New is Always Better

Author: Lestyn V Lobo
Posted on September 23, 2020

How do you respond to a new environment? A new feeling? Do you feel terrified of the idea of being recognized by others? Or do you feel courageous enough to face the world with all you got? We all live with the common notion that having to make a transition to university will be quite petrifying; it can feel very much the same as having to bid farewell to your parents for the first time as you may your way into nursery or even kindergarten. This feeling may arise for one of several reasons: you may be quite unsure whether you will be accepted here; you may be quite unsure whether you have made the right choice about coming here in the first place; you may be quite unsure whether you will have just as much as fun you experienced in your previous adventure. The one thing I always follow when making a transition which comes to my aid whenever I truly need it the most is the rule that “New is Always Better”. 

You might ask yourself how does this four-worded simple rule help one during times of need; It is quite simple. You make a transition into your new life, your new beginning, your new journey with a profound hope and belief that everything will turn out to be better than it was before. While every bit of the task sounds quite easy and simple when put into words, some might find this rule to be quite hard to execute. That is where I come to the aid. I am an international student from Portugal currently in my first year of study here at Mount Allison University. Before making this transition to university, I had already been studying as an international student in Alberta, Canada. I was away from my family, hometown, old mates. I missed the food, my former lifestyle and had all the possible feelings one could possibly encounter when leaving their former life behind. During my transition to Alberta, Canada, I had a breakthrough. Although it did take me a while to acclimate to the new school in Alberta, I eventually made myself feel at home. I realized moving to Alberta to continue my education was, no doubt, one of the best things that could possibly happen to me. Instead of moping around about my past life and how I missed it, I decided to move forward and take complete advantage of this new life; I decided to make this new life in Alberta better than my former life. I pulled up my socks and held the courage to be recognized by trying out all the different activities and programs that school and the lovely town of Strathmore had to offer. Pulling myself forward with a glimpse of bravery and belief in myself helped me create a name, a tag, a spark in the lives of my former peers that life can truly be mesmerizing as long as you allow it to be. 

I followed the same rule when I had to make this transition to Mount Allision University. Knowing I had to self-isolate was quite disappointing initially as I knew isolation will hinder me from getting acquainted and will be a barrier between me and my fellow mates. But, the university had so much to offer to help each and every one us under isolation to already feel welcome. “These activities, despite done virtually and remotely is a perfect means to reach out to my fellow peers and get adjusted”, I said to myself when I first moved to campus to begin my isolation. That is when I started to look for the best ways and means to try and take full advantage of the long list of activities planned out by the delightful staff and students of Mount Allison. This list composed of trivia nights, movie nights, dining virtually with other self-isolating students, various check-in/check outs, soothe your soul sessions, tea with a stranger, and numerous webinars organized by upper-year students that assisted up to make this transition and self-isolating experience legendary. It did look quite different from the other years (but… come one isn’t New always Better). Well it was truly phenomenal, and I can confidently say that these two self-isolating weeks went by in a flash. With so many activities, events on the go, all of which looked quite different from the previous year's truly made it feel like we were all in this together. We gained the chance to experience a new means of interaction with our fellow peers, a new set of activities, a new kind of orientation; having been forced to try something new truly made this initial experience with Mount A truly exceptional.  

This, my friends, is one of the best ways to get connected and to instantly make this new life here at Mount Allison a better life - better than your middle school life, and better than you high school life. It is all up to how you choose to go about it: you may at first feel uneasy and insecure to join your international buddy group chat; uneasy to go outside during the outdoor times allotted to your house to connect with others; uneasy to acclimate to this new place you will be calling home for the new few years of your life. You cannot presume how some event or activity will turn out to be without first giving it a shot. In the same way, you will not know whether an individual is friendly or not without first confronting them and initiating a conversation with them. This new life will be so much better once you ask yourself what you truly desire. One can only get rid of their comfort boundaries by choosing to leap forward and making a tiny itsy-bitsy attempt to try and make their new life better. We have been given several opportunities here at Mount Allison University through their variety of programs and activities to connect, to progress, to have fun; it is up to us now to choose and ask our self: do we want this new transition to university to be better ignoring the current situation we are currently all facing? Or do we want to continue to be uptight and deter ourselves from having given the opportunities to have the best time of our current lives here at Mount Allison? It is quite a simple rule an individual, like me, has chosen to follow to bring about a change and better connect with this world despite the unprecedented time we are all faced with.  

“New is Always Better” and none of the old movies you watched, the old places you visited, the old people you have met, the old food you have tried can ever be as good as the new things in life that you still have yet to experience and the new folks you still have yet to meet as this is you now, the new you motivated to be recognized and to leave a tag and a spark behind. While we all glance at this current conundrum with hatred and despair as it has, no doubt, hindered our freedom and took away the very essence of living, we could always choose to apply the rule of “New is always better” to seek a different perspective of this pandemic altogether; Since this will obviously stick around for quite a while, we have no choice but to adhere to this new way of living. New norm, new policies, new strategies does not mean it is all over for you, use this new hindrance as a steppingstone to make your life here at university even better. Honestly, if you start to look at life with this new perspective, nothing can deter you from achieving the best time here at Mount Allison regardless of the pandemic or not.

Photo: A photo of me!