To New Friends

At UWI, in the faculty of Engineering, the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is divided into three different degree classes: Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering with Biosystems and Industrial Engineering. While the Biosystems section doesn't spilt off until their final year, the Industrial class does. Now there’s always some friction between the industrial class and the mechanical class. The Industrial engineering class has slightly easier courses and a less ugly timetable than mech, so they usually bug the mech students about that. The mech students usually counter with the fact that they are more likely to get jobs that they are. Being in the Industrial engineering class, I’m usually caught up in this. Sometimes, I think about switching from Industrial to Mechanical, but after today, I’m pretty sure I’m doing the right degree.

Today, we (industrial) had a lab, which clashed with one of our classes. So as not to cause a big commotion when we left, we all sat in one row (we’re a really small class, just thirteen of us). We should have figured out though, that if all sat together we’d have the opposite effect than what we were hoping for. Most of the class didn’t know why we were leaving, so the majority of them turned to look. When we got to the lab, we found out it was cancelled, because we hadn’t gotten the opportunity to print the lab scripts and do the pre-lab. Knowing fully well that the entire class saw us leave, we decided we couldn’t go back to that lecture, so we decided to go print the lab scripts and do the pre-lab so that we’d be ready for the rescheduled lab. As we walked across campus in a group, we laughed and talked about various things, from the Twilight Saga to our ‘Indus’ theme song.

We sat together in an empty classroom, did the pre-lab together, broke for lunch and then did some studying for a next course we have, laughing and talking all the way through. It may not seem like a recipe for an incredibly exciting day, but I was probably one of the best days that I have ever had in university. Better than the first day NG talked to me (ß if you don’t know that that means, stick around. I may write a post on that someday).

I’ve always have friends in college, and they’re still my friends and I love them with all my heart. But today I found out that there’s something magical about being in such a small class where you can all hang out together at the same time. I think my heart grew a couple sizes today, to hold the love I feel for my new friends. I don’t care if I never get a job with my degree. I’m happy to be an Industrial Engineering student, because, as we go through these next two years together, we'll become more that just friends. We'll be family.