My friend told me "I'm a good daughter". My older friends in their 40-50's with kids have expressed similar sentiments, wanting a daughter like me or as a role model. I agree that I am a good daughter. I choose to be a good daughter because family is so important to me.

But, I'm not a nice girl.

I find people often associate "being a good daughter" with "being a nice girl".

I have dreams and people important to me. I will fight for those dreams and protect all those important to me. Often times this leads to actions that do not make me a nice girl, LoL.

I don't live to please people. I live to make my dreams come true, including loving and caring for those important to me.

Life has never been fair to me, so I don't expect it ever to be. Equal opportunity is important, but true fairness is elusive and impossible for humans to judge.

I'd rather have an important person hate me for being myself than love me for the illusion that I may have cast. But there's reasons they became important to me so I'll still continue to care.

I remember that barbeque you hosted at your place. I remember screwing up tossed salad and you covering for me later. I remember we played Euchre and we so won!! I remember you also got excited and even asked me to join you guys at karaoke. I remember you assuming I couldn't sing Chinese songs and asked me if I wanted to sing Backstreet Boys, lol. I remember it was 'cause I don't, and really can't (lol), speak Chinese with you guys. I remember singing Chinese songs anyways - or at least trying, lol. I remember that Chinese songs were my favourite songs to sing karaoke with.

I remember going to SLC to watch you break dance. I remember you hurting your arm and how absurd it was to me that you liked jumping off stairs and crazy stunts like that. I remember you walking me home... twice. I also remember you not liking to walk in the dark streets though, lol.

I remember working through system models concepts with you guys in Wedge lab. I remember you told me you got distracted by Digg and I found it hard to believe.

I remember talking Thermodynamics with you in Sweet Dreams. I remember we had such a great conversation and I really enjoyed it! I remember us meeting again in Williams and how our other friend ditched us - so unusual of her. >_>;

I remember studying Thermo with you in the library and having such a hard time. I remember how you proudly told me you got top in your class for thermodynamics. I remember I was really happy for you but I really couldn't tell you how I was doing in Thermo, lol. I remember I really wanted to stand beside you again, but really didn't know how.

I moved into Richmond Hill yesterday so I could start full-time work tomorrow as a software developer at Maxxian Integration. With grades unofficially out, I can safely say that I am done fulfilling requirements for my Mechatronics Engineering undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo. So now it's time for "the real world", huh?

Right now, it still feels like the beginning of a co-operative work term. If I wasn't half in "the real world" during most of my undergraduate career, maybe this transition would be a bigger leap than what I'm feeling right now.

I got to see off one of my best friends before she returned to Vancouver and we got into a discussion about how different our co-op program is at the University of Waterloo. Not all university students get to experience what we experience. Alternating work and study terms every 4 months is a hectic lifestyle - balancing classes, lab work, interviews in the middle of midterms, packing and moving every four months, finding places to live in new cities, keeping in touch with each other, building out our professional networks while we're still students, and dedicating ourselves to clubs, teams, and extracurricular activities.

It's stressful. It's not easy. But, it's amazing. Having been through it all, it really is amazing looking back and wondering how we managed to do it all. There's no dispute that it prepares us better for "the real world" better than the traditional university experience.