This past summer was a summer of long drives. I would put on a podcast, occasionally find a passenger, and hit the road in my beat-up blue Subaru. Ironically, at some point, while speeding on long stretches of Route 175, I also came to embrace moving slowly. I have always[Read More…]
Off the Board
How to take a Mattwalk
I’ve never been a great sleeper. If left alone, my brain will run a marathon’s worth of circles, especially when it has something to chew on. The problem came to a head during my first year. The more I contorted myself on my residence-supplied mattress, the more tightly constricted I[Read More…]
Birds: My mortal enemies
I didn’t see a single bird during the U.S. government shutdown between Dec. 22, 2018, and Jan. 25, 2019. While the feathery fiends in British Columbia may have just been taking the month off from antagonizing my fellow high schoolers on the frosty coast of Vancouver Island, I choose to[Read More…]
Green spaces tend the roots of ecological justice
This summer, I had the privilege of visiting my family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the first time. We stayed in Kinshasa for the duration of our trip, but part of me wished to see what was beyond the capital city. Deep down, my true desire was[Read More…]
Diary of a Dad Friend
Sometimes I wonder if I was destined to become the “Dad Friend.” The label attached itself to me well before my friends bought me “#1 Dad” socks for Christmas. It became almost certain when my roommate began saying “Thanks, Dad” as they slid over their leftover dinner for me to[Read More…]
Having it all: How to be a singer, journalist, and barista
For a large part of my adolescence, I was sure that I wanted to be a professional singer. For nearly a decade, I participated in competitive choirs, took voice lessons, and performed in more musicals than I could count. I dreamed of Broadway and worked toward it earnestly. If someone[Read More…]
All That Jas
My name is Jasjot. In Punjabi, Jasjot—pronounced “Jus-joth”—has a beautiful meaning: Light, radiance, fame, glory. In English, however, the name Jasjot—pronounced “Jazz-jot”—bears no significance. Growing up, I hated hearing my name. It was a blaring symbol of my Indian identity that excluded me from the dominance of whiteness. From the[Read More…]
Filling the massive hole in my life left by 15 years of competitive sports
There are many different ways to cope with anxiety. Some go for runs, others meditate––I tryout for sports teams. Until the fall of 2020, I was never an anxious person. Between the baseball diamond, the hockey rink, the gym, and the classroom, my day provided no break to dwell on[Read More…]
Finding Mr. Right in Indigo’s Bestsellers section
All of us have picked up a book advertised by Indigo as “a thrilling new romance between two forces of nature” only to find out it’s a drawn-out bore about two coworkers who are just afraid to ask each other out. Or maybe it’s about a woman falling in love[Read More…]
Hearing queers through new ears
I was not a podcast person until the world came to a halt. But upon frenzied shutdowns, curfews, and public health measures, I turned to the auditory for its unique pleasures. Walking in my suburban Ontarian neighbourhood, I could tune in to the experiences I had not grasped as an[Read More…]
