Hello, i'm back again here, after like 3 or 4 months of creating this blog for the portfolio.
The idea was to do this recurrently, but honestly I failed to do it.
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to dump my thoughts about Fall 2025 (a.k.a my first semester at UCalgary) and give some thought about it.
Good things that happened during Fall 2025
The first semester at university always feels weird. My mind couldn't comprehend that I was far away from home and it was not a trip, this change was "permanent". I was no longer speaking Spanish, but now I had to learn in English and live in English.
Mentally unfocused that turns into certainty
At first when I arrived, I wanted to go everywhere: watch a hockey match, walk down the river, explore downtown, etc. and I did that, I explored Calgary a lot and I feel that I settled in easily, and well, coupled with a semester with unusual low academic workload, it was perfect for me to believe this was an all-inclusive vacation. This unfocused me. During this time I had no projects, no ideas flowing through my mind and my sleeping schedule was all over the place.
Yes, it was fine, I wasn't sick or anything, but I felt empty inside and some feeling that I was wasting my time. There's a lot of resources, there's a lot of opportunities and I wasn't taking any of them. So I set my goal for next semester (as I realized this after finishing the semester) that I basically had to "lock in".
And I believe that this has to happen to everyone, to have this phase in life where you feel that you're not putting in the work to make progress and realize that not everything will be given to you.
So basically, Fall 2025 served me as a launchpad to start my second semester with the right mindset.
New city, New environment, New opportunities
Apart from the academic aspect of attending UCalgary, there's a lot of opportunities, especially at the Hunter Hub. It is basically an organization dedicated to "start something." (as cringe as it sounds to use the university's phrase.) and why wouldn't I start something? I mean, I am taking the certificate offered by them, and I also have knowledge to create a saas, and I have always liked business management, so why am I not using it?
What I'm trying to convey is that not always we realize the resources we have available to us and how useful they can be. We get a ton of emails we don't read fully that communicate to us the existence of these, there's advertising everywhere, like we know about this and we don't use it. We must start to notice them and use them, because they are there for us to use.
So basically, Fall 2025 also helped me realize the ton of resources (labs, ventures, etc.) that are available here that are useful for my career.
Good and not so good people
Getting to university is a great experience, especially in Canada: multiple different cultures in the same place, interacting and learning from each other. As a first-year in residence, I made sure to try and get out there (something that I never did) and get to meet people. This resulted, of course in great friendships, but also in friendships that I had to end because they weren't healthy for my mental wellbeing.
And that's something I value a lot. Being mentally calm so that everything goes into academics and career. Your life should be yours. You shouldn't be worrying about someone all day long, other than yourself. In life, the only person that is going to be behind your back always is you, and should be the only person that you should worry every day, all day long about. (And your wife, and parents, and family, but you get the point.)
The point that I'm trynna say is choose wisely who's gonna be in your close friends circle, who is worth it? who is happy when you are happy? who will be there for you when no one is? Choose them, and treat them right, treat them how they treat you and take care of genuine friendships, they are really difficult to find nowadays.
Anyway, Fall 2025, thank you very much, you were a great semester for personal growth and you were not annoying academically. There's no better way to kick-off university.
Thanks to everyone that reads this and yeah,
peace out