I am doing a series flashing back to each year of college as I am wrapping up my undergraduate degree next week! Read about my first year of college, second year of college and third year of college to catch up!

Fun fact: We don’t call it Freshmen, Junior, Sophomore and Senior year in Canada!! (I don’t even know if that is the right order! LOL)

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Considering I finished up my last week of classes of my undergraduate degree yesterday, it seemed only fitting that I do the wrap-up of my fourth year of college today.

What a whirlwind it’s been, and you guys have been with me every step of the way.

I don’t think it’s a huge secret that I haven’t exactly been happy with my final year of school. I’ve been dealing with some serious cases of Senioritis and towards the end, I literally would stop caring and started hating my life on days that I had to go to school. I think this was partially due to the program I’m enrolled in and the fact that I’m taking a different career path then originally intended and I also think it was due to the fact that I went to college straight out of high school.

I’ve been going to school full-time for 17 years. I’m ready for a break.

Anyways, my fourth year of college hasn’t been all bad, despite my grumbling posts.

It started with a bang on my 21st birthday, where I got far too drunk for my own good.

The first two months of my final semester I was balancing two part-time jobs, a full course load and finishing up the training for my third half-marathon, which I ran in October.

I spent a lot of time with my girlfriends, which was refreshing and fun as always.

Despite all of my complaining about school over the last few weeks, our Journalism end-of-the-year party on Wednesday was a very bittersweet event for me as it reminded me of the one thing I will miss the most about University.

The people I have met.

This is pretty much the entire group of people that I have gone to school with for the last two years:

On Monday I have my last final exam and on Thursday I hand in one more paper and then I am done.

While I am SO ready for the next step/phase in my life, it’s also bittersweet that this part of my life is coming to a close. I know I will miss it.

Tell me about your final year of college? Did you experience Senioritis like I did? Did you find it bittersweet when it all ended? What do you miss the most? I am 100% sure it will be the people!

Read about my first year of college here and my second year of college here.

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My third year of college was a huge transition year for me. A lot happened this year and I changed and grew up a lot. This is the year I kind of crossed over from immature “teenager” to a young adult.

When I think about my years in college I kind of split them up into two sets of two in my head. My first two years were at GPRC, in Grande Prairie, whereas in my third year I packed up all my things and moved across the province to Kamloops, B.C. to go to Thompson Rivers University. 1000 km away from everything I’d known my whole life.

I would say that this was also the hardest year for me emotionally. It started with me moving miles away from my friends and family and then when Eric came down a month later it was really hard for him to find a job, which had a very negative impact on our relationship. Too top it all off, near the end of my first semester we got in a car accident and were vehicle-less for six months. It kind of felt like Kamloops was “out to get us” and everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was a really emotional and hard year.

While it was a difficult year for mine and Eric’s relationship, it also changed our relationship for the better. We were miles away from home and we had only each other to rely on. Also, since we didn’t know very many people we hung out together a lot. The whole dynamics of our relationship changed and the things we learned about each other this year is the reason we’ve been able to not only survive, but thrive, through the last year of long-distance.

However, despite all of that, three very important and life-changing things happened in my life that year.

1. I started blogging.

2. We got Webster!

3. I started running.

I honestly don’t think I would be the same person that I am today if it wasn’t for these three things because they have become the things that literally define me. In a good way. Seriously, if someone only needed to know three things about me it would be that I’m a blogger (who loves the community), a fur-mommy (who is obsessed with her little fur-baby) and a runner (who is currently gearing up for training for her first marathon)! I honestly feel like those three things really define who I am! Is that terrible!?

Academically, my third year of college was my first year of journalism school. My past two years were just a bunch of random courses basically, and I loved it.

Journalism school was a whole different ballgame. At first it was challenging and interesting but it quickly became quite frustrating. I entered journalism school with a lot of passion and interest in becoming a journalist and I feel like the program I’m in basically killed that. But, that’s not to say that I’m not super happy about the career path that I’m on now!

OK, time for some pictures from my third year of college, these are a lot less “party-party” then the last two years, I told you, I grew up in my third year

The river in Kamloops and one of my favourite places to run.

This picture was taken the first night we brought Webs’ home! He was so lil’ and fuzzy!!

Towards the end of the semester I made some awesome friends! Here we are at an 80′s party.

And a girl’s night at my house.

And then at the very end of my third year of college I ran my very first half-marathon in Vancouver, after spending four months training for it.

So, tell me about your third year of college? Good? Bad? Did you do all four years at the same college or did you switch colleges like me?

Before I get into this flashback Friday post I want to tell you about my horrible day yesterday.

I ran over a cat.

Me and my friend Danielle were driving to her house when she shouted “That cat’s gonna get hit” as it darted in front of two cars, across the boulevard and right in front of my car.

Clerplunk.

It was the worst sound ever. I was SO upset. I pulled off the road and Danielle looked at the vehicle and didn’t see any fur or blood or anything and we drove back to look at it and couldn’t find it. A guy that was standing outside said he thought he knew what cat I was talking about and apparently it’s a stray. NOT that hitting a stray makes it OK but at least I know some little girl isn’t out looking for her kitty. Anyways, the whole thing really shook me up and kind of ruined the rest of the day for me.

OK, onto today’s post.

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See a recap of my first year of college here.

So despite my whiny, feel-sorry-for-myself post the other day, not all of my college years were as terrible as the last few weeks have been. In fact, I would say my second year of college was the most fun I’ve ever had.

By this point, I was comfortable with the college experience and felt more “in my zone”. I also had a lot of friends in Grande Prairie at this point so I was never lacking someone to hang out with.

If I remember correctly my second year of college started out with a bang, with ten nights or so of drinking in a row! Hey, I had to catch up with everyone after being gone for four months

I absolutely loved my courses second year, too. They were challenging, interesting and fun. Some of the classes I can remember off the top of my head were, pop culture, drama, history, native studies, political science, logic and a few others. All really fun classes that I actually enjoyed going to.

I worked part-time at the restaurant again and became really close with a few of the girls there and we went out quite often.

Another thing that was different this year was that Eric moved to Dawson Creek, B.C., which was only 1.5 hours from GP not 2.5 hours like FSJ. Being that extra hour closer made a world of difference! I could still go out with my friends on the weekends and go visit Eric for only one night or for the day. We used to have a lot of fun visiting each other on the weekends that year.

And finally, January 2008, which was the beginning of my second semester of my second year was when I started losing weight. Between January and May 2008 I lost about 25 pounds just by starting to work out regularly and by counting calories and actually learning about portion sizes. Goodbye, Freshmen 15! You can read more about my weight loss here.

Some photos from second year.

My 19th Birthday:

At a Rihanna concert:

Halloween 2007:

Our staff Christmas party (still consider this one of the most fun nights of my life!) Also, while I was looking through this folder on my computer for pictures to share I came across some of the DELICIOUS food we had that night so I thought I’d share that too:

My going away party at the end of the year (another night that is right up there with one of the most fun nights of my life!):

We started the night with green apple martini’s…

…and moved on to chocolate truffle cake.

Grrrrrr…

…shots, shots, shots!

Two very hungover girls the next morning! This was my last morning ever in Grande Prairie – I left town with my vehicle full a few hours later

Reminiscing this made me really, really miss my second year of college. It was such a blast and I made some amazing friends. There were countless nights spent drinking wine and having girl talk, going to the bar or just hanging out and watching movies. SO fun!

Which year of college was your favourite? Why? And tell me about your second year of college!

PS: The star of all those photos is my good friend Jen!