As graduation looms, I can’t help but look back on the past four years spent on this campus —the good, the bad and the ugly.
The false sense of productivity found at CoGro
The best way to feel better about all the work you’ve been putting off is to grab a coffee and bagel at CoGro and get shit done.
This often translates into 10 minutes spent trying to find a table, 45 minutes (minimum) running into every person you’ve met in the entire history of your undergrad, 12 minutes wondering whether QueensuSecure_WAP2 or eduroam will serve you better today, five minutes wishing that dog you pet was yours; 40 minutes on Instagram, and an impressive total of two new emails in your outbox. At least the Top Secret bagel was especially good today.
Pita Grill & Poutine (emphasis on poutine)
For the good nights, the bad nights or just very late nights, fries, cheese and gravy will never let you down. For when your best friend decides to be vegetarian and says they can’t have poutine anymore but actually they totally can because the dudes at this place know and have veg gravy. For when you honestly just needed a snack to last you the walk home and you only have toonies and loonies left over from the bar. Pita Grill is always the answer.
Getting called “exotic” at the club
I’m really flattered that you like my hair and my nose ring! Yes, I’m sure I’m from here. I’m really glad we had this conversation. I’m also really glad bar rail is $2.75 so I can spend the rest of this evening forgetting this ever happened.
One hundred million Facebook notifications. Per. Day.
Mostly event invites plus Overheard posts, community posts, debates about when to have that next meeting, reminders to Tilt, Free & For Sale posts, all of this of course notwithstanding messages in the group chat you muted a while back.I’ll go right ahead and click “attending” as a sign of solidarity even though I already know I need to be at three other events at the exact same time.
The AMS
Lol.
Coming downstairs to a full house on the Sunday of HOCO
Nothing says family quite like every square inch of your living room floor being taken up by your slumbering friends, surrounded by solo cups and general debris. As the sweet sound of TSwift and/or ‘Closer’ by The Chainsmokers echoes through the University District, you feel like this is maybe what true happiness feels like.
So many friends, so much love. Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t even know half of these people.
Cha Gheill though am I right?
Running into a one night stand in *club* Metro
“Hey!! Yeah… Vitamin Water is three for $5 right now… really great deal. My favourite one is Triple X… not sure why I felt compelled to say that. Yeah, okay. Good to see you also. Yep. Okay. Bye.”
There are unending perks to a centrally located, median cost, 24-hour grocery. Some where you run into a hookup while scouting the aisles for cheap beverages.
Waking up at 9:23 and still making that 9:30 class on the third floor of Ellis
“It’s a natural flush, professor”.In all seriousness though, the proximity of everything you could possibly need to the average Queen’s student makes life way easier. Not to mention way more spontaneous. I’m horrible at planning and I blame it on knowing I can be basically anywhere within 10 minutes’ notice. That was my cardio for the day, thanks.
The unwritten dress code
I never went to private school or had to wear a uniform. Most days though, I feel it wouldn’t be all that bad. Studies show that donning the same attire as one’s peers increases feelings of camaraderie and boosts team morale or something like that.
Fortunately, between actual matching faculty/club/campus bookstore clothing and a general convergence on all the same trends, identifying members of your clan isn’t difficult. Especially when literally everyone around you falls into this category.
There are pitfalls, though. The only way I’m able to keep track of which jacket and shoes belong to me is by wearing them at all times, the dent in the bottom of my S’well bottle is the only determining factor that allows me to pick it out of the army of other ones you can find at any table. I guess you could say this phenomenon has forced a certain attention to nuance I never had before.
Home
My LifeSci degree taught me that Aristotle once said, “the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.” There are way more than 10 things I’ll miss about my time at Queen’s, and though these parts include all the above, they’re not limited to the following:
Principal Woolf’s Twitter; the abundance of acronyms; QP sangria; crossing the street when you see a squirrel; Ritual; hearing everything your housemates do; the sound of kids from KCVI having recess; days at the Pier; the two weeks where all you want in life is air conditioning; still not knowing your way around Mac-Corry; being surrounded by models; Physical Plant Services; “we have a Castle”; free hugs from Carley; Top Secret bagels; the ferry; knowing how dumb you were in first year; endless pizza; wishing you were an engineer; being incredibly glad you’re not an engineer; the brothers at Campus One Stop; Girl’s Night Out; three quarter zips; Tuesday Mod Club; your friends at Stauffer who you don’t actually know but you feel like you do from shared time in hell; Tommy’s; tricolour; skating to class; old friends, and new friends….
All these little parts have made up a place I’ll still be calling home well after graduation (sorry, Mom).
Thank you, Queen’s.
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