Category — Involvement/Leadership

And where the heck has she been?

I’m sorry I’ve been so out of the loop. The chaos of my life picked up almost as soon as I landed at YVR after Winter Break. I figured post-Reading Break was a good time to catch you up on all the shenanigans I’ve been getting up to.

In January, I kicked off the month with the ‘F’ Word Planning Committee Retreat with the Women’s and Gender Studies Student Association. The ‘F’ Word Conference is a FREE conference on April 28th, 2012  and a chance for WAGS students, and students from other faculties and universities to engage in some awesome discussions with various panelists, student-led workshops presentations and  community organization workshops. I’m the Communications Co-Coordinator, so my job is to build and maintain the website, Twitter and Facebook accounts, and the print media with my wonderful partner-in-communications. So that’s been keeping my busy for the past two months.

Jump forward to February 17th, and I’m leaving on a (jet) plane for California. I spent four full days exploring all that SoCal had to offer with my best friend from Ontario (who currently goes to UBCO) and two of her friends. I had been there before with her in 2009, and on a whim asked if she’d be up to Californ-i-a part deux. We went to Santa Monica and Venice Beach (where I did all my shopping),

Santa Monica

the Natural History Museum (where we took a slight unplanned detour through the University of Southern California),

The cutest little guy at the Natural History Museum

Hollywood Blvd (including Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where I got to see the lovely cast of HP’s hand and footprints),

The Trio's prints in Hollywood

Disneyland (I got a picture with Mickey!),

The big "cheese" himself, Mickey Mouse

and the beaches of Orange County. Best (and first) trip of 2012 (but not the last!).

I’ve also had countless interviews and applications to fill out as I try to build some sort of plan for the upcoming academic year and finalize summer plans. As it stands:  1) I will be going to Europe for 5 weeks in May, 2) I’m still looking for a summer job, 3) you will find me back at Place Vanier for another term of Advising before I 4) go on exchange to Australia (Macquarie University in Sydney)! So if you’re looking for me in term two of next year, you’ll have to make the trek to find me. I am so beyond excited! It still feels super surreal and a part of me is wondering what the heck I just got myself into, mostly because it was an abstract idea before it became an actual reality and I’m not sure if I was prepared for said reality to hit my like a tonne of sparkly, beautiful bricks. But I’m more stoked than not.

I have some more interviews and applications to fill out. So, wish me luck and I’ll update you all soon.

Hope you enjoyed your Reading Break!

Welcome to the final installment of my Canadian Conference on Student Leadership adventure! Today’s itinerary (and it’s going to be a lengthy one, so bear with me!) includes: a wonderful trip to Banff and Boundary Ranch, two amazing keynotes and a lesson in “positivism”.

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These updates were meant to be much speedier, but you know how life (the flu, really) just intervenes in all your plans…

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Friday was our first full day of  the conference and perhaps the day I found the least stimulating. We attended five sessions of workshops (one during which I presented a workshop with Kelvin and Wendy) and our first keynote speaker W. Brett Wilson.

To be honest, when Brett Wilson first began his presentation I thought two things: 1) he’s a great public speaker and 2) there is nothing that he is saying that has any relevance to my life. For the first third of his speech he referred a lot to money and profits, topics that I find as interesting as watching paint dry. After the first three presentations, I was worried that this day was going to be a complete write off. But then he started talking about leadership in a way that I could wrap my non-Commerce-like brain around.

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Hello from Calgary!

Wendy, Cristel and I at the CCSL

This is going to sound pretty weird, but sometimes I feel like I’m watching my life from a bird’s eye view. I often ask myself during overwhelmingly inspiring moments that define, shape and change my life: is this really happening? I definitely feel this way after tonight.

I’m currently sitting in my spankin’ new 70s-style digs at the University of Calgary. I’m here in wild rose country Alberta attending the Canadian Conference on Student Leadership. Five of us from UBC (Cristel, Wendy, Kelvin, AJ and I) were selected to attend along with 200+ other student leaders from across the country. The other delegates and I arrived around 3pm here at UofC, and had some time to check out the campus. We didn’t explore too much outside because it’s a tad too cold for some of the Vancouverites (Ontario winters have me prepared). The five of us ended up at the Student Centre (their version of the SUB) and had some delicious dinner and checked out their bookstore. Their Student Centre is very mall-esque but I feels way bigger than our SUB. We hung around until registration, and swung by earlier to spy on how the other delegates were dressed (c’mon, we couldn’t be in jeans if everyone else wasn’t!).

We eventually made it to the Opening Reception and that’s when all the inspiring, motivational fun happened. Cristel and I (now dubbed “the two Kristals”) were at the same table and we had some really great conversations with a graduate student from the University of Manitoba, a residence life coordinator from UVic, a high school attendee, and I got to spend time with some of my fellow Ontarians from the University of Guelph, McMaster University and Wilfred Laurier University. It was great to be able to connect to other student leaders across the country and see what they are getting up to on their campuses, what their doing differently and how we’re the same.

We were welcomed by UofC’s President, Dr. Elizabeth Cannon and Mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi. Mayor Nenshi reminded me that “everyone is an expert in their own life”. No one else is able to live our lives for us, nor do they know every aspect of ourselves that make us who we are. No one else can make our decisions for us. As student leaders, our job isn’t to dictate the lives of others, but to draw them into a conversation or a discussion and make them a part of the decision making process. So many students see a disconnect between the institutions (governments, university administration, student government etc.) and the dreams, hopes and fears they have. They often forget or don’t see how these very institutions can both hinder and support us in our goals. Somehow, as a student leader, I want to give back in a way that helps others help themselves, to achieve their goals and be confident in their own ability to be a leader.

My absolute favourite part of the evening was our round table discussion on student leadership, its definitions and its forms. We discussed everything from superhero qualities leaders embody, whether or not the word “leadership” is glorified and overused, who inspires us to be leaders and how to we define leadership and leading without borders. Some very interesting questions came up during our discussions: How do you define leadership? How do you define change? What does it look like and how do you know that you’re changing anything at all? I don’t know the answers to these questions just yet, but I’m working on it. I couldn’t be more excited to see what tomorrow will bring and how I can apply that to my own style of leadership and involvement. Tomorrow’s the day to grab the proverbial bull by the horns and see where it takes me. It might be somewhere completely unexpected. Leadership is such a game of chance, and using those chances to your advantage. Sometimes you don’t end up the winner, sometimes you do. But like Mayor Nenshi so eloquently stated: “who said leadership was easy?”

I’m currently struggling through my wanderlust. It’s tough, and it’s gnawing. Every October I suffer from a case of hard core restlessness. I definitely thought that moving away from suburban Ontario to laid-back West coast life would have satisfied my need to keep moving, to have some kind of adventure in my life. I started new projects here at UBC, got involved on- and off-campus, and made a great family of friends in residence. But somehow, it still wasn’t – isn’t? – enough. I’m constantly looking for new challenges, new adventures and I can’t seem to keep my thoughts and my dreams from racing all over my brain.

It makes concentrating on everything that’s going on in my life really hard because I’m constantly daydreaming of the places I want to see, the people I want to meet and the stories I can’t wait to hear and to tell. I’m always planning because I always feel unbalanced or unrooted, incredibly dissatisfied and in need of change. This year isn’t even over, but I’m already thinking of the next.

Sometimes I feel like I’m not living my life, that somehow being in university isn’t living. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I have to go through certain experiences to be ready or to even have time for the next one, that I am living because I’m participating in every moment of my life. I’m trying to learn how to stay grounded in this moment, but keep an eye and my heart on the future.

What I need to do right now is not allow this restlessness, this wanderlust to prevent me from actually accomplishing what needs to be done right now, for me to be able to do what I want next week, next month, next summer, even next year. So right now, I need to be a better student, a better daughter, sister, friend, residence advisor…A me that’s completely satisfied in the moment, but never completely satisfied with complacency or mediocrity. My 30 challenge? Do better, live better, eat better, dress better, be better.