When I walked onto the cobble stone campus to complete a degree in Fine Arts and Education, I didn’t know that the most important lessons I would learn would come from outside the classroom.
I always cared about my grades, and credit this to my genuine love of learning. As the first in my family to attend university, I never took my access to education for granted.
I told myself I wouldn’t do anything beyond academic courses in my first year to ensure I could manage my studies. Somewhere along the way, my priorities shifted.
When I became a ConEd orientation leader and took a campus job at Studio Q—the student-run digital media service at the AMS—I realized there were more authentic learning opportunities outside the classroom.
In my extracurriculars, I could apply what I learned in my classes to the real world. Studio Q allowed me to take a classroom lesson in colour theory and create transformative logos for a client’s new business.
There’s a trade-off with taking on a job during your degree. Sometimes it feels like your peers are getting ahead of you academically—especially when the balancing act between work and school becomes more delicate.
As a Fine Art student, there were many times I walked into the studio to see that while my peers had pulled another all-nighter, I was struggling to find time to even begin executing my plans in-between jobs.
The constant display of other people’s work feeds into a special type of internal comparison game— exacerbated by being a working student—inherent to being a visual art student.
In my case, it wasn’t that I lacked the dedication of my peers, but I had the reality of needing to work a full-time job to help fund my education.
Having additional responsibilities didn’t negatively affect my experience at Queen’s. As I progressed through my undergrad, I naturally slimmed down my class and extracurricular schedule as I learned what I valued most.
I wasn’t spending less time as an active community member, but learned to focus my attention on the areas that were most important to me. This empowered me to find meaningful work while ensuring I wasn’t sacrificing my personal life and academic success.
When assignments and work deadlines piled up, having friends by my side made my Queen’s experience exciting. My university experience was full of different groups of friends that served distinct purposes. We all have our own capacities and intentions when it comes to relationships, and its key to have the right expectations.
I have very close friends that I don’t depend on for emotional support, because I know that isn’t something they can provide. Sometimes other friendships get much less time because we don’t place importance on the small day-to-day interactions, but the bond we have is strong and will last a lifetime.
You know you’ve struck gold when your day-to-day friend is the same friend you share all your hopes and dreams with.
It might take time to meet the people who will uplift, inspire, and ground you, but when you find your people, it will be worth the wait. Friends at university will push you to attend classes or persuade you to go out for karaoke—bringing a sense of balance and pushing you out of the daily monotony of life.
At the end of my third year, I continued to challenge my perspective on friendship and community when I took a job at the AMS.
Originally, I had my heart set on one specific position at the AMS. When I was offered a different position in the marketing office, I almost said no. I heard how hard the government side was and didn’t know what the community would be like in the offices.
Turns out, taking the risk and accepting the marketing job was transformative. Though I thought graphic design was my dream job, my new role expanded my world. I realized my time at Studio Q prepared me for this next step. If I rejected the new challenge, I would’ve missed the opportunity to do exceptional work.
Although being the Director of Marketing for a multi-million-dollar organization wasn’t a simple job, I never wanted to take a day off because I was passionate about the work. I was proud to honour the AMS executive’s mandate to support the interests of 20,000 students.
My overall fear of losing community faded when I realized I was only expanding my circle. I always thought by leaving the services side of the AMS, I would have to say goodbye to connections with staff and fun moments with managers.
There was more emotional labour involved in governance, but I established a new community. My office was a revolving door for anyone and everyone to brainstorm their next big project, work through their problems, or have a taco break.
The opportunities I had in my undergrad didn’t happen because I was the most talented artist, designer, marketer, or manager. Instead, I credit my success to my work ethic and the endless Adobe tutorials.
There were times I almost passed up projects because I couldn’t imagine executing them perfectly with my limited experience. In second year, I scrolled past an Instagram post looking for proposals for a campus mural. At first, I rejected the idea I had something to contribute because I had thought it was beyond my capabilities.
Days later, a friend sent the same post to my direct messages encouraging me to apply. I called my mom to get her opinion and to her, it was obvious that I should submit a proposal.
After applying, I was selected to create a community building artwork depicting consent culture. I used insight from students to land on the concept for my painting, which I titled A Love that Clings.
Two years after installation, I still get an overwhelming amount of feedback from our community. I realized people care about how the mural makes them feel when they walk past Harrison-LeCaine Hall—not the proportionality of my lines.
The support I received from this mural gave me the confidence to continue making art about social issues, and eventually led to my thesis on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
I’m happy to report there’s nothing I regret about my undergrad at Queen’s because each challenge and mistake led to personal growth.
I was hyperaware my undergrad would fly by and used that perspective to fuel my work ethic and social life. While there were many obstacles—global pandemic included—my time at Queen’s shaped me into the person I’ve become.
I firmly believe if you enjoy what you do, the rest will fall into place when you realize success isn’t determined by conventional skills.
Welcome to the best four, five, or six years of your life, class of 2027.
Tags
growth, life lessons, Postscript
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