold to UBC. I was a little upset by this, because OUC only granted its own degrees for a few years. Previously it was a UBC degree at OUC, or a UVic degree at OUC. Now there was to be only 7 years of OUC degrees out there, making my degree even less recognizable. Then I heard though the grapevine that UBC was going to grant the 2000 OUC graduates UBC degrees. I checked the website and I see that they agree in principle that they SHOULD do this.

And the wind was taken from my sails.

On the website they said that they would discuss it this September and make a decision then. So I checked the website daily, and nothing. And then today, there is a section stating that they are going to grant the degrees to us! I will get to be a UBC graduate! Needless to say, I am happy. I know that it's really moot for me to want to have the degree now, I don't need to beef up my resume, but it's the principle.

I never resented my grannie for me choosing to stay in the Okanagan. I know that she was really happy that I stayed and she would have never held me back. It was really hard for me to leave her and go to Korea; I honestly thought that she would still be alive when I got back. I went to Mexico that year also and I made her promise me that she would stay healthy, so when I went to Korea she made the promise again.

I guess the moral to all of this that sometimes Karma is a bitch, and other times it's in your court. I am happy with the decisions I've made, and sometimes the universe recognizes them.