Imagine – As a MUG Leader

This year was my first time participating in Imagine Day as a MUG Leader. It was a very different experience from when I was a new student, but I’m definitely very glad I did it!

The training days on Sunday and Monday were really fun, and charged with faculty pride. Music had the best cheer! I really enjoyed the training days because it gave me a chance to get to know the other leaders from my faculty and make some connections; as a harpist, we’re sometimes a bit isolated and in the last couple years I found it difficult to make very many connections within the school. Now I have more people to wave to in the hallways!

Imagine Day itself was fantastic, as always – although we got off to a bit of a confusing start. We were told to go to rain locations, but it was only a little drizzly, and most people were just going to the sun location anyway, but eventually we found most of the people in our MUG groups and people who got mixed up were able to join up with other groups. I had a lot of fun giving the campus tour, and I think my muggies have a good knowledge of the parts of campus they’ll use often. It felt good to be able questions they had about the coming school year, to be that person with experience. I had a lovely group of mostly opera singers, and by the end of the day I felt kind of attached to them. They even gave me hugs at the end of the day! *warm fuzzies*

One thing that felt the most different to me was the pep rally. I remember it being incredibly exhilarating, hugely inspiring, and being excited and cheering as loud as I could. This time around, our faculty was kind of quiet… (come on, guys…) The main difference this time for me was the lack of awe. The speeches were moving, the presenters were great, but it didn’t have that same effect.

I think that probably this is because I knew what was coming, and also because I’ve already experienced what it’s like to be at UBC. I wasn’t the one being newly enveloped in this big magical and promising world. The way I thought of it was like a new student seeing through a straw, and then the pep rally slowly expanding their vision. This time, I already had a panoramic view, so while the pep rally was great, it didn’t feel as though I was getting a new and improved set of eyes.

However, Imagine Day left me feeling energized and excited for my own school year. The speeches given at the pep rally reminded me that UBC is really an amazing place; it’s still as amazing as I thought it was on my own Imagine Day, and that it’s up to me to make the most of my time here.