Posts from — October 2010

I love many things about UBC, and sometimes it is incredibly hard to list them all. However, none are as intriguing and entertaining as watching students battle for umbrella space. If anything elicits giggles it is watching everyone fight for space, ducking and diving, swinging, swooping and ultimately crashing into each other. My vantage point is from within the umbrella mob, but can you imagine how hilarious watching from the sidelines would be? Let me tell you, it’s all quite amusing. The next time you’re caught in an Umbrella War, I urge you to just take a good look around, soak it all in, and let the giggling begin.

On another entertaining note: Buy an Advisor was tonight at Vanier and it was hilarious. There were so many RAs willing to do incredibly embarrassing things, all for the sake of charity. I ended up buying my RA and Rez Coordinator with another friend, and these lovely ladies have offered to bring much needed Vanier cheer when they come pick my up from the airport in January. Now all I have to do is find something hilariously embarrassing for them to wear…Oh the options.

With that, I hope everyone has a chance to find a little amusement and spontaneous laughter sometime during the day. Laughter is good for the soul!

I would like to dedicate this post to the best ladybug to ever semi-fly this earth: Herman Mayer.

Only in second floor Okanagan would someone find a ladybug, and name him Herman. He was a beautiful, amazing ladybug. Until he decided to fly free in my room. And then I found him in pieces on my nice beige rug. I’m so sorry Herman, I hope you enjoyed your funeral. We love you, Okanagan 2nd.

The past four days have been the most hectic and rewarding of my life:

Thursday, 4:30pm: Storm Rogers Arena (a.k.a GM Place) with 279 other crowd pumpers for We Day. Practice the We Day dance multiple times and stare in awe at an empty bowl that would be filled with about 18 000 cheering students in less than 18 hours.

11pm: Paint my nails with glow-in-the-dark nail polish so that I’m fully ready to rock We Day.

Friday, 4:00am: My alarm goes off after only three hours of sleep (I was that stoked). I ended up hitting the snooze button until 4:30, and raced around (as quietly as possible) to get ready. I left Vanier decked out in spandex and headed toward the bus loop. After 15 minutes, I am joined by a crazy amount of other spandex-clad crowd pumpers. We dominated that bus.

6:30am: Arrive at Rogers Arena, jittery and ready to be as crazy, and enthusiastic as possible.

9:30am: I probably scared a couple dozen people with my excitement as We Day begins. What can I say? I take my job seriously.

10am – 2:30pm: A fantastic blur of inspiring speakers and performers. From Craig and Marc Kielburger, to Martin Sheen, Rick Hansen and Jesse Jackson. And of course, singing along at the top of my lungs while Barenaked Ladies perform “If I Had a Million Dollars”.

3:30pm: Two other crowd pumpers and I head to Pacific Centre in search of pants. A very long story, but in the end, pants were found. We raced back to Rogers Arena just in time to take our seats as the stage audience for the taping of Shameless Idealists.

5:30ish-9:20ish: Craig interviews Al Gore, Martin Sheen and Jesse Jackson. I nearly pee my pants from excitement. Some where in there, I get to shake Martin Sheen’s hand.

9:30ish: Reverend Jesse Jackson gives me the biggest hug of life. No big deal, just the best day of my life. I pretty much died on the inside like a crazy, idealistic fangirl. I called my mother in Ontario (bad idea, it was past midnight) to share my news. She was pretty stoked, even though I woke her up.  (Thanks, Madre for putting up with me.)

11:30pm -4am: Make it back to rez, chill with my floor, share my We Day good vibes, and stay up for 24 hours. The first, and the last time I will ever do so.

Saturday, 1:30pm: I finally wake up. Grab breakfast and bum around, totally not doing my essay due on Monday. Around 6:30pm, I decide to go to Mongolian Grill off of Broadway and Cambie. Good eats and good times, but no homework was done that day.

Sunday, 10:30am-11:30pm: I re-watch We Day clips of Jesse Jackson and Martin Sheen. I do finally get around to doing homework, I’m not that much of a bad student. I holed myself up in a friend’s room and didn’t come out until our “campfire” with our sister house (whaddup Caribou!). I went back to edit my essay and as a celebration of finally being done, I lurked people on Facebook with my floormates. It was awesome.

And that my dear friends, was the best weekend of my life. Hands down. I hope all y’all had amazing weekends too, and continue to have a stellar week. I’m sending you good vibes, always!

Nothing is more inspiring than watching thousands of youth come together to make change. This Thursday morning I decided to watch the Toronto We Day broadcast on ctv.ca, and it was the best decision I made all week.

We Day in Toronto was the perfect chance to be inspired and hopeful in spite of so many things that happen daily that may weaken hope. There have been about 5 suicides in the past three weeks, ages ranging from about 13 to 19. Youth who felt that they had no hope, no chance and no freedom. Watching the We Day broadcast in my jammies (while eating a delicious bowl of Frosted Flakes) was the perfect start to my day. Everyday should begin with inspiring stories of change, of struggle and most importantly, of hope.

I was fortunate to hear motivational speaker Spencer West tell his amazing stories from his recent trips abroad, and Marc and Craig Keilberger’s incredibly keynote speech that resonated in the hearts of thousands of youth at the ACC, me in my dorm at UBC and the thousands of others watching online from Germany, Saudi Arabia and countless other nations.

If there is any other moment, any other time to feel a spark of change deep within your heart, and your soul, it’s now. Now is the time to stand up for what’s right and be aware of all the wrongs.

This year I have the amazing opportunity to be a Me to We (Mob)ilizer. A movement grounded in change and awareness, starting from the bottom up, coming together to be champions for freedom, rights and hope. I couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey with youth just as motivated to change the world, one step at a time.

I hope that if you didn’t get a chance to watch the Toronto We Day live stream, you will watch the Vancouver We Day broadcast. It’s a few hours of your day to be a part of something big: a community of like-minded youth ready to change the future starting today.