My First Week: Writing, Classes, and Bojack Horseman

Life can get exhausting, but it’s important to find your own happiness by doing things you love. For some of you, this can involve diving headfirst into course readings and projects. Or it might be running for a position on the executive of a campus group. Or it could be something low-key like art, poetry, journaling, and writing.

Personally, it’s been a busy week for me. Classes just started, I’ve been volunteering at TIFF (which I will write more about later), and the fourth season of Bojack Horseman was just released on Netflix (speaking of which: this show is just getting better and better, check out the trailer below). Again, busy week.

Here’s something I do to keep my head afloat: I write. I write poetry. I write journal entries. I write articles for The Varsity. I write creative pieces for the UC Gargoyle. I write humour pieces for The Salterrae. I write speeches for the Trinity College Literary Institute. I write blog posts for Life at U of T. I write essays and projects for classes. I write personal essays which I hope to one day publish as a collection. And I write blobs of words that don’t necessarily connect to create a cohesive piece.

I write what’s on my mind. I write to deal with internal conflicts. I write to help and inform others. I write to make myself laugh. I write objective pieces on external topics to take my mind off whatever’s bothering me at the moment. And I write to make myself feel better.

Coming from a high school that didn’t have a student newspaper or really any outlet for writers besides a creative writing class in grade twelve, I didn’t expect to find so many outlets at U of T. But they’re here. There are so many campus publications that I can’t even name all of them, and though it might take a while, you will find the right match for you if you’re a writer.

In the process, you’ll discover more about yourself and find your voice. It’s surprising how much I’ve changed as a writer (and also as a person) in my last two years at U of T. It’s also surprising how much I haven’t changed.

Basically, there are so many ways to get involved at U of T, but I'm not going to say it’s important to get involved in everything. I’ve interacted with other students who were stressed and miserable with their co-curricular activities, mostly because they pursued activities they didn’t necessarily want to do for arbitrary reasons such as employability, or because it was related to their program, or a friend wanted them to do it.

Here’s my advice, plain and simple: don’t do that. Do what you love to do, and even if you’re pressed for time, you’ll somehow still persevere because they’re doing something that you love to do. For example, even though I’ve had a monster week of classes, TIFF, and Bojack, I’ve still managed to write for The Varsity, The Salterrae, the UC Gargoyle, the Trinity College Literary Institute, and Life at U of T. And I don’t even feel that exhausted, because it’s something I love doing.