Category Archives: Monumental Moments

An End To A Beginning

With the return of home-cooked meals and the promise of summer approaching, my first year is over. Exams are finished, residences are empty, and I now have no place to get curly fries at 10:30. I’ll think about getting a deep fryer. But it’s truly over. I still remember being stuck in the ramblings of exam crazy brain, with a (not so) healthy dose of bulk juice bottles and cheese-flavoured everything. I still remember a lot of stuff. It’s probably because (and this competes for the most famous cliché) it all went so fast. So without further ado, I present to you my thoughts on first year. Bon appétit.

It was exhilarating, dynamic, and other such words you’d find in eyeliner ads. It was definitely an experience. I began as a Radiohead-obsessed plaid-wearing hipster. But I’ve changed. I’ve gone through a transformation. I’m now a Bon Iver-obsessed plaid-wearing hipster. I know, quite the change. But I don’t feel my first year was about that momentous change everyone thinks of when they look to university. It was more about the fine-tuning. I feel like, going into university, I was an empty house, with walls set up and a roof over my head, but with little in the rooms. Sure, there’ll be some high school passions I’ve retained, but this year was about discovery, about what I’d fill my rooms with, who I am and what I love to do. So let’s get to the fun details.

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Sasquatch! Music Festival

Last Thursday was the big reveal for this year’s Sasquatch! Music Festival lineup. I went to Sasquatch last year and had the time of my life. Aside from the most gorgeous venue, The Gorge Amphitheatre, the quality of music and vibe of the weekend are the huge draws to attend. It’s the one monumental rhythmic experience a music lover from Vancouver can enjoy, without making the trip to California (i.e. Coachella).

So how was last year? Last year was supercalifrawesome. Headliners were Foo Fighters, Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, and Wilco. Imagine the festival was a big foo. And right on the first day, the Foo Fighters come in and fight that foo. And they not only fight the foo, they demolish the foo. I mean, I didn’t hear the Foo Fighters, I heard the Foo Destroyers, the Foo Dominators. To summarize, they rocked. Opening Sasquatch with one of the best rock bands around was a great idea. Whoever suggested that should get a mecha-raise.

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Anything and Everything: A Review of My First Semester Adventure

A full semester of UBC. A full semester of equal parts haste, equal parts precision. It showed me that intuition and intellect go nowhere without hard work, much like the papers to prove said intellect. It was fun though. I felt like an high school exchange student in a foreign nation, recognizing key concepts and learning patterns but reveling in this newfound form of tweaked education. Also, I can see the difference between high school and university now. At high school you’re part of the mass, trying to shine just a bit brighter than that guy or that girl. But at university, you’re a shining individual (that’s why you were accepted!), making up the shining mass. I like to think of university as a league of superheroes, because I’m amazed by what people are doing around me, intellectually and socially.

The clubs we have are amazing. I had the opportunity to be in a UBCimprov workshop, and it was my social highlight of the semester. There’s a beautifully ridiculous aura you gain when telling a story about a goat’s estranged mother, a balloon party for lumberjacks, an amusement park in a swamp, anything you want to say. That’s what improv is. It’s those niches we crave which give us the experiences we treasure. How many 100-level courses will we vividly remember? A couple, I’d say. And only the ones that truly touched us. But that crazy and monumental Colour Wars, that chaotic yet fulfilling Totem One Acts, that quaint Lord of the Rings marathon in rez, those are my vivid memories. That’s my niche.

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Dan Mangan in Vancouver

One of my favourite parts of Vancouver is its rich musical roots. Only a city with a diversified pool of talent like ours could produce Michael Bublé and Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan and Mark Donnelly. And if you don’t know who Mark Donnelly is, watch a Canucks game. His voice will take your mind off the fact that we’ve never won a cup. So it was a huge treat when I discovered Dan Mangan, a nestled Canadian treasure hidden in the troves of Vancouver humbleness. Dan and his album “Nice, Nice, Very Nice” changed my perception of Vancouver music. He was at the musical stage of producing brilliant music, minus the mainstream, stadium-frequenting presence. He had the perfect setting for an indie, hipster musician with a dab of arrogance, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Dan was your friend who made it big. Dan was the guy who loved words, guitar and the tickled feeling in his throat when he sang just that much harder. In four words, Dan was a delight.

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Imagine All The People

As you’ve heard from the hordes of UBC-goers, Imagine Day came and went, inspiring thousands of healthy minds to create their innovative futures full of love and joy. But hey, us students just like to yell in stadiums.

Let me break it down for you.

My Undergraduate Group, cutely named MUG, was supposed to meet at the disappointing and sigh-worthy time of 8:15 am, outside the Frederic Wood Theatre. I woke up at 7:30 am, which rang in my first “People wake up at this time?” feeling of the academic year. I know some of you think 7:30 is easy but when you cross-reference that with my regular summer rise-and-shine hours, the discrepancies are quite noticeable. Strange how the hottest season is the one that feels the most like heaven in the morning. Being more experienced and dominant, my “Let’s go back to sleep” area of the brain easily overpowered the part where my dreams, desires and potential are. I mean, the pillow’s right there beside me. A healthy career, love and success, is not. Good decisions are not made with pillows near.

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The Move.

Ah, the day of reckoning, the final countdown, the gargantuanly supreme moment of life-altering totality.

The move out.

Or move in, I guess, but that all depends on your half-full/half-empty stance of life psychologists seem to rave about. Some see the glass half-full and some see the glass half-empty, but one idealistic genius, sarcasm semi-intended, saw millions of post-secondary minds mulling over a basic analogy for optimism and pessimism, a subject many people could have understood with a simple:

“Some people are happy. Some people are sad. That’s all folks.”

And then the Looney Tunes logo would play them out and everyone would return to life a little happier and a little smarter with a skip in their step and warmth in their heart.

But that’s not how life plays out. And that’s not what this blog should be about either.

All right, the move out. Or move in. Damn my repetitive mind!

Okay, I’ll paint the picture.

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