Chastin Martel

College is one of the best experiences in life! It might sound scary but it’s not as intimidating as you might think.

I got to experience college for the first time in the fall of 2022. It was at the end of August 2022 when I moved to attend SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) in Calgary for Film and Video Production.

I remember being so excited to move to Calgary solo for the first time for college and was eager to move into my dorm. Everything felt so refreshing and new to me, I was a young adult ready to conquer all the assignments and projects that were about to come my way.

The first day of classes came around and I remember not knowing the entire campus just yet, so as expected, I was late to my first class. I was very shy and was timid, but who can you blame when you’re in a room full of strangers for the first time?

All the classes in the first year seemed so easy besides the quizzes and tests in the production class. The tests were very technical. They were all about memorizing camera equipment, types of lighting equipment, the list goes on. I remember being so afraid of failing the tests but I got through them all with some passes and some fails. Everyone fails a test!

The one thing I wanted out of this college experience was making friends. Everyone was so friendly in the beginning, and so was I whenever I had the chance to speak to someone. I made several friends throughout my time at SAIT but most of them fell through the more we went on because of class drama. Our class faced many dramatic instances. I was in a few myself and it was very messy at times.

I was finding myself not liking certain people, finding out people were talking about me behind my back, calling out drama in our class group chat, and even frustration with our instructors in second year. As far as I know, that group chat, still exists. I removed myself from it a month or two before graduation. I remember being extremely stressed about the drama I faced with classmates.

But none of it mattered once I graduated!

The second and final year of college was a letdown. All the instructors felt like they just gave up, we weren’t learning as much as we wanted to learn in second year and I was finding myself stressed with all the assignments.

One friend stayed friends with me right until the end of the program. Her name is Zion and she is from Seoul, South Korea. Her soul is very pure, she’s very kind and I appreciate her a lot. We basically helped each other get through that program at SAIT. I consider her one of my close friends and we’ll likely end up being friends for the remainder of our lives. I enjoyed collaborating with her with various projects, we liked being together for paired assignments and such.

My first college experience was not the best but I learned a lot, not just about the course I was studying but about life as well. Life is not fun and games and anyone can agree with that.

I’m looking forward to another college experience soon. Hopefully, it doesn’t end up being like my first one.

My advice to anyone debating on going to college is to just go and have fun but also, do your assignments on time.