A Love Letter to UTSC

In the months and days prior to the end of my final semester, a lot of people have been asking me “So how does it feel?” “You must be so excited!” That kind of thing. And now that I’ve written my final exam, everyone is saying “Congratulations!” And many people have been surprised when my answer is “No, I’m not excited at all. I love school.” It’s not quite the response everybody expects.

I also believe in being grateful. And so, this is my love letter to you, UTSC. It is also my goodbye.

I loved being at school because I love all of you. You have made the past three years an absolute joy. I loved our shared experience. I loved discussing books and plays with you. I loved the often insane amount of reading I had to accomplish. I even loved essays (well most of them anyhow). I loved discussing and making theatre with you. I loved D&A. I loved the openness and acceptance that I have encountered just by speaking with all of you – I have had more intellectual debates about art, religion, and culture in the past three years than I have ever had in my life. I loved laughing with you at all the goofy shit we came up with. I loved expanding my mind by the various classes I took (though I will admit – some classes were significantly better than others).

This is why I loved hanging around in the greyspace and LLBT. I was happy to just be around all of you. I learned more from being around all of you then anything.

Prior to my time here, when I was largely unemployed and mostly sitting at home doing nothing, my brain had shut off. I didn’t realize it at the time. I was in a numb state, where this haze prevented me from being at all creative. UTSC opened my mind up to so many new ideas and people. It cleared the fog. I feel creative again, which is something I hadn’t felt in a long time. And I owe that to you.

To everyone who is currently seeing school as a giant pain in the ass: don’t. It is so incredibly valuable, and our brief time there is so precious. Sure, it is occasionally stressful and there’s occasionally drama outside of our dramatic studies, but really, it’s such a blessing. This has been exactly what I wanted out of a school experience, and I didn’t get that when I went to college.

Thank you. All of you. I look forward to hanging out with you and working with you in the future. (ii)

Heather

i) This has been cross-posted to my Facebook.
ii) Watch out for Part 2: A Call to Arms. It should be coming around within a day or so.