The day’s schedule was on the blackboard as always: lecture, lecture, workshop, lunch, lecture... surprise.
“What’s the surprise?”
“You guys will find out.”
The Program Assistants never tell us what the surprises are, or anything else about the day other than the schedule. There’s no point asking them because they’ll always give the same enigmatic response. So we marched out to the lecture hall and eagerly listened to the many topics the lecturers spoke about. There were lectures on hydrology and river flow, marketing and promoting products, and perfecting the business pitch. Sweating from a game of dodgeball, we were told that we had fifteen minutes to change into dress pants, shirts and ties.
After several minutes of panicked scrambling, we were having dinner with engineering students whose projects ranged from race cars to satellites. We had an excellent opportunity to discuss our interests, career plans and dreams with students who had done it all, and we left with a better understanding of what we wanted to do.
Tomorrow will be another surprise. We don’t know what it is, but we’re sure it won’t disappoint. Still, we’re Shads, and it would be impolite not to ask.
Martin Deng, Shad Valley UBC 2012
