At the airport, I learned to expect the pauses, the extra questions, the glances at my passport that lingered a second too long. I did everything right—got into McGill, applied for my visa, and carried proof that I would leave once my degree was over. Even in places I call[Read More…]
Tag: opinion
The art of figuring it out
In the summer of 1969, a group of musicians walked on stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with nothing short of a half-formed idea. In a last-minute effort, pianist Les McCann, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Donald Dean recruited trumpeter Benny Bailey and saxophonist Eddie Harris to perform[Read More…]
Against reducing, reusing, and recycling
As a full-time English Literature student and part-time movie-watcher, one of my greatest pleasures is building a mental web of intertextuality: The way texts are influenced by, adapted from, or allude to previous texts. Canonical works such as the Bible, Greek and Roman classics, and Shakespearean plays have long served[Read More…]
An ode to emails and the archival nature of the inbox
I have often felt as though the diction and formalities of texting culture—or lack thereof—should emulate that of email correspondence. Emails preserve a level of linguistic intentionality that contemporary messaging platforms have largely flattened. My affinity for emails began rather early. At the age of nine or ten, my school[Read More…]
When we dance, we make the world a little lighter
The room is already breathing before you are. Bass thunders through your ribs as neon lights beam across moving bodies. By the second song, you are no longer dancing in a crowd so much as being embraced by it. Sweat soaks through your shirt. Hair sticks to your face. Strangers[Read More…]
Love is a verb
Late on a Saturday night of St. Laurent bar-hopping, you walk into the dingy bathroom of Bar Bifteck to find a college-aged stranger kneeling over the toilet. They appear to be alone. You go over and ask if they are okay, offering to hold their hair back or to get[Read More…]
My acoustic coup against the classical
I was six years old when I walked into my first violin lesson, and for the twelve years that followed, I stood—posture erect—at dutiful attention to the staid technicalities and smug rectitude of classical music. I was a happy cadet and a relatively successful one, for what it’s worth. For[Read More…]
I promise I’m not a first-year
Last week someone’s jaw dropped when they learned that I’m in third year. Suddenly they wanted to know everything about me: What I’m studying, where I’m from, and if I’m sure I’ve been at McGill for two full years already. What I find startling is that whenever people are floored[Read More…]
Keep Calm! Carry On Providing Students with Mental Health Resources
As the haze of summer subsides and the anticipation of cold, isolating midterms and finals ensue, maintaining and nurturing one’s mental health becomes both harder and ever more critical. On Sept. 6, McGill informed the student body via email that the popular student services once provided through the Students’ Society[Read More…]
Let’s reel in the disappointment surrounding Kim Ng’s departure from the Marlins
On Oct. 16, Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins announced that they would be parting ways with Kim Ng, the first woman to hold the position of general manager (GM) in any of North America’s four major men’s sports. In a statement, Marlins’ chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman announced that[Read More…]