YouAlberta
[Editor’s Note: Students and their friends and families are invited to celebrate convocation during the University of Alberta’s first-ever virtual convocation on Friday, June 12 at 10 a.m.]
I’m scheduled to graduate this term and, instead of writing my term papers, I’m feeling nostalgic. When I left campus on the last day of class before the university shut down due to COVID-19, I was feeling tired and grumpy after completing a draining research presentation. Good riddance! I had no idea it would be my last day on campus of my undergrad degree and, looking back, I wish we hadn’t parted on bad terms.
Now that I’m studying from home, there are lots of things I miss about campus. I keep having flashbacks to the smell of the running track in the Butterdome and the old brick walls of Tory Atrium. Odd flashbacks aside, I’ve compiled a list of my most “feel-good” memories about campus, in a time when we need it most.
1) Reuniting with the library in fall
Call me a nerd. One of my favourite things to do at the start of Fall Term is to go to the fourth floor of Rutherford Library and choose an interesting book. I never finish these books, I simply revel in reading a few chapters after a fun but mind-numbing summer, knowing that I’ll never be tested on the content.
2) Real praise from professors
You know what’s even better than an A? Real praise from your professor. I love it when I get an essay back with lots of comments and a genuine note of encouragement. I still remember when my WGS 100 prof wrote at the bottom of the first academic survey I’d ever designed that she would love to see me continue in undergraduate research. She didn’t need to say that but I’m glad she did.
3) Joining the outdoors club
I didn’t really find my squad in university until my second year when I went on the Outdoors Club’s kickoff trip to Jasper. It was everything I loved: hiking, camping, and carefree people. We hiked two mountains, sang the Lord of the Rings theme song, and drove home in time for school on Monday. I made friends that are still my best friends today.
4) Decorating the honours room
The sociology department has a quiet study room for honours students. There are 20 desks and only four of us, so things can seem kind of dark and grim. After a few miserable study sessions, I finally brought in some posters and fairy lights to liven the place up. Totally Instagram-worthy.
5) Lunch dates on the CAB staircase
I don’t know about you but I was SHOCKED by the renovation of CAB basement. They managed to turn one of the ugliest buildings on campus (sorry CAB) into a bright, modern-looking hangout spot with beanbags! Following the renovation, I spent almost every lunch hour on the staircase, often with my best friend.
6) Campus Food Bank Trick or Tr’EAT
Every October, Campus Food Bank organizes a fundraiser where students go door-to-door on Halloween and collect non-perishable food donations for students in need. That’s obviously super awesome, but I was into it for the costumes. I gathered a group of my high school friends, put on mime makeup and a beret, and took to the streets for a night of wacky fun.
7) Exploring quirky adventure spots on campus
One of the first articles I ever wrote for YouAlberta was about exploring quirky adventure spots on campus. The article is definitely a fun read, but it was even more fun to research. I took my friend Manuela to seven spots around campus, from the MedSci Common Room, The Vault, and the Observatory. SPOILER ALERT: there used to be a café on 6th floor Biosci and a lab behind the bookshelf in the Psychology Library…
8) Community gardens party
I find it crazy that most people don’t know about the campus community gardens on 89th Avenue. It’s run by SustainSU, a grassroots sustainability club I’m a member of at the university. Students can drop in to volunteer at the gardens from May-September (though volunteering may be suspended this summer due to COVID-19). The gardens are cute and wacky, with a couple cool power tools and a toilet full of flowers. I wrote a blog post about their fall harvest party I attended where we harvested more carrots than we could eat.
9) Wintersleep at the beer gardens
I hope you don’t have to google Wintersleep (but I’ll forgive you if you do). Wintersleep is an iconic Candian indie rock band which was all the rage back when my dad was attending university. Naturally, I was raised on their music and SO excited when I heard they would be performing at our beer gardens in Fall 2019. When the day came, my sister and I were crying along to their best song (“Weighty Ghost”) while everyone else dozed in the grass. Their loss.
10) River valley walks in between classes
Sometimes I just need to walk my stress off in between 3-hour-long lectures. Since I’m a sociology student, I’m usually in the Tory building, which is just across the street from one of the largest municipal river valley trail systems in Canada. One of my favourite routes is to cross the blue foot-bridge over the river.
11) Tree identification course on campus
Unfortunately, REN R 101 did not fulfill the science credit requirement for my Arts degree, but it did fill my heart. During the unit on tree classification, our professor made us a tree “treasure hunt” where we had to identify certain trees around campus. If you ever see orange ribbons with numbers wrapped around a tree trunk on campus, that’s what it’s for!
12) Deweys meet-ups at the start of term
My friends and I always occupy a table at Deweys during the first week of term. We all drift in and out between classes to eat copious amounts of sweet potato fries. One of my favourite memories of Deweys is when a girl I met on one of the university Outdoors Club’s trips invited me to grab a coffee with her out of the blue. Isn’t it nice to get a random invitation? That girl soon became my best friend, until her term abroad was up and she had to return to Korea.
Just remember, even though studying feels hard, campus feels good. I can’t wait until you can all return to the Quad and reunite with your feel-good things.