So now it's "the real world", huh?

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.