Archive
  • 2 years 4 months ago

How journaling is helping me overcome perfectionism

November 4, 2020: If I’m not my good grades, the hours I put in at the gym, or the clothes I spend hundreds of dollars on, then who am I?Continue...
  • 2 years 4 months ago

Feeling beautiful in white-dominated spaces

I came out of high school dripping with confidence. I was secure in the body I had, proud of my features—moments of insecurity were present but bearable.Continue...
  • 2 years 4 months ago

Learning to embrace my natural hair

One of the most tumultuous relationships I’ve had in my life is the one I have with my hair.Continue...
  • 2 years 4 months ago

My decade with acne

My relationship with my skin has never been great. I’ve spent the majority of my preteen, teenage, and young adult life struggling with acne. It’s a little hormonal, a little stress-related, which means pinning down one daily routine that works all the time is nearly impossible.Continue...
  • 2 years 5 months ago

Not normal period pain: my life with endometriosis

It was the morning of my Grade 10 science exam when the pain started. Up until that moment in my life, my period pain had always been manageable. On that morning, it became so bad I began to black out.Continue...
  • 2 years 5 months ago

Allyship isn’t activism. Stop pretending it is.

I’ve been at a white institution for three years now, isolated from diversity and fighting battles every day to be allowed safety and comfort. Somehow, despite the casual and not-so-casual racism, the toughest thing about being at Queen’s has been the people who call themselves my allies.Continue...
  • 2 years 5 months ago

On the first day of classes last year, I was hit by a truck. This is what it taught me.

On Sept.4, 2019, the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears started off the NFL season at about 8 p.m. It was the first day of classes last year, and I sped home on my unlit bike to watch the kickoff. The game would end up being disappointing, but I would never know: a truck turned across my path, and I was going far too quickly to stop.Continue...
  • 2 years 5 months ago

What I learned as a kid who loved the WE Charity

As I scrolled through the news headlines back in July, “WE Charity Scandal” caught my eye for a moment, but not enough to entice me to click and read the article. Pandemic predictions, historic civil rights movements, and university updates had all of my attention.Continue...
  • 2 years 6 months ago

Mourning my Opa during the pandemic

In March, the pandemic shut down campus. In April, I found out my Opa had cancer—it was in his esophagus, his lungs, his brain. In May, he died.Continue...
  • 2 years 6 months ago

How living in a US hotspot changed my view of COVID-19

Two days after St. Patty’s weekend, I got an unexpected call from my dad in the States. “I’m coming to get you tomorrow,” he said.Continue...
  • 2 years 6 months ago

Transitioning to adulthood in leggings and a hoodie

As a child, I hated shopping for clothes.Continue...
  • 2 years 6 months ago

Managing my expectations going into this fall semester

If you had asked me a year ago what I thought my third year at university was going to look like, I can promise you I wouldn’t have said “learning in the midst of a global pandemic.”Continue...
  • 2 years 8 months ago

Confronting my relationship with body positivity

When I was in the third grade visiting family in Bangladesh, I wore a lot of short skirts and shorts to keep cool in a tropical climate.Continue...
  • 2 years 9 months ago

Learning to outrun anxiety

A lot of people hate running. It’s not the easiest sport to like—it can feel boring, interminable, and even painful. However, growing up, my dislike of running went a bit deeper than most.Continue...
  • 2 years 10 months ago

Recognizing being white-passing as a privilege

I was born in Baghdad to Iraqi parents who fled war to Amman, Jordan. Although I grew up as part of a marginalized Iraqi community in Jordan, I was also part of the majority of the population, adapting to the Jordanian accent and identifying as both an Arab and a Muslim.Continue...
  • 3 years 2 days ago

Last Words

When I walked into 190 University Avenue on May 1 and saw my name on the office door, I burst into tears.Continue...
  • 3 years 1 week ago

2020 grads say goodbye to Queen’s

In light of the spread of Coronavirus cutting this semester short, The Journal put out a call to students graduating in 2020, asking them to submit a final message to Queen’s.Continue...
  • 3 years 2 weeks ago

Living with a sexual dysfunction at Queen’s

At the end of my third year of undergrad, I was diagnosed with vulvodynia, a form of sexual dysfunction which makes vaginal penetration extremely painful.Continue...
  • 3 years 3 weeks ago

What fitness has taught me about the human condition

I’ve been overweight for most of my life.Continue...
  • 3 years 1 month ago

Our failure to acknowledge different perspectives sets back our progress

When I was in my final year of high school at a diverse school, I remember telling my friends I was planning to accept my offer to Queen’s.Continue...

Pages

The Journal, Queen's University - Since 1873

190 University Ave., Kingston, ON, K7L 3P4

  • Editorial Office: 613.533.2800
  • Fax: 613.533.6728