#JoyatUofT: A Letter From The Captain

Hello everyone! This is Grusha, Captain of the Life@UofT team, logging on to write a guest blog post in honor of #JoyatUofT week. #JoyatUofT is an important initiative because seeing the variety of things (big or small!) that can bring people happiness and fulfillment while they’re at U of T can be really heartwarming and eye opening. It alerts us to the importance of gratitude when we are in the midst of stressful times.  I wanted to take the time to share my own reflections on how community involvement and student leadership have made my time in undergrad more joyful. Serving as Captain of the blogger team this year has taught me a lot not only about social media management, but also about the importance that social media plays in connecting people together. In a community as large as U of T, online spaces where people can see how their peers are making the most out of the opportunities on campus makes this place easier to navigate. Discovering how powerful of a tool social media can be has been very meaningful for me, since I’m interested in working in social media potentially post-grad.  Moreover, working alongside our student bloggers who write with such earnestness and curiosity has also been very rewarding. Everyone, whether it’s through a blog post, a Twitter thread, a series of photos...etc, is a powerful storyteller in their own right. Getting to lead these creative people is a privilege and they certainly bring me a lot of joy! 🙂  Through this leadership position and now also being a residence don at my college this year, my main job is to constantly encourage students to get involved at U of T in whatever way that they feel is best for them. I said this a lot last year when I blogged from the Centre For Community Partnerships, but the key to finding a sense of community at a big school is to appreciate the smaller communities that we have here. Eventually, you'll start to see how everything connects together. The primary goal of Life@UofT is to help you make these connections. Our bloggers are always trying out new things, whether it's visiting a cafe in downtown, attending a class at Hart House, taking classes outside their program...etc. They then report it directly to you for the purposes of inspiring you to do the same! My ultimate encouragement to you all is to go forth into this campus and actively seek for what you're looking for. It really doesn't matter if you're in your first year or in your last, it's never too late to get involved and find something that really allows you to flourish. Pay attention to events happening on campus (if you don't know where to start, start at your home college/faculty and see where that leads you) and talk to people! If nothing else, you can always take a walk around in unfamiliar parts of campus and explore for a bit by yourself. Enter the buildings that you've always been curious about. Actually read the things posted on the walls, look at your surroundings with a discerning eye, and let it all sink in. It's a beautiful place. "Be where you are now, otherwise you will miss your life."