This is a guest blog by Samantha Cross, a history/French/English undergrad just trying to make it through 4th year alive. (P.S. she also plays the guitar and sings!)

Disclaimer: certain people may be offended by the following. This includes but is not limited to:

a) those irritating people who participate simultaneously with UTSU, the Varsity Blues, and The Trinity Tripod or whatever while maintaining a GPA of 4.0 (barf)

b) anyone who did not understand why I ended that with a “barf”, or

c) anyone who thinks that 15 pages for a paper is just not enough and always wants more, MOREEE!!!1

If you’re still with me, I feel for you. You’re probably like me – a fourth-year student, disillusioned after having all the Froshie enthusiasm beaten out of you by years of torture and abuse. The copious amounts of caffeine, the late nights, and tens of minutes spent cramming (THANK YOU WIKIPEDIA) have all taken their toll. You’re just trying to make it to Con Hall alive. And according to your countdown (there’s an app for that), you just have to hang in there for 35 days, 7 hours, 26 minutes and 8 (7! 6!! 5!!!) more seconds. So why does this semester feel like the hardest yet?

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There’s this rumour floating around that U of T students are super nerds who only care about their grades and have no social lives. What is never mentioned during this idle chit chat is WHY we care about our grades so much. I’m here to dispel the secret. Are you ready?

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We have some hot, scrumptious professors! Not only are they aesthetically gifted, they’re smart. What’s hotter than a smart, hot person? A smart, hot person with authority!

Now, now. I know you’re thinking, This is so superficial, and that I’m taking away from these professors’ brilliance. To that I say, calm down. Pick your head up out of your physics textbook or notes about revolution in Colombia, and take a moment. Walk with me for just a few minutes, and remember that we are young and thus required by law and our biology to take note of good-looking humans.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. There are Facebook groups, websites, and blogs devoted to amazing and gorgeous professors. They make sitting through long lectures in uncomfortable chairs worth it.

So who are some of these intellectual hotties? (AND WHEN ARE THEIR OFFICE HOURS?!) We at blogUT asked around, and came up with a list of twelve, whom we now present to you: (more…)

Is it just me or is everyone else doing one of…

1. Taking a break constantly, aka procrastinating, even though you’re supposed to be reading/writing that essay/studying for an exam.

2. Just plain tired/frustrated/angry from all the exams  you had last week or from all the assignments you’re doing that are due next week.

3. Gone on vacation but you know that you’re going to be miserable and regret ever going on vacation.

4. Back from vacation and wishing that you had a time machine to be back on vacation.

5. Lounging around at home feeling guilty for not being as productive as you should be.

6. Realizing that reading week was rather appropriately named.

7. Seeing friends/relatives because despite all your assignments, they are important to you after all.

8. Dreading the end of reading week.

9. Being a total miracle and is actually working.

10. Maybe, just maybe, having fun?

Any Mortal Kombat fan knows that saying, “Your soul is mine” is completely synonymous with that video game franchise. But did it ever occur to anybody how that same saying could be said by U of T itself? I was recently inspired by re-reading a post by one of our featured bloggers about university students. After reading, agreeing, and laughing along with how true those statements were, I had to ask myself, “How the hell did I allow university to steal my soul?”

We all know the saying, “U of T is a soul sucker” or something along that line. But what is it that makes this institution so… soul-sucking (for lack of a better term)? Is it the fact that we do nothing but study 99.9% of the time? Is it the fact that once we catch up in one class, we’re completely, and I mean COMPLETELY behind in the others? We go to the top school in Canada (since the last time I checked), so we should be proud of this accomplishment right, RIGHT?!

Although we do take some pride in being U of T students, we’re all in the same boat of losing our soul to this ever so awesome institution. How did our once brightly shining naïve selves become so jaded and lackluster?

In my personal experience, U of T has done the following to take over my soul:

- Although I try my best to catch up on my readings, it just never seems to be enough. The times I think I’m ahead, I’m actually just catching up with (everyone else in) the class. So I’m pretty much forever reading.

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A friend of mine shared this with me and I thought it was so funny I watched it twice. Notice how well-thought out and well-written the comments are (a rarity for YouTube).

Video highlights:

• Bart teases the students by telling them that an assistant professorship opened up.
• Bart cuts off the ponytail of a grad student, pretends to wear it, and says “Look at me, I’m a grad student. I’m 30 years old and I made $600 last year.”
• Marge tells Bart not to make fun of grad students, “they just made a terrible life choice.”
• Lisa throws breadcrumbs into the park and 4 grad students swarm in and start eating them off the floor hungrily.
• Their supervisor says, “No food for you grad students til you grade 3,000 papers” and whips them.

While browsing through U of T-related Tweets, I noticed a pattern — people were complaining left and right! Their grievances ranged from people talking in the library to not having cell phone service on campus. If I were part of the U of T admin, these would be enough to keep me awake at night.

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This is an ode to my fellow commuters. To the ones that wake up hours before class actually starts to have a successful commute downtown, to the ones that carry extra books and bags on the train just to make sure they have all their research books with them to the library, to the ones that know that at least once every two weeks, there is something wrong with the TTC…yes, this one’s for you!

I’ve been a commuter to this school for almost four years. I know, I know. It’s obviously not that fun being a commuter, but you do get to walk away with a few interesting stories every week. Every (other) week there’s always something wrong with the TTC, or some sort of delay. As commuters, we’re generally prepared for that. Music? Check. Book/reader in hand? Check. See? Being a commuter isn’t that bad! We get to “relax” for a few minutes from our adventurous journey in the tunnels of the TTC.

One of the best things about being a commuter is when you get to transfer at the busy stations, like Yonge and Bloor or St. George. My, my, those are fun; especially during rush hour, especially when you’ve got all your research books with you (in those U of T reusable bags of course)! Those stations are the equivalent to a can of sardines: People rushing past you, trying to enter the train when the doors are obviously closing and the train is already filled with people. Or how about when they try to enter the train JUST as the train stopped and everyone needs to exit first, YUP! Fun for all!

Since it is November, we all know what happens. Winter is coming, fast and furious. But that’s nothing for the commuters is it? Waking up even earlier JUST to ensure that your commute doesn’t have any problems, or wearing extra layers just because you know how cold it gets when you go home. Yes, commuters are certainly the lucky ones!

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