I grew up hearing that university would be the best years of my life, where I would figure everything out. I would come out the other end with a better understanding of myself and the world, and after graduating, my friends and I would look back on these years fondly.[Read More…]
Off the Board
Modern stories, modern media
It is a cold and wintery night as my dad and I dart into Saint-Laurent’s Mainline Theatre. We trudge up the narrow steps and slide into the foyer, just in time for the show. That night’s act was organized by the Confabulations, a Montreal-based storytelling collective. I always look forward[Read More…]
Where Tim McGraw meets Fairuz
I’ll admit it: I like country music. Call me what you want, but Josh Turner’s “Would You Go With Me” and Tim McGraw’s “Just to See You Smile” will always make me feel some type of way. Though a lot of the newer music can be painful to listen to,[Read More…]
Finding solitude in a digital world
I am astonishingly bad at being alone. I mean this in every possible interpretation of that phrase. I struggle at being comfortably single as opposed to being in committed relationships. I experience anxiety if I go a large portion of the day without talking to or interacting with someone else.[Read More…]
The consequences of “locker room talk”
Content warning: Mentions of sexual violence From where he was standing, he could not see me. All he saw was a young woman, possibly alone, sitting inside Juliette et Chocolat, enjoying a dessert. She was not making eye contact or flirting. She was just sitting. That is when he, the[Read More…]
A lesson from my mom
I am sure that my mom is not the best cook in the world, but at some point in my childhood, I realized that all of my friends’ parents couldn’t cook nearly as well as my mom could. Every night, even when she complained of being tired or of a[Read More…]
Overcoming human challenges with transhumanism
Sometimes, being human involves tragedy: unexpected accidents can alter a person’s future, permanently changing how they need to approach their daily lives. Those with traumatic brain injuries suffer long-term mental and physical challenges, such as trouble with their working memory span, which can play a significant role in their education[Read More…]
The mental impacts of physical injury
When I was 16, my dream was to play soccer and run track at university, and perhaps even at the professional level. At the time, sports were my social life, my confidence booster, and my joyful escape from the stress of academics. But adolescent dreams die hard. In my third[Read More…]
In defence of texting like a man
I am, for the most part, a happy person, but I would not be described as cheery by my friends or family. However, if you were to read one of my emails or Slack messages, I am a bubbly ball of joy. Until last week, I forced exclamation marks into[Read More…]
Lessons from my hometown
I grew up in a trailer park in Upstate New York. Having moved several times throughout my early childhood, I remember moving into the trailer with my mother and brother as an exciting moment: Even though I had to share my bedroom, it was the largest one that I had[Read More…]
