May 2020: The Future Issue by Salterrae

May 2020

The ‘Future’ Issue 32

table of

contents 4

5 7 11 15 19 21 23 29

the future issue by arunoshi s. & robin f. [editor’s note] 10 things to do before you graduate by barb & carol [sex column] reflections on marketable degrees by ellie s. [staff article] trinity’s futures past by sterling m. [treasures from the archives] catching up with T20 by katie g. [advice from the graduating class] ‘cause my body’s too smoothielicious for ya babe by jessica h. [strachan hacks] inside out by florian n. [short story] some traditions should never die by mattea r. [submission] learning how to salt by reece y. [first year column]

31 35 37 39 41 43 45

francine houben by arunoshi s. [staff article]

47 49

being queer at trinity by nick f. [submission]

rite of passage or sign from above? by yuliya m. [submission]

vent with vicky by vicky m. [advice column] reading trin through texts by vikram n. [staff article] looking back upon ulysses by isabella s. [staff article] we exist by mila y. [readership] horoscopes by archana r. [horoscopes]

trinity through the years by emily l. [staff article]

editor’s note It’s been a strange few weeks. We hope you are all safe and well. Life at Trinity ended too early this year, and there are times together we will always regret having missed. However, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, we hope you can enjoy these stories from Trinity students. The college is the community, not the place, after all. The present is a bit of a mess, so look to the future, the theme of this issue. We’ve had an issue reflecting on Trinity’s past, we’ve had an issue about Trinity’s present, and now for the future - we are excited to see what you will make of it. Thank you to those who are a part of the Salterrae’s wonderful team. You’ve done an outstanding job. And to the college, it has been a pleasure to be your editors-in-chief of the Salterrae this year, just as it has been superb to be a part of Trinity these past four years. Signing off,

Robin Fuller & Arunoshi Singh Editors-in-Chief

the team Editors-in-Chief

Robin Fuller Arunoshi Singh Senior Copy Editor

Copy Editors

Illustration

Nora Moidu Mary Danesh

Katie Gaskin Elise Lafleur Maja Soltysiak Nika Gottlieb Maria Villarreal

Photography

GUEST Senior Design Editor

Treasuer

Mary Danesh

Clara MacKinnon

Cali Sherriff

Emily Larman Design Editors

Clare O’Brien Ev Giles

SEX COLUMN

Things to Try Before You G r a d u a t e

he school year may be coming to an end but that doesn’t mean our sexscapades are; this Summer is bound to be the hottest one yet. We decided to opt out of exam season to get a head start on bikini season - it’s prime time to find a summer sugar daddy, after all. While you losers will be sitting in exams, stressing about remembering all your equations (Does y=mx+b? Does 2+2=4? Does vodka cure hangovers?), we’ll be in the midst of joining the mile high club with our only stress being not spilling our margaritas on our new fits. We figured that before we jetted off for good, away into the sexy, summer sun, we would leave you worms with a few last bits of advice. After all, if you’re looking at the future and it isn’t shiny, hot, and willing to go three rounds every night, it might be time to try something new. We’re especially looking at you, wrinkly fourthyear bitches: ditch the books and work on your looks!! But really, this is true for all you wormies. Sure, you might not become a Rhodes Scholar like your older brother, you might never get a personal invitation from Mayo Maron herself to eat muffins, and you probably won’t get into any of your first choice Master’s programs (or your second choice) or even get hired at the place you did your internship last summer. It’s fine! Nothing that a vodka on the rocks and our help can’t get you through. If you cannot achieve your firstyear wormie dreams, at least you might have a shot at achieving the following ten things before you graduate from Trinity College:

Have a date in the quad Nothing screams romance like having a picnic in the Quad with your significant other, and having all of the Hendy girls watching your every move. Secret voyeurs? In all seriousness, once the flowers bloom and good old John Strachan has his sunny shine back, the Quad is the perfect place to hold hands and for over-the-pants hand jobs (throwback to Buttery parties - rip).

Ask someone out for rush We’re not biased or anything, but the Real Housewives of Trinity College had the best rush video of all time. Sorry not sorry. We do apologize to everyone who slid into our dms and did not hear back from us - our secretaries couldn’t handle so many inquiries. Take a leaf from these people and try asking someone out from their rush video - it’s not that hard. Just say “Hey sexy, wanna go with me to ____?” If you throw in some post-event promises ;) they’ll be sure to say yes.

Hook Up at a Trin Event

You’re dressed to perfection, you paid too much to be here, and the person you’ve secretly been eyeing for the past two months is finally drunk enough to make the first move. Sure, everyone might see you two sloppily make out on the dance floor, but isn’t that the essence of Trinity College? Everyone knows everything about everyone anyways, so why wait until you’re away from your prying peers to start the gossip?

One in Every Year Think of this as a version of collect-them-all! We coined this fun little game back when we were young and fresh in first-year and if you peel off the steam tunnel paint, you might just find our OG tally. To add some excitement to your regular Trin hookups, compete with your friends and see who can be the first to hook up with someone in every year - there’s nothing like some friendly competition to drive you into the arms of some lower-year loser.

Become a Clingy Trin Couple One in Every House You know exactly how we feel about this. It’s nasty. We don’t recommend actually doing this, but if you fail to cross off any of the other items on this list, this is acceptable as a last ditch effort. Choose anyone you’ve ever had beer-goggles for and go for it. We expect to see you sitting in Strachan at every meal together, attending all of your classes together, as well as the TCM. Just don’t be mad if we throw up a little every time we see you.

TRINCEST We know we’ve told you worms not to do this in every past article, but what can we say, we’re nothing if not inconsistent. Although deeply disturbing, Trincest is a right of passage for all members of college. If you’re not mutuals with all of your friends by fourth-year, did you even go to Trinity College? We think not. Besides, we like the gossip.

Strip in Strachan This is a personal favourite of Barb’s and will score you brownie points with her if achieved. Nothing screams “I’m ready to graduate and never see any of you assholes again” like stripping and streaking through Strachan. Make sure to hit up Barb first though, Lord knows she loves a good streak.

It’s the same concept as above. You get the point. Bonus points if you can score someone in the houses no one remembers the name to. Cos…? Sea…? Honestly, we don’t even really know ourselves.

Fuck in the Steam Tunnels Although uncomfortable, it’s kind of exciting not knowing when someone could accidentally walk by and see you practicing the Gluck Gluck 9000 (thx Call Her Daddy) on some lucky upper year. Cameras? Only adds to the excitement. Maybe you’ll be able to graduate Trin with honours and a ‘steamy’ sex tape of your own! Double whammy.

Date the Hot Don (iykyk) We feel like this one needs no explanation. If you manage to achieve this, all we can say is good for you. We’ve taught you well. One last time, we’ve shared our pearls of wisdom with you. See you in the French Riviera this summer, where we’ll be, Monaco sugar daddies in tow. Until Fall semester bitches,

Barb and Carol

Xoxo

Reflections on “ M a r k e ta b l e ” D e g r e e s : What Being an English Major Has Taught Me About Learning By Ellie S.

s the program enrollment period rolls around, and I reach the end of my third-year, I’ve been reflecting a lot on what choosing your major means in a culture fraught with pressures and attitudes towards certain types of learning. The role of undergraduate education and universities in general is being reexamined in a new age of media, technology, and a changing world of work. University is supposed to be a ticket to employment (we all know that’s not true anymore), or at least linked to a higher socioeconomic status. It is expected to give you a competitive edge, help you develop creative thinking and life skills, and somehow be this bridge to adulthood that magically creates a fully developed individual ready to head into the workforce. You are called upon to narrow your focus at the end of first year, to choose to go into Rotman, Engineering, Architecture, Kinesthesiology, etc. You are supposed to know everything and nothing all at once, to navigate your way through these years with a conviction about the professional outcomes you want in your life while also exploring, trying new things, and “finding your true passion.” These are choices that could set up your career, but they also lock you into a set path that you may not be sure you want, or feel ready for. There are a lot of contradictions in the things we are told the university is supposed to be. The way we reconcile ourselves to these paradoxes is determined largely by a combination of socioeconomic concerns, educational and cultural backgrounds, and other factors often outside of our control or agency.

In our fast track world, the appeal of immediately specializing in your field as you enter your undergraduate degree is understandable. If you ask people why they chose their program of study, you will often hear about a certain career, financial stability, and the “safety” or “practicality” of a field in today’s job market. University is a huge investment, but the different ways we chose to cash in on that investment are often accompanied by a sense of being judged or passing judgment on others for these choices. The choice to enter certain programs sometimes comes with implicit assumptions about you and

“But it will forever be a qualification I value in helping me develop and expand my understanding of the world.” your mindset: “useful” or “impractical,” “job oriented” or “academic,” marketable or unmarketable. It is true, some choices can set students on a clear path to something, while some leave us open to all kinds of uncertainty. And that uncertainty seems dangerous: paths to law school, med school, and business school often require staying within certain lines. But we also have to acknowledge that just because some degrees exist in a grey area doesn’t mean they can or should

be judged as a certain type of learning outside all applicability or value. My decision to major in English is one of the main choices I have made in my life that was based solely on a feeling, a passion I always had despite mixed opinions and messages about its “utility.” I’m lucky: I have parents who adore books, who will support me if I fail to make money, who only care about me being happy doing what I love. I grew up in an environment full of endless stories, listening to poetry, going to the theater, sitting in on my dad’s classes or reading manuscript submissions my mom was sifting through. I grew up on school campuses, and as a teacher’s kid, got a much better education than we could have ever afforded. This is one of the many components of privilege in my life that have fostered this passion and continue to allow it to grow. Language can make me feel things, it touches, reflects, and shapes hidden parts of me and the way I see and understand the world. But my message here is: people shouldn’t be considered superior or inferior to anyone or anything if you choose the direction of your degree based on a career, a passion, your parents wishes, randomness, whatever it happens to be. This article isn’t about why you should study English. It’s not an ode to the utility of the humanities, a tirade about the hierarchy of “useful passions,” or a statement about why you should read more books. I’m not spending hours analyzing Beckett’s plays, parsing Plath’s poetry, or struggling through Elements of the Philosophy of Right to give myself a leg up in a fast moving economy. It is often unclear to me if what I am studying has a “point” in the world I am graduating into, and it can feel frustrating sometimes. The apparent futility of chasing a degree in something that I can’t clearly visualize outside the classroom can be a hard thing to shake off. Majoring in English may seem misguided, self-serving, obsolete, or rooted solely in the world of academia. But it will forever be a

qualification I value in helping me develop and expand my understanding of the world. It is impossible to assign practicality to everything, to shape your actions based on some supposed future outcome. Sometimes, all you can know and base your decisions on is what makes you feel curious, creative, alive, energetic, and powerful. I used to want to reduce everything in my life down to its function: everything

“No matter how structured or unstructured your undergraduate journey is, its difficulty, utility, and development is completely personal and ever-changing.” had to contribute to an end goal, a practicality, an applicability. Time spent now had to serve something later. But my English degree reminds me every day that this philosophy is not living, and it is sure as hell not learning, not truly. Analyzing poetry, reading philosophy, writing critical essays, thinking about and interpreting texts may be less useful than learning to write code, but the things we feel the world finds useful are not always the things we love. No matter how structured or unstructured your undergraduate journey is, its difficulty, utility, and development is completely personal and ever changing. The learning that fulfills me and I am motivated to pursue is the learning that allows me to create my own sense of meaning, to connect material to my own experience. Knowledge can’t be written off as obsolete or impractical, and basing every decision about your learning on what will get

you hired may be a road to financial success, but doesn’t build the meaning I need to find in my learning. Meaning can be found in books, in projects, in experiences, in calculations, but your experience and creation of that meaning in your discipline will allow your curiosity and work ethic to endure. I’ve have read many “cases for the humanities” and “In Defense of a Liberal Arts Education” articles in the throes of existential crises, looking for something to reaffirm the decision I never once regretted, the field I have never fallen out of love with, but yet the pure numbers, facts, and figures convinced me to question as a feasible “smart” decision. I have encountered people who see themselves as superior to the “career driven masses” in their intellectual pursuits, and I have also met people who see those in humanities and many social science programs as misguided. Many departments and professors are guilty of this as well, and often make deprecating or self-serving remarks about other departments or

fields. But feeling the need to put other people’s decisions, passions, circumstances, and conceptions of the purpose of their degree down to reaffirm ours is not creating a culture open to creativity or dialogue. We make value judgements about courses and disciplines by how useful they will be for future gain, and subconsciously assign judgements to others based on the way they approach their degrees, whether be a road to a job, an avenue to pursue passions, or doing what their parents wanted. It’s hard to know what will be valuable learning to you. Maybe career/profession based programs are the most useful, but this question should also be framed as “useful to who and for what?” Not every student has the luxury of these considerations, but for some of us I think making value judgments about your courses and disciplines based on an opaque idea about what the job market wants isn’t always, or even usually, the formula to happiness.

“But my message here is: people shouldn’t be considered superior or inferior to anyone or anything if you choose the direction of your degree based on a career, a passion, your parents wishes, randomness, whatever it happens to be.”

Bachelor of Arts. Bachelor of Appli Bachelor of Com Bachelor of Educ Bachelor of Engin Bachelor of Busin Bachelor of Scien Bachelor of Arts. Bachelor of Appli Bachelor of Com Bachelor of Educ 10

Treasures from the Archives

Trinity’s Futures Past By Sterling M.

Treasures from the Archives is a College-history column, written by amateur Trinity historian Sterling Mancuso. In this edition, Sterling takes a look at some plans for Trinity’s future that never came to pass. This issue of the Salterrae is centered on the theme of “Trinity’s Future.” As I’m sure you can imagine, this is a somewhat difficult theme within which to write a column on Trinity’s history – a subject which is definitionally about the past. To slice through this Gordian Knot, I have taken inspiration from the all-encompassing administrative furor surrounding the New Building Project. The present plan is hardly the first proposal for a large scale expansion to the

College. Indeed, the present proposal is supposedly modelled on a plan from the 1990s. This got me thinking about the history of plans for Trinity’s future and the proposed expansions to our College that never came to be. As it turns out, there have been several grandiose proposals to expand our College which came to nought. Join me, friends, as I explore these plans, and take you on a trip to Trinity’s futures past. The first large scale, unfulfilled plan to expand Trinity College actually predates our present buildings. At the turn of the twentieth century, Trinity was gripped by an existential debate as to whether or not we should federate with the University of Toronto. Trinity was at this time located on Queen Street in modern-day Trinity

Bellwoods Park. Federation ultimately won the day, but those who favoured Trinity as an independent university put up a brave fight. One tactic used by the anti-federation faction was to propose an expansion at the Queen Street location. This expansion plan would have made full use of the massive grounds owned by Trinity on Queen Street. The independence faction suggested that Trinity complete its original quad (which was only completed here at Hoskin in the 1960s), expand our convocation hall, and build a new St. Hilda’s College. The old St. Hilda’s would be turned into a separate building for theology students. Had this plan come into fruition, Trinity students would not graduate from the University of Toronto, but from our own university, in our own convocation hall, in the middle of our own expansive park-like campus. But it was not to be. Corporation approved federation, and Trinity students today graduate from a university which John Strachan once called “deadly to the best interests of man.”

ed Trinity’s moving plans, and cost our donors substantially. Trinity tried to fundraise again after the War, with a revised building plan. Unfortunately, the money simply wouldn’t come, and we were forced to scale back our plan substantially. The architects hired to design Trinity on Hoskin Avenue were granted full artistic freedom, save for one exception. The front of the building had to be the same as the front at Queen Street. Unfortunately, with money as tight as it was, Trinity could only afford to construct this front wing. Somewhat ironically, the only part of the architect’s design which was built was that which they simply copied and pasted. When we finally made the move in the 1920s, there weren’t even any residences at Trinity, and students were required to stay in what is now the Ramsay Wright Building. Over the subsequent decades, we ultimately completed the quad with its dining hall, chapel, and one tower. But we never completed the second quad, we never built our own convocation hall, we abandoned the idea of a fence, and our Henderson Tower is a pale imitation of that planned before the Great War.

After federation, it became necessary to move the College closer to the University of Toronto’s primary campus. The College administration hired an architect, drew up a series of elaborate designs, and began selling the plan to potential donors. Donors pledged many millions of dollars, but then Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The First World War disrupt-

Trinity’s Graham Library is widely recognized today as the most aesthetically pleasing library on campus. But this has hardly always been the case. When Trinity moved to Hoskin, the plan was for the library to be in Seeley Hall. However, as budget cuts killed the plan for a full chapel Seeley became a temporary chapel. The library was instead confined to the steam tunnels, where

the archives are housed today. When we belatedly constructed a chapel in the 1950s, the College administration decided they would rather use Seeley Hall as an event space, and so denied the library the move upstairs. Over the next half-century, there were multiple plans to construct a purpose-built space for the library. One of the more outlandish proposals was to house the library in a glass sphere on the Larkin parking lot. Alas, this plan went nowhere and The College finally decided to show the library some love in the early 2000s, when the University’s lease on Devonshire House expired and it returned to our control. Devonshire House had been a residence building for engineers, and so was understandably in desperate need of a renovation. Trinity and UofT underwent a series of negotiations over the future use of the building, and ultimately it was agreed to lease back two wings for the Munk School, and move the library into East House, where it now resides.

In the 1990s, Provost Painter decided once again that it was time to expand Trinity. He dubbed his proposal “Renew Trinity.” This plan supposedly inspires the current New Building Project, but there are key differences. Renew Trinity proposed the construction of a second quad-like structure around the Larkin Building, as well as a purpose-built library and other buildings around the Backfield. Provost Painter chose a rather poor time for grand expansion; the 1990s were unkind to Trinity’s reputation, and fundraising challenges again killed the plan. Trinity’s past is full of futures that did not come to be. As we find ourselves in the midst of planning a new future, it is important to ground ourselves in this historical context. Provost Moran’s new building may be built, or it may become another future past. Regardless, Trinity will persevere. When the pre-war plan for an elaborate college with a double quad was cut back to a single wing, there must have been some who thought that Trinity College was doomed.

But we moved on, and we stand tall. We stand tall because as an institution, Trinity College is far more than just buildings. Trinity is its people: students, faculty, staff, and alumni alike. We truly are the salt of the Earth, and will continue to be so whatever the future will bring. To be part of such a community is an immense joy. It has also been an immense joy to write these history columns this past year. I thank you all for reading, and hope that I have inspired curiosity among readers into the history of our community. Metâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Agona.

Catching Up with 2T0: Advice From the Graduating Class By Katie G. As this is the future issue, we, the fourth-years, wanted to give the future of Trinity College our sound advice. As truly the best year ever, here is bestowed upon you everything you need to know going forward. Without further ado, I present . . . a (small) sample of the graduating students of Trinity College What’s your favourite memory from Trinity? Andrew Irwin stepping on a bird and killing it - Avneet Sharma 1T9 DJing the last ever Bubbly in Seeley Hall (may she Rest In Peace) and watching the crowd go absolutely apeshit when I played Cotton Eye Joe - Mattea Roach 1T9 Quad Party (does it count if i don’t really remember them though?) - Andrew Harrison 2T0 Crawling through the KA window to listen to Despacito, while Gabe ripped his pants - Alicia Pierog 2T0 What’s the best advice you got during undergrad and who gave it to you? Mitch Nader on my second day - don’t trust anybody or anything, just win. That quote is not verbatim. - Robin Fuller 2T0 A professor said to our class “it’s okay if you didn’t get the [content, mark needed to pass the course, goal] the first time. what matters is

that you move forward from that and don’t let it drag you down the second time.” The advice is quite straightforward but I think we often forget that with the pursuit of success comes the inevitability of failure that we would rather hide than confront. Moving forward from it is key. - Viktoriya Mykhaylychenko 2T0 Not quite advice but my 4th year psych professor told us about a study his colleague did of really successful Bay St/Wall St execs who weren’t satisfied with their life despite their immense success. After doing a bunch of interviews a common thread among them all was this feeling that they never made a choice. They chose their undergrad school because it was the ‘best.’ Then they decided to go to law school because that was the thing the ‘best’ people did. Then they chose the ‘best’ internship at the ‘best’ firm. And 30 years down the line they looked back and realized they never really made a choice for themselves, they did what they thought they were supposed to. Being in 4th year this knowledge really seems important to have but I wish I’d learned it sooner, because it applies to everything: the courses you take, the clubs you join, the friends you make, the way you spend your free time. I think it’s especially important to remember in an environment like Trinity where everyone is so successful and every minute is used to build their resume that it’s okay to just have hobbies just to have hobbies, and it’s okay to make choices that are good for you even if they might not be ‘objectively’ the best - Yuliya Mykhaylychenko

A mistake is only a mistake if you do it twice. A Rotman alum said it on a Conference panel I attended and it’s stuck with me ever since... to the point where I genuinely find myself running it through my head quite often - Isabella O’Hara 2T0 What advice would you give first year you? Calm down, everything happens for a reason that may not be immediately apparent (I would also give this advice to second, third, and fourth year me) - Viktoriya Mykhaylychenko 2T0

IMM250 - Viktoriya Mykhaylychenko 2T0 ANA301 - Embryology, HMB303 - Global Health and Human Rights, FAH102 - Art & Ideas - Jenna Wilson 2T0 SDS490 (Engaging Our Communities), SDS345 (Sex and the Epidemic), TRN321 (The Stories We Tell About Choice) - Mattea Roach 1T9 HIS311Y1, HIS367Y0, HIS364H1 - Milton Chow 2T0 If you could pick a song to best describe your time at Trin, what would it be? Rather Be by Kevin Todd - Jenna Wilson 2T0 Closer - The Chainsmokers - Robin Fuller 2T0 Drinkin’ Problem - Midland - Andrew Harrison 2T0 Don’t Stop Believing - Journey - Sunny Choi 2T0

Try as much as you can. Moderation is wise in all things, but now, in your undergrad, stay up all night with friends, take risks, attempt things even if you’re uncomfortable, and strive to better yourself and enrich your experience through doing so. That enrichment will involve some negative, but necessary, experiences. Always act with consideration towards others - Robin Fuller 2T0

Everytime We Touch - Cascada - Nathan Kuehne 2T0 Get That Man A Beer - Riley Green - Gabriel Ferland 2T0 Thoughts on Trincest? Guilty - Sunny Choi 2T0 If Alabama can do it so can we - Hannah Duggan 2T0

Don’t run downhill. Also, read Judith Butler’s “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” - Avneet Wouldn’t exist without it - Andrew Harrison/ Sharma 1T9 Katie Gaskin/Victoria Witt 2T0s What are the top three best courses you’ve taken (in no particular order)? RSM461, SII199 (Obama as a History),

It’s like a BJ -- at first you’re excited to try it, but then you realize you really need to branch out - Nick Ferreira 2T0

If you had to spend the night with one member of the administration - who would you choose? Mayo 8.3%

Pete the Porter 16.7%

Adam 50.0% Jonathan 8.3%

Jerome 8.3% Cam 8.3%

Would you rather get a million dollars or eat your arm?

eat my arm 35.3%

get a million dollars 64.7%

18 16 On a scale of 1-10,

how sick are you of being asked what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing next year?

19 ##

STRACHAN HACKS

‘Cause my Body’s too Smoothielicious for ya Babe By Jessica H.

We all feel spring in the air. Warmer days, brighter sunshine, happier people and, of course, annoyingly iconic Canadian geese. All this to say that better times are definitely coming and I’ve decided to dedicate this “Strachan Hacks” article solely to a very bright and refreshing taste of spring: SMOOTHIES! We’ve all been there, walking through Strachan watching that super confident person making an awesome smoothie. But let’s be real, I’m not the only one afraid of making the blender explode with Paula’s watchful eyes around some corner! Some things could be so embarrassing that trying can seem pointless. Well Trin, I’m here to tell you that smoothies are worth it. There’s nothing to fear if you’ve got these tips up your sleeve. I’ve compiled a list (list!) of tips and tricks from our very own smoothie expert: Mary Danesh.

BASE

When making smoothies, the base is crucial for success. Using coconut milk adds nice natural sweetness and creaminess. Consider adding orange juice (even with the coconut milk!) to have a fresh and energetic tang! A nice touch is to add a banana in the base (Strachan usually has some cut in half by the smoothie station) to make your smoothie thick and creamy… Yummm! 11

## 20

Health Smoothies can definitely be made as desserts, but why not have some deliciously healthy ones too? By adding hemp seeds in or on top of your smoothie, you get a nice nutty flavour and some good proteins (shout out to vegans)! Chia seeds should also definitely be one of your go-to ingredients since they have those essential omega-3 fats. I like to add a bit of yogurt into my smoothies (Strachan always has some plain and strawberry yogurt during breakfast) for some additional protein to start my day. If you are also super “into” health, feel free to bring your own protein powder to mix in! Some great flavours for a fruity smoothie are: chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, banana and vanilla.

Fruit & Veg Flavour really does come down to personal choice, but some of the most popular combos: Strawberry + Mango Strawberry + Banana Peach + Mango Strawberry + Peach Blueberry + Banana Sneaking in some vegetables is super easy in smoothies… and you won’t even taste them! I usually go for spinach because it’s so good for your bone health, as well as high in iron and vitamin k! Other vegetables that could be worth adding are kale and leafy greens.

If you’ve just skimmed over this article - which I don’t blame you in our attention economy - here’s a quick and easy takeaway for your next Strachan visit: Smoothie recipe for winners: Orange juice Coconut milk Half of a banana Chia seeds

Hemp seeds Spinach Protein powder/yogurt Frozen strawberries Frozen mango

Blend, blend, blend (and make sure to wash out the blending cup when you’re done!) Bon Appetit mes amis! I hope you all enjoy these refreshing smoothie tips to get you fully ready for Spring! Lots of love,

122

Jess

Inside

OUT

A Short Story in Four Parts. Part Four. By Florian N.

ummer had come to an end, and Calvin had made decent earnings. It wasn’t as much as he had hoped for, but more than he would have made working in the city. Calvin, recalling a day off at summer’s close, remembered how he had sat and watched the pines on the far side of a lake. The trees had swayed this way and that way, seeming to be at perfect peace, dancing in the wind. Calvin’s own mind was at peace, as well. He had hardened physically and psychologically from the seemingly Herculean tasks he had undertaken. Finally finding his rhythm, Calvin felt as though every day he had added another stone to his tower of progress. Calvin recognized, however, that the stresses of everyday life were not going to be kept at bay much longer. The year would soon start and the floodgates would open to future anxieties. Calvin thought about those trees he watched. They certainly felt no anxiety, no distress, no fervent concern for the future. They simply drifted in the breeze, were watered by the occasional rain, and soaked lazily in the sun. One day they would dry up, leaving the world in harmony, just as they had lived in it. That seemed to be an enjoyable life, one worth living. Calvin laughed into the brisk morning air as he thought to himself, “how can you translate that serenity into human life?” Away from the forest and back at school, Calvin fretted about starting a career. As he walked around job fairs, attended resume-building sessions, and chatted in social circles, Calvin saw

those bright-eyed, eager people he had previously looked down on. He had envied their privilege, their superior intelligence, and their pride and ambition. They had seemed so much better off. But now, they were all just moving along in the flurried way they knew how, chasing things that Calvin thought would likely not bring them happiness. Some would gain material success, some would experience intense relationships, some would travel the world, and some might wield power and influence. But many would toil their whole lives, bitter and out for revenge on whomever they deemed to be worthy of contempt. They would lack the serenity Calvin yearned for, the peace he had witnessed in the swaying trees. Calvin feelings of superiority and inferiority vacillated, but pushed them aside as he saw Ellie walking down the hall to meet him. He checked his phone, “11:30, right on time,” he whispered, happily. A beam of light reflecting off her raven-coloured hair took Calvin back to the peaceful lake where the sunshine danced between the pines. Mustapha’s warning came back to him, “don’t waste it like I did, it’s never too late to fix what’s broken,

even if you can only make it better by a little.” Calvin watched the figure move out and block his What was broken? His relationship with Ellie? path. His attitude towards life? Calvin had worked so hard, had assumed so much responsibility. Things hadn’t worked out perfectly, actually, far from it! But they had worked out the best way possible, given the circumstances. Even so, it didn’t matter. Calvin’s outlook on people and his future aspirations mattered most. Now, he aimed to tolerate others’ vices, take pleasure in their company, and realize their goals were not all the same as his. This change in Cavin’s perspective made others seem so much more interesting and valuable in his eyes. What was left for Calvin to do, then? “To accept what’s right in front of me, and not to waste it while it’s not too late. I could be like those pines, I could transform the world not by becoming supreme, but by becoming aware of what really matters—a life lived in reverence instead of conceit.” Calvin thought to himself, “that starts right now and will continue the rest of my life.” “Do you want to enter?” Ellie noticed his blank stare as she approached, and when she asked him about it, Calvin smiled. He took Ellie’s hand and said, “I just let go of this rotting body that I’ve been carrying with me for too long, I feel lighter than air!”

“I’m not in charge of that.” Calvin answered.

With quick footsteps, the pair eagerly made their way up the winding road of a hill, the path ahead seeming to beckon Calvin onwards. He stopped abruptly in front of a garden he had seen many times before, and gazed at a glowing pool, warmth emanating from the ripples of the water. Calvin looked in redoubled awe, drawn towards the water. The light was caught in the trees, vibrant foliage giving them a life beyond that of rooted plants. They were all alive together, caught in a glorious dance that Calvin dreamed to be a part of. The weak afternoon sun was complemented by the pool’s light and the normally dark figure by the garden’s gate was fully illuminated, like the gate itself. It shone pearly white… and was open! Calvin couldn’t believe his eyes!

The figure locked eyes with Calvin and the light now fully showed his face. Calvin gazed at the knit eyebrows, cold eyes, and tightly pressed lips of the figure. He inhaled sharply, realizing that he was looking back at himself. The voice had spoken with great authority, but that power soon left. The figure’s shoulders were hunched and its head bowed down. All that was left was a husk. Calvin grabbed the figure lightly by the shoulder and pushed it gently aside as he stepped past. The figure moved to the side, weak and defeated, and crumpled down on the side of the road. Calvin left his old self behind. He entered through the gates to gaze triumphantly upon the glorious fire that burned in the pool.

“Well said, you don’t deserve to be here.” The figure replied in good humour. “But… I’m the only thing left standing in your way.”

The End

Some Traditions Should Never Die By Mattea R.

Before I started at Trinity College, I received two pieces of advice from an upper year student who had graduated from my high school a year before me. They were as follows: You’re going to hear a lot of lies during frosh week. You should go to the First Reading, just to see if you like it!

I’ll leave it up to readers of the Salterrae to guess whether or not I heeded the second piece of advice. As for the first, I went into frosh week alert to the possibility that some of the “fun facts” I learned about Trinity College might turn out to be somewhat less than true. When upper years shouted at me for walking on the grass in the quad, or told me I had to stand on my chair while announcements were being made at dinner, I was privately satisfied in the knowledge

that unlike many of my fellow 1T9s, I was in on the joke. But would it really have been so bad if I had been fooled?

During these discussions, aspiring reformers usually make the point that many of our traditions are, at their core, a lot of stupid bullshit. This is undeniably true. However, we miss the Trinity College has the institutional memory of a point entirely if we start criticizing - or worse, goldfish. Every year, an enterprising student lead- discarding - traditions on the basis that they’re er comes up with the groundbreaking take that grounded in foolishness. Being able to laugh at one College tradition or another is “exclusive,” ourselves, executing our governance responsibilwhich is usually code for “alienating to students ities with a wink and a heavy smirk, and even who have a poor sense of irony.” The fifty or so occasionally deceiving first years - all of these are students that are the most heavily involved in integral parts of Trinity’s distinct culture. College life then launch into a frenzy of discourse, which we imagine resembles The School Before I delve further into why giving ourselves of Athens but is actually most comparable to that time for nonsense is so important, I think it’s one meme of the two women yelling at a beimportant to acknowledge that as a communiwildered cat. For a week or two, we engage in a ty, Trinity College is already very successful at heated argument over whether forcing would-be engaging a large portion of its population in our first-year heads to eat onions makes a mockery of collective social life. We have a high proportion student governance, or whether it’s really worth of students who engage with one or more Trinigetting into a fight with the administration so ty clubs or groups, some of the highest election that we can continue blatantly disrespecting the turnout rates anywhere on campus, and by far Anglican Church by appointing a Bishop to pathe largest proportion of students who live in rade around smoking weed or cigars during frosh our residence buildings. This last fact is especially week. Typically, these discussions conclude when worth noting - our College’s resident population people run out of the steam required to keep solidifies Trinity College’s role as a social hub bickering. Nothing changes, we forget all about both for students who live on campus, as well as it, and the cycle continues the following year. for those of us who are non-residents. When students are present in the physical spaces at Trinity College, we gain the potential for the kinds of spontaneous social interactions that build community and strengthen friendships. We get the ability to dip out of Graham for an hour or two to watch our friends make fools of themselves at the Lit, or to send a message asking “pints after this?” to someone sitting across from us in Finance Committee. Again and again, we decide as Trinity students to step away from our “serious” academic obligations and to prioritize having a laugh with our peers. Some of my favorite memories at Trinity come from these spur of the moment and low stakes interactions. I look back fondly on things like ordering Canton Chili to the JCR late at night, popping bottles of Bambino in the SGO, and watching election results in the Welch common room - may she rest in

“When students are present in the physical spaces at Trinity College, we gain the potential for the kinds of spontaneous social interactions that build community and strengthen friendships.”

peace! These types of interactions are predicated on people feeling like members of a wider community, and like they have a place in the social fabric of our College. Trin students’ devotion to making time for nonsense could itself be characterized as a tradition, but beyond this, many of our more formalized (though nevertheless absurd) traditions are essential parts of building a community in which these less formal bonding experiences can occur. Our traditions provide students with a set of common experiences that provoke discussion between us even when we’re unfamiliar with one another and have little else to talk about. During frosh week, every first-year is dumbfounded by the absurdity of the Bishop’s first address, and is either mystified by or skeptical of the elaborate lies that are concocted by upper years during College tours. We all are drawn into the bizarre cult of personality that surrounds the Speaker of the Lit - for me, this was a cherubic man in a suit with the voice cracks of a boy just starting puberty, while for younger readers it may have been a bearded Iranian man in a Slavoj Zizek t-shirt. We get to talk about all these things with the new acquaintances we’ve just met, and marvel at the strangeness of the world we’ll be living in. Moreover, many of our traditions have the specific goal of knocking people off of their high horses and act as an equalizer for all students within the College. It is impossible to feign dignity and act above it all when you’re being sprayed with Silly String during the Midnight Run, chanting “BOAT RACE” in a frat where your shoes stick to the floor, or being literally dragged through the mud at Deports. Some would call the traditions I’ve highlighted here debasing, but they’re an important reminder that at Trinity, no one is better than anyone else. Without our traditions, what do we have that binds us together? Our College is more diverse now than ever, and this is a wonderful thing, but in the absence of shared experiences, we’re

nothing more than a disparate collection of young adults from different parts of the country or around the world, following different programs of study. All we would have in common would be a shared registrar’s office and a big convocation ceremony at the end of it all. This state of affairs characterizes life for most students at UofT’s other Colleges - I’ve had conversations on multiple occasions with friends from outside Trinity who have forgotten mid-chat which College they attended, or where I’ve been surprised to learn that someone who I assumed went to Vic was actually an Innis student. I would never forget that I’m a member of Trinity, and no one could ever mistake me for anything else. I find this to be a wonderful thing. To those who still argue that our traditions and the ways in which we build community at Trinity are somehow exclusionary, I have one question - why are you doing the work of the

“I would never forget that I’m a member of Trinity, and no one could ever mistake me for anything else. I find this to be a wonderful thing.” College and university administrations for them? Over the past five years, I have witnessed the progressive creep of our College administration’s desire to kill the organic form of community that has developed at Trinity College over the past 168 years, and replace it with an image of community that’s more to their liking. There has been a continual push to strip students of our autonomy over our finances, our events,

and our ability to shape what the College community should look like. It has become almost financially impossible for student groups to host large events, since anything resembling a party has been forced off campus and into venues that cost many thousands of dollars to rent. Even for big-budget events like Saints and Conversat, the administration often delays approving proposed venues to the point that event organizers see their quoted prices expire multiple times. The administration has skyrocketed past moderate changes to the treatment of student events and drinking on campus and instead went directly to a complete crackdown on anything resembling Trinity’s traditional residence life. We could have had caps on how much money was spent on alcohol, or reasonable limits on the frequency with which on-campus events could occur - instead, we’re left with a void where there once was a vibrant community. I will grant that the events which brought me so much enjoyment throughout the first part of my time at Trinity were not enjoyed by all, and I’ll acknowledge that I’ve appreciated things like petting rabbits in the Wellness Room on occasion. However, I do not think that our turn away from College traditions has made the student experience materially better for students who didn’t enjoy the parts of Trinity that I value so highly. There has not yet been any development of traditions and events comparable to those described in the paragraph above that engage wide swaths of the Trinity student body. Attempts are being made - I hope that the TCMHI’s recent trip to Hart House Farms, for instance, will become an annual tradition. However, the activities that characterized the Trinity of old have largely been supplanted with things like peer advisor study sessions and button-making workshops, which hardly generate the kind of intense devotion to community that many people in my year and those years above and below felt during their time here. And with no real sense of community, nothing that differentiates us from any other

College, or any other university, then what is the College system even for? The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is about to undertake a review of the role of Colleges on campus. It’s possible that this review will result in a recommendation either to reduce the role that the Colleges play in shaping the student

“However, I do not think that our turn away from College traditions has made the student experience materially better for students who didn’t enjoy the parts of Trinity that I value so

experi-

ence, or to dissolve the College system entirely - and what then? Within the wider University of Toronto and in many of our academic departments, we’re already tiny fish in an ocean-sized pond, and the de-emphasizing or total dissolution of the Colleges will only worsen this state of affairs. The conditions at our university are in many ways dehumanizing - at many points we’re treated as cash cows, as problems in need of solving, or as cases to be processed. Beyond this, students face inordinate pressures from the perceived high cost of failure within the university, the actual financial costs associated with being a student in a city as expensive as Toronto, and the looming threat of needing to find a job or a grad school acceptance at the end of it all. Moreover, an alarmingly high number of students at UofT report feeling socially isolated,

with all of the aforementioned factors frequently listed as contributing to this feeling. Enter Colleges, which provide us not only with more efficient and navigable registrarial and career-ad-

“Traditions are what hold this community together, and I’m being very sincere when I say that some traditions should never die.” vising services than the wider Faculty of Arts and Sciences would be able to, but which also give us communities and spaces in which we can be human. All the things I referenced in earlier paragraphs - late nights in the JCR or the Adams Room with friends, pints at the Duke after a long day, or looking on as a group of religious heretics protest fracking in the backfield - are forms of stress relief that can be essential when we’re dealing with all of the difficulties inherent to being a student. They furthermore break us out of our patterns of isolation, and force us to engage with the community around us at our College. To me, community has been the entire point of coming to university. I could have done the same readings at another school, with professors who may have been just as edifying as the ones who taught me here. What I would not have gotten anywhere else was the particular experience of Trinity College, a specific place and time where spending hours sitting on a couch in a sunny quad or perfecting intricate inside jokes that would be incomprehensible without several layers of explanation, were equally valid uses of my time as sitting in the library writing papers.

Some people say that your College affiliation doesn’t matter, but I’ve always been of the mind that it matters exactly as much as you want it to, and for me, it mattered a lot. Trinity was the first place I felt safe coming out after a difficult time grappling with my sexuality in high school, and it was where I was able to grow into the powerful and confident lesbian that I am now. Trinity was also what kept me going during the part of my degree when I was the most deeply depressed - I was motivated to stay in school and avoid moving back to Halifax because I didn’t want to lose out on the connections I had made here, and the social calendar ensured that I always had some form of ridiculous nonsense or other to look forward to. I was ensnared by Trinity’s odd traditions back when I was in first year, and I was rewarded with a community that has valued and respected me in a way that nowhere else ever has. I began this article with the intention of making a clear-cut argument about the value of our traditions to our community, and I suppose that in a roundabout way, I did make that argument. Really, this article has been much more like a love letter to Trinity College as I experienced it, from September 2015 to April 2020. In the interest of leaving all who endured the past several paragraphs of text with something to actually take away, I want to offer a set of recommendations to all those of you who will be sticking around over the next several years - some might call this a list. Firstly, give your time to the College in whatever form makes sense to you. You’ll be strengthening a community that is unique in Canada, and quite possibly the world, and you’ll be paid back dividends in return. Adapt to the changing circumstances that the College administration, the university, and wider society present to you, but don’t let our distinct identity as a College be eroded entirely. Trinity is such a special place, and I want to be able to recognize something of what I remember if I come back to visit in the

future!

tegral part of Trinity tradition, and it directly gives students the ability to change or challenge Secondly, remember that not everything needs aspects of student life that they don’t like. If you to be taken seriously - in fact, many things don’t. have an issue with the way things are being done, For many of us, undergrad is the last time when address it through the channels that you have at we truly get to make fools of ourselves and waste your disposal rather than involving the admintime as though it were a resource that would nev- istration in disputes that should only concern er run out. When presented the choice between students. I would lastly say that the vast majority spending an extra couple of hours in the library of Trinity’s traditions aren’t wholly bad, and need or spending some quality time with your friends, very minimal alteration every once in awhile to err on the side of enjoying the company of those make them more palatable and accessible to the you care about. The world will not end if you wider student population. The administration don’t spend all your waking hours engaged in has demonstrated to us the perils of abolishing “productive work.” However, when people start practices completely when minor alterations to graduate and the people you’re used to seeing could have sufficed. Traditions are what hold this multiple times a week are suddenly scattered community together, and I’m being very sincere across the country or around the world, you will when I say that some traditions should never die. spend many of your waking hours missing them. Following from this, my plea for people to not take things too seriously extends to the way that student governance is conducted. There are moments when serious discussion is required, and there are also moments when the right thing to do is to purchase a 100 dollar stuffed hippo at the Toronto Zoo gift shop, or to rent a bouncy castle and put it up in the quad for the whole College to enjoy. I maintain that both of these were good uses of money, because the amount of enjoyment that these expenditures brought to students cannot be quantified in any dollar amount. Obviously not all spending should be directed towards frivolous pursuits, but there’s nothing wrong with spending money in the service of fun so long as a large number of students can enjoy the results. Finally, to anyone who for some reason read this entire article despite disagreeing with my outlook on Trinity’s community and traditions, I have this to say: one of the best aspects of Trinity is that as ordinary students, we still do have an immense capacity to shape both the structures that govern student life and the culture that permeates it. Our direct democracy is an in-

LEARNing H O W T O S A LT

By Reece Y.

U n pa c k i n g a F i r s t Y e a r ’ s E x p e c ta t i o n s From the moment we got our acceptance letters, and likely even before, us first-years had our overwhelming expectations about the first-year Trinity College experience. Sitting around Strachan the other day, me and my archetypical friends had a couple laughs about the whole thing, cause as we all know now, expectations for first-year versus the reality of what happens are two very different things. Here’s what came up: Expectation:

At UofT, you’re just another number.

Reality: At Trinity, you are a someone to someone, always. UofT has never felt like the biggest school in Canada, and Trinity is without a doubt the reason why.

Expectation:

Frosh is a week you’ll never forget.

Reality: I’ve quickly realized it only gets better from O-Week (except Strachan). Every weekend has held new adventures and laughs that seem equally impossible to forget. The risk and uncomfortable newnesss will be missed though. I’ll never forget those twists in my stomach, though the never-ending panoply of fun paramount to the Trinity College lifestyle makes Frosh seem like a distant memory at this point. Can’t wait for the refresher next year, this time in a blue shirt.

“Every weekend has held new adventures and laughs that seem equally impossible to forget”

Expectation (Strachan edition): The food can’t be that bad. Reality: I come to Strachan exclusively for Paula and my pals. I guess complaining about the eats is part of the college experience though. What is to be said about Strachan is that it’s never really been about the food – it’s the center of Trin’s social universe. The truth is the food is that bad or even worse maybe, but who the fuck cares when the people are that good.

“At Trin, we look out for each other. More than that, we look into one another, and find things we don’t expect beyond the stereotypes and satire.” Expectation:

Trincest is a bad idea.

Reality: Trincest is wincest. Okay…no. It is definitely a bad idea. At least if you enjoy an inkling of privacy regarding your sex life, but it’s kinda impossible to avoid. Better luck to 2T4 cause y’all know we fucked up.

Expectation (Commuter edition):

It will be hard to make friends as a commuter.

Reality: I remember meeting commuters during frosh week and not thinking I’d ever see them again, especially when considering my now good friend who commutes from Richmond Hill everyday. For some, that was true. But a few in particular expressed that Trin was magnetising: an impossible world to avoid. For me, it is literally impossible to avoid. I live here, mentally and physically. But for some it’s an effort-loaded choice to come everyday and I think that says something pretty cool about us, commuters and res students, as a community.

“It’s an effort-loaded choice to come everyday and I think that says something pretty cool about us, commuters and res students, as a community.” Expectation (New yorker edition):

It will be hard to find drugs.

Reality: Heads up…it wasn’t.

Expectation:

Living in a castle will be sick!

Reality: The 2nd Body bathroom.

“But seriously though, I think New College is a myth perpetuated by the Student’s Union.” Expectation:

I’ll have friends from other colleges.

Reality: Where the fuck is New College? I really did think I was going to make friends in lecture, but I was always sandwiched happily between my Trin pals. It would’ve been nice to befriend people from other colleges, sure, but when you’ve never felt better in your social orbit, why stray away? But seriously though, I think New College is a myth perpetuated by the Student’s Union.

Expectation:

Everyone at Trin is a snobby rich kid, whose daddy got them in.

Reality: To be honest with you, before coming to Trin, I was a little worried I wouldn’t belong. I wish I had known back then what I was about to find. Trinity College is filled with some of the most caring people I’ve ever met. At Trin, we look out for each other. More than that, we look into one another, and find things we don’t expect beyond the stereotypes and satire. I had a certain anxiety surrounding Frosh week that you had to know all your friends by the end of it, or even by the end of the first day. But it feels like everyday since Frosh I meet more and more people who surprise and excite me. Over the year, new faces turned into familiar faces and familiar faces turned into friends. Stereotypes and assumptions turned to naught. Now, an entire first-year table gets filled up at meals with crowds of people I love. I don’t expect to ever have another year in my life where I get to have a packed family-reunion style meal every single day of the week. In truth, I don’t ever expect to have a year in my life like the one I just did as a first-year at Trinity College. That’s a painful thought, but a special one too. You know, I thought I knew what it meant to be a Trin student back when I wrote my first Frosh article. Truth is, I never stopped learning. Through it all, there was one undoubtable, unrelenting constant: We are the salt of the earth.

Francine

Houben Speaking with the Architect Behind Trinity’s Building

By Arunoshi S. There’s nothing quite like Trinity’s new building to make you think about the future of the College. From the student consultations last year, to the unveiling of a design plan, we have witnessed how quickly the building is becoming a reality. When I heard last year that Mecanoo, in partnership with Toronto-based firm RDHA, had been chosen to design the building with Dutch architect Francine Houben at the helm, a quick Google search made me confident in her potential. Houben focuses, in her work, on “people, place and purpose,” in that order. Her work with the New York Public Library and the University of Cambridge has used this approach to create innovative spaces that focus on the needs of the people they’re built for and the contexts within which they are situated. Sustainability has always been a priority for Houben and as recent news of Trinity’s building suggests, it will be an important aspect of the new building’s design. The Salterrae had the opportunity to sit down with Houben in November to learn more about the architect of Trinity’s future: *Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What inspires you? Trinity itself inspires me. I like to come to Toronto and think: what is the position of Trinity in Toronto? What is the identity of Trinity? I think we share the same values. The future is about sustainability, nature, how food is produced, how to create a community. In your design ethos, you put people before place and purpose. Why? I became aware of it when I wrote my book about two or three years ago, but I think if you look at all the work I did, it has always been like that. Maybe the most important issue for me was that my architecture education was always focused on purpose. But the world is changing. I have to be prepared that the purpose will change but people will not. Bringing it back to the senses, they want to take care of the children, grandparents or the neighbors, how to create a community. If you look at all the work of Mecanoo, it has always been focused on this thing. Maybe also because my first period of work was social housing, or affordable housing as it’s called here. I then continued with public buildings, university buildings and campuses. But it was

always focused on creating communities. That’s what we’re trying to do here, at Trinity. For me, it’s also the first time that I have focused so much on connecting people to food. We did some of that in Birmingham with connecting the library to food. But here, you have to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for 800 people every day. So, it’s logical that food is very much part of the philosophy. I think it’s so interesting not just for you as students but with agriculture being a big issue for the whole world. In less than an hour, you’ll be giving a talk on the College’s sustainability goals. Sustainable design has been a part of your other work as well. How did this become such an important part of your approach? I think the awareness that you only have one planet. It’s also now an awareness that’s spreading to more people in the world. I always try to be connected to what’s needed in society and I think that this is a big urgent question. It’s about using your influence to be a part of a changing world. I’m very positive about it. For example with mobility, young people don’t have cars. So, we’re looking at walkable cities, bikeable cities. And I think Toronto can learn a lot of that. I would love to come up with the idea of Trinity bikes. Because Toronto is such a car city. But how lovely would it be if you could bike or walk more? What was it like designing your first project? That was a kind of amazing process. I was 25 years old, still a student. There was a competition in Rotterdam and we entered as three students and we won the competition. So, before I finished school, I had already started working. I remember the design went to construction and I went to the site every day to see if they were really building it. And I’m still like that. We really contributed to the way housing was built in a way. Residential spaces should be beautiful, pleasant for people to live in. That period in the early 80s, residential units were seen as a product for selling. But it’s more about creating

communities, how you raise your children. It’s important. How has that feeling changed today, if at all? I think it never changed, I still have that feeling. Even doing it for Trinity, it’s not easy. It’s a journey, it’s a struggle to find solutions. Of course, I’m much more experienced so I can make quicker decisions with the additional knowledge. We also have a great team in Mecanoo with experienced people. I now know how to focus on what’s essential and what’s not essential. What advice would you give to Trinity students about to graduate and start their own careers? I learned a lot because I’ve always been traveling a lot so I tell students from this generation, go away from your computers. See what’s happening in the world because the world is not a photoshopped world. Use your senses. What I’m doing, as an architect, is designing for people. I should experience how people like their surroundings, how they move. Don’t get disconnected. Use your computer as a tool but try to see what’s needed in society, walk the streets. Analyze what you’re saying. With climate change adding to food security issues around the world, it is definitely something that is a relevant issue and important for us to be thinking about. It’s interesting on a small scale too. We have been researching what we can do on the roof of the new building. My first idea was to build urban farming here [outside the Dining Room] but they told me not to do that because of the rabbits and the raccoons who will eat it. So, we decided the roof would be much better with some indoor growing of vegetables. And of course, Trinity wants to be connected with farms around the city. We didn’t just go with one solution. It’s a university - we are like the living lab. We test things and can come to a conclusion in four or five years, of whether it works and how we can improve it. It’s interesting for students to be a part of it, so that you have more awareness.

What attracted you to this project at Trinity? I’ve always loved Canada. There is a very strong connection between Canada and our country because you were our liberators. We were already working in New York and Boston. This came up on our path and we were excited. We’re extremely happy with this. If you could describe this college in one word, what would it be? A very responsible community. What has been the best part about working with Trinity? The most difficult? I’m really enjoying it. There’s always obstacles but it’s a great process and we’re very happy. We still have to solve a lot. We have to get rid of this - the waste area [in the Graham alleyway]. So, if you ask me what’s the biggest issue, it’s the waste. This is potentially the most beautiful spot, I want to call this Trinity lane but it has the waste house. It’s probably my biggest challenge. If you analyze Larkin, the Quad, the Munk building, it all comes together here. I want you to be able to come through here with your bike. I learned from students that a lot of them stay here [on Trinity’s campus] all the time. I am trying to understand Toronto, outside of the Trinity bubble too. What is the impact of building high rises, different neighborhoods? I’ve been biking around the city and it’s lovely to bike here. One of the former students toured us around the city and he said that a lot of students don’t [bike in the city]. I think that should be a bigger part. Trinity has an extremely rich history, of which many people are very proud. Our history is grounded in our age and our traditions, and our buildings, and their style, are a part of that tradition. How will you incorporate this important aspect of our college into the new building? How will you merge the historical and the modern? This was a big issue - what do you add to the new buildings, to what’s already here. It’s really

beautiful but some parts are really old fashioned. You can compare this to a building we did in the University of Cambridge or on the Oxford traditional campus. You can say it’s beautiful here, but you look at the doors and it’s not very welcoming. So, we would like the new building to be more open and welcoming. What’s also very important is that you have both the students that live here and sleep here and the students not staying here. How can we also make it more welcoming for them? We will have the old complex and new complex and it’ll be very coherent. The first proposal was a tower but we decided that since the existing space is a series of quads, we will continue with that and plan the building to be low rise. This is also very good because we then have a bigger roof which is great for farming. In a way, we are creating two new quads, a little different but it will still feel like a tradition of this building. We tried to combine a little bit more formal and informal, closed and open. I think it will work together in a coherent way. But we don’t try to be the exact same as you can see it’s so beautiful but not everything is beautiful. Will the building be more modern or historical in design? It will be sensitive [to the old building]. We will use wood construction, not concrete. The logic is that if you have wood construction, you have to have a lot of light.

Rite of Passage or

Sign froM Above? By Yuliya M.

t’s pretty much a first-year rite of passage to have doubts about what you’re going to major in. Even if your first words were “I want to be a doctor,” there’s still a choice between Immunology, Biology, Biochemistry - the list goes on. That’s not to say that the choice isn’t stressful, but there’s something reassuring in knowing that no matter how well put together other students seem, you’re all going through the same thing. In fourth-year, that solidarity is gone. People

“Despite everything working in my favour, I feel miles behind the friends who have no idea what they want to do with their lives, because to them the world is open with opportunity, while to me it has shrunk down to the size of an email.”

tend to be split among those who know exactly what they’re doing next year and those who have no clue whatsoever. To those who have no idea where they’ll be next year, it can feel like the stress of picking first-year majors all over again, only this time you’re the only one at a standstill while everyone else is miles ahead. As someone who has pretty much had it figured out since her first-year, let me tell you that your intuition couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve known that I wanted to go to law school since before my first-year. Four years of countless exams, papers, and the ever-arduous LSAT failed to shake my determination, and yet the

“It feels ungrateful and dramatic to complain about such an incredible opportunity, something I’ve literally spent years working towards” week before my applications were due, I found myself having a full-on breakdown in the JCR. My friends managed to convince me it was just a natural reaction to taking a big step in my life, and I decided they were right. It seemed ridiculous to be feeling unsure when the only thing standing between my dreams and myself was the SUBMIT APPLICATION button. Yet, three months and an acceptance to my dream school later, the doubts are still here. This is the first time that I’ve admitted that I’m still feeling unsure about my decision. In true Capricorn style, I figured if I pretended everything was okay, the problem would go away on its own. It feels ungrateful and dramatic to complain about such an incredible opportunity, something I’ve literally spent years working towards. Despite everything working in my favour, I feel miles behind the friends who have no idea what they want to do with their lives, because to them the world is open with opportunity, while

“To risk expressing my reservations to my parents or friends, or even here, is to risk them being glossed over as natural or fleeting or false” to me it has shrunk down to the size of an email. To risk expressing my reservations to my parents or friends, or even here, is to risk them being glossed over as natural or fleeting or false. Still, I decided to confront these doubts because I know I’m not alone. A friend who has been dead-set on med-school since high school recently announced quite abruptly that he was seriously considering law school instead. Another friend who has a prestigious post-grad job locked down since last summer has decided he might try med school, despite never taking a science class before. Seeing people who I have always idolized for having their lives so well thought out going through the same doubts is reassuring not only because I know that I’m not alone, but because I know that those friends are right where they need to be. So maybe I am too. This might be a real movie-moment where my gut tells me I’m about to make the biggest mistake of my life. Or it might be just another rite of passage not at all different from what we went through together in first-year. And we all made it through that. I guess I’m sharing my reservations to say, whether we clench our teeth and click ACCEPT OFFER, or decide to open a small foreign language bookstore in some European coastal town, we’ll make it through this too if we do it together.

Vent with Vicky - The End

By Vicky M.

I tried really hard to write a good intro this time around (fourth time’s the charm right??). Unfortunately I am currently being crushed by both schoolwork (aren’t we all) and writing the goodbye to this column, which itself is serving as a reminder of the many goodbyes I’ll be making in the next few months (I don’t think I’m quite ready to face that yet). Besides, you know the drill by now. You send questions. I answer. You laugh and/or take the advice … I hope.

I never committed Trincest, did I do Trin wrong? By never committing Trincest you have actually beat the system and won the game. Just ask the Registrar for your diploma as you are officially an alumnus. Also there is no such thing as doing Trin wrong! What a silly phrase. You being here and doing Trin your way is you doing Trin “right”.

Why are you so salty?

Can I get your number?

My salty persona stems from being a fourthyear not sure about my future path two months pre-graduation (send thoughts n prayers), missing my friends ALREADY even though we are still together (heartbreak city), reflecting upon the state of this college now versus in my first-year (RIP), and of course, being a lil Salt of the Earth just like you.

678-999-8212

What’s the right way to say SMH? Is it saying each letter like S, M, H, or is it pronounced like Sm-uh? One, it’s pronounced as each letter separately. Two, whoever told you it was pronounced as Sm-uh is probably absolutely losing it somewhere right now, mad respect. Three, Urban Dictionary could have told you this so I appreciate the effort of asking. Four, sm-uh is actually kind of growing on me, so uhh yeah it’s smuh now and whoever told you to pronounce it like that is an icon.

If you understand this reference, you most definitely can. As someone with a peanut allergy, my friends often try to scare me by yelling “peanut!” How can I get back at them? - Nutboy Dear Nutboy, Step 1: send them the meme I have graciously created for you on the right with no accompanying text and see if they get the message Step 2: fake an allergic reaction at an outing and see who’s laughing then Sincerely, Me-who-got-to-make-a-meme-edit-out-of-this-and-isvery-content

Don’t have a question for you but I just wanted to let you know that you’re absolutely amazing and I wish you all the best for the future! Thanks anon, you’re too kind! I am emotional again and thinking about all those goodbyes. May have just shed a tear in the library. Sorry this isn’t funny. This is literally me on the left right now.

38 What’s your dream date? Receiving Double D! ….Dinner and drinks obviously...what did you think I was referring to?

What are your final words? Some parting words? What would you like to say in your last and final ask Vicky? What a fitting final question. I’ll try not to be too sappy or lengthy but I make no promises. During my first week back in September, I asked my friends randomly about their feelings about our impending graduation. The answers I received ranged from “I can’t wait, please let me graduate tomorrow,” to “I never want to graduate, I have no plan.” I soon found myself so intrigued by their answers that I began to ask every fourth-year I came across. Fourth-year is fascinating. It’s the end. The end of our time at Trinity, our time in undergrad, the end of many peoples’ lives in Toronto - for everyone it is the end of something. And while it is the end of many things, it is also just the beginning of a bunch of choices you are forced to make throughout the year. While adults are telling you there’s no reason to have it all figured out at 21, it sure doesn’t feel that way. How many times did I hear someone’s future plans change? Someone doubt their choices? “She’s writing the LSAT now,” “he’s no longer applying for med school,” “I wish I had done a different degree.” Futures are altered over meals in Strachan and in between classes and at pre’s in between shots. (Admittedly mine has changed since I started writing this article 3 days ago). As my classmates struggled to send in post-grad apps and go through multi-stage job interviews, ask professors for references and write those wretched cover letters, the greatest part was going through it together. I love hearing about what people have lined up, what they have dreamt about doing five, ten years down the road, and watching the people I’ve known for four years make these enormous decisions. I am so lucky to be surrounded by some of the smartest, most hard-working, and incredibly fun people I have ever met. My advice? Yes, your GPA and clubs and meetings and network are all important and will impact your future, so keep working hard. But it’ll all come together - whether in the way you wanted it to or not. Try not to stress too much about the big picture. Slow down. Choose yourself and put your mental/physical/emotional health first. Make time for your friends because soon they’ll be lawyers, doctors, historians, authors, investment bankers, consultants, accountants, Master’s and PhD candidates and will no longer be a 5-minute walk away from you. Stay undecided. Make mistakes. There is no time like the present to be young and dumb. And no better place than Trinity College. Vicky out...mic drop.

Reading Trin Through Texts: My Literary Retrospective of 2019-2020

The Opposite of Loneliness

Looking for Alaska

Deadly Class

Outliers

The Opposite of Loneliness (2014) Read: March 2018, December 2019

Deadly Class (2014) Read: 2018-Present

Summary: A collection of short stories and essays by Marina Keegan, a Yale undergraduate who died in a car crash two days after her convocation. I read this during my last semester of high school, just a few months shy of graduation. It proved inspirational back then, but after rereading this past Winter break, the book contained an added layer of poignancy. Interspersed with rich narratives and insightful ramblings, Keegan accurately captures the undergrad angst with which we are all too familiar. As a liberal arts student and creative writer myself, I found it easy to identify with the author. The tone can be brutal and dreary in its realism, but Keegan’s message is ultimately optimistic. The book’s titular essay has received millions of views on the Yale Daily News website, and I implore all Trinity students to give it a read.

Summary: Rick Remender’s comic book series takes the concept of Harry Potter – an unconventional school for special youths – and steeps it in a gritty and violent world. Instead of young wizards in training, though, it’s assassins. Unlike Rowling’s stories, this series tarnishes the notion of whimsical boarding schools. King’s Dominion Atelier for the Deadly Arts is a place where friendship is false, where any act performed in the name of surviving the savage four-year curriculum is looked upon approvingly, and as the series’ tagline reminds the reader, “the dagger in your back isn’t a metaphor.” The serialized nature of the story makes it impossible not to wonder what will befall the characters next, and I found myself tearing through issue after issue on a monthly basis. Whether you’d prefer to think of Trin as resembling Hogwarts, or perhaps as this slightly bleaker depiction, is up to you.

Just like that, another school year has come and gone. In reaction to this ever swift passing of time, I started documenting the best books I’ve read each year, something I have continued upon coming to Trinity. Reflecting on my reading list over the past couple years, it became clear a few of my favourites were influenced by my collegial surroundings. By Vikram N.

Looking for Alaska (2005) Read: January 2019

Outliers (2008) Read: July 2019

Summary: As I was making my way through John Green’s catalogue of tear-jerking teen dramas, I decided to read the most universallyacclaimed one. I didn’t think anything could match the emotional resonance of The Fault in Our Stars, but this novel proved me wrong. More remarkable was the fact that Green wrote Alaska a good six years prior to the former. The result is a raw coming-of-age story, stripped bare of the genre’s saccharine conventions in favour of an authentic experience. The book’s milieu, a prestigious school for bright yet psychologicallytortured youths, was obviously quite relatable. The pacing is perfect, encapsulating the events within a single year yet feeling like a breezy journey all the same. I’d dare anyone not to finish this book in one sitting.

Summary: I discovered Malcolm Gladwell through Endgame, a biography of American chess legend Bobby Fischer, when his famous “10,000 hours of practice” theory was used to explain Fischer’s brilliant performance. After listening to an interview with him on The Tim Ferriss Show, I decided to check out his own podcast, Revisionist History. The fact that he was a Trinity alum only served to further pique my interest. I learned about some of the great works Gladwell has published, and finally arrived at the book in question, Outliers. In typical Gladwellian analysis, he breaks down several “success stories,” from Bill Gates to the Beatles, arguing how large a role circumstance plays in determining the outcomes of careers, experiments, and people. This book may just change your perspective on what defines “success,” especially if that’s something you aspire towards in your future. After all, that’s why you’re here, right?

Looking back upon ulysses By Isabella S.

or this issue of the Salterrae which explores “Trinity’s Future,” I decided to employ my little English brain and think about what pieces of literature still serve as relevant and impactful in our post-modern age, an age dominated by social media and where your popularity is validated by your online presence. It’s fair to say that the desire to pick up a book is typically outweighed by the desire to order a cheeky Nandos or Doms and watch TV. Whether you’ve had 7 hours of class or have been grinding in Bora all night, Netflix is an easy distraction and fits the student lifestyle. With the rise of cult-favourites like Cheer and Sex Education (which are both 100% worth the watch) Netflix’s popularity is rivalling that of social media favourites like Facebook and Instagram. All to say, even I as an English Specialist who is supposed to function as an advert for books, I admit that sometimes reading is just more effort than you’re looking for. HOWEVER, there are a few texts that I tend to go back to; their analytical capacity seems to grow with time and tbh, they’re just pretty f-ing amazing. There is a clear favourite to me, and that is Tennyson’s Ulysses. For some context, the name “Ulysses” is the Latinized name of “Odysseus,” the main character in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. I studied Homer before studying the poem. I recommend doing this as it provides greater understanding and everything tends to make more sense. Some of you may be familiar with the famous modernist novel of the same name by James Joyce, published in

1922. I’ll be honest, I have not read the whole text; the reason being, the text is infamously impossible to read. But hey, nothing against the Irish: Derry Girls is literally the best thing ever. If you try to read Joyce, heed this warning. There is a Guardian article entitled “Is James Joyce’s Ulysses the hardest novel to finish?” to which the answer is yes. So, Tennyson’s poem. The poem was written in 1833, and is a prominent example of a dramatic monologue. The text is composed in blank verse, and tells of the mythical hero Ulysses describing his discontent upon returning to Ithaca to his wife and son after his travels. Side note, where Ulysses travels is actually super interesting; for example, he lands on an island full of lustful women and fights Charybdis, a huge sea monster. In the opening line of the poem, Tennyson characterizes Ulysses as an “idle king.” He describes the people of Ithaca as a “savage race,” and Ulysses as having an “aged wife.” Thus, Ulysses has had a bathetic experience on his return. He states he “cannot rest from travel” as he has always roamed with a “hungry heart.” As the poem progresses, Ulysses reflects on his experiences. He claims that because of them he has “become a name.” In this way, Ulysses’ identity has been carved by his adventures and he feels distanced from himself now he’s home. He explicitly describes this when he states that “I am a part of all that I have met.” He has met all manner of creatures, from the natural to the supernatural, and all have functioned to change him. There does occur a change of tone in the poem

when Ulysses addresses his son Telemachus. His son will take over and rule Ithaca: “When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.” The crux of the poem lies in the assertion that “Death closes all: but something ere the end, / Some work of noble note, may yet be done.” Here, Ulysses is leaving the poem on a more hopeful note for his son, focusing on how “it may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.” The final five lines of the poem were made famous by “Skyfall”: Judi Dench recites them during her hearing while Bond runs to defend her from Silva. The clip is on YouTube. Ulysses concludes that despite being dismayed that he won’t get his old life back, he is content in himself as “that which we are we are.” We are “strong in will,” determined “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Ultimately, Ulysses thus remains relevant through its hopeful and encouraging message.

“WE EXIST.” A Conversation with Grace Ma, Editor-in-Chief of UofT’s Grungiest Literary Journal By Mila Y. Being the most pretentious, I’m sorry, best college of our illustrious university, it is only natural that Trin boasts one of the oldest literary publications on campus - the Trinity Review. However, beyond seeing a few posters announcing the beginning of submission periods and launch parties around the Buttery and across Facebook groups, I doubt many of us have had exposure to the Trinity Review or know what it’s really about. So for the last Salterrae issue of the year, instead of spamming you with book recommendations or poetical analysis you don’t have time to read, I decided to take a look into the illusive world of university literary publication within Trinity in a last ditch attempt to refine you band of pompous heathens. What follows is the result of a late night conversation with Grace Ma, the Editor-in-Chief of the Trinity Review, a conversation which we had in the dorm of our hallowed institution itself over dark chocolate and ruminations on the nature of poetry.

A native of Montréal, Grace is a third-year student double majoring in English and Environmental Science and, as she remarked herself, like a true artist loves talking about herself. Having been involved in literary arts journals throughout her highschool career, Grace joined the Trin

Grunge has been the unofficial theme of the past few years.

accessible. The editorial board is composed of senior editors and an editor-in-chief, elected in the spring, and associate editors hired in the fall, along with an illustrator and webmaster.

Despite its history and deep roots, the Trinity Review is constantly innovating and coming up with new initiatives.

To illustrate the publication process Grace talked about the production and timeline that takes place throughout the winter. Submissions open mid-October and run for three to four weeks, with simple guidelines and advertisements galore. The amount of submissions depend on the outreach and “forces of nature” that [Grace] has no idea about. After the close of submissions, the webmaster compiles all the works anonymously into a document and passes it onto the editorial team who then have a series of meetings to decide their quality. With regards to what they’re looking for, the editor-in-chief professes that they will take anything that’s decent, though grunge has been the unofficial theme of the past few years. Once the fatal decision is made, authors are contacted, edits discussed, and the illustration process begins. Everything from covers, layouts, and type of paper - Grace’s favourite aspect - is discussed and once decided, the publication is printed and makes its way into your hands.

Review in her first year, working her way up from associate editor to senior editor to editor-in-chief within three short years, running uncontested, “as usual” for her most recent position. An earnest logophile, her aesthetic evolution can similarly be traced from favourite childhood books - favourite author Alice Munro - to angsty poetry in her teen- Despite its history and deep roots, the Trinity age years - Emily Dickinson being her favourite. Review is constantly innovating and coming up with new initiatives: a website, a digital archive The Trin Review was founded in 1881 and is cur- where you can view issues of days gone by, and rently enjoying its 132nd year of publication. The even a poetry contest. What they want you to Trin Review has taken on many roles throughout know is that they indeed exist and that if you’re the ages, from the newspaper style Rouge et Noir to an artist, to consider submitting and/or joining the Trinity University Review which encompassed the team. So please, get out there, write, live, be, the roles of the Review the Stephanos, and even the and submit to the Trinity Review so they can stop Salterrae. Without a constitution, the Trin Review soliciting outside sources to fill up our very acis a fluid entity, its vibe changing from year to year claimed journal. and masthead to masthead - its heyday arguably be- (They’re also a levied club, so be sure to come out ing the 80s and 90s when being part of the editorial to the launch parties as they have food aplenty.) board was seen as “hip” and “cool.” However now it’s fallen into a bit of a slump after the avant-garde Forever yours, movement of a few years ago which focused on outside submissions, a development Grace wants Your pretentious Readership and Criticism to reverse as she makes the journal more local and columnist.

Horoscopes

for the Unlikely Occurrence that You Graduate and Actually Get out of Here

Greetings Saltines, It is with heavy heart that I write my last completely bullshit article for this year. It deeply saddens me to know that I no longer have an excuse to lie to you about what kind of shitty person you are and how your future is bleak. While we’ve shared many laughs over the year, which mostly consisted of me laughing at you and not with you, know that I really do appreciate all you readers out there, except the ones who actually know stuff about astrology and can see that I definitely do not. Please enjoy my parting gift to you - this article - which will tell you how you’ll end up after graduating from this hellhole. Love forever,

Archana

aries MAR 21 - APR 19 Hi sweetie, I have some bad news, you are not the gold star that everyone has been calling you your entire life :(. Right after graduation you will be hit by the 18-wheeler of a truck that is reality and the fact that you’re merely one teeny tiny dot among millions of university graduates, most of whom are somehow more qualified for the job than you are. Yikes, be patient?

Taurus APR 20 - MAY 20 Two words: boomerang kid. It’s not your fault that your parents’ couch is super comfy and most importantly, free. But don’t worry, no one will be able to judge you when you’re the first to pay off your student loans since you didn’t splurge on the Independence Apartment™ right out of university.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 20 Geminis never really graduate because they’ll be questioning every decision they ever made in university for the rest of their life. Likewise, they’ll never be able to choose one post-grad path because they want to try a bit of everything. Well life isn’t an ice cream shop folks, it’s time to commit :0 – terrifying.

CANCER June 21 - July 22 My advice for Cancers is to find a job with a commute! This will give you plenty of time to adjust to change, reflect, second guess, and cry, at least twice a day. Ignore everyone that judges your emotional self, life really is torturous!

LEo JULY 23 - AUG 22 All Leos brag about their successes on social media, no matter how long ago, how miniscule, or how little your followers care. The question is whether you are the kind of Leo that turns your social media into your “career.” I would advise against it, but I know you’ve entirely stopped paying attention to what you’re reading right now and are just playing the highlight reel of your many accomplishments in your head.

LIBRA SEPT 23 - OCT 22 Fuck a career, Libras are going to be trophy wives/husbands. Why spend the prime years of your life slaving away applying for jobs and grad schools when the only viable way to earn a living in today’s economy is to marry rich? And that’s on capitalism. Unfortunately, Libras are the kinds of sugar babies to actually fall in love with their income provider. Soooo, good luck with that one.

Capricorn DEC 22 - JAN 19 All a Capricorn wants is one real job – any job that will take them. From there the rest is easy, they just know that they can claw themselves to the top, all they need is for someone to give them a chance. And bless their heart, all they want to do is help people. Have you considered going on Shark Tank?

scorpio OCT 23 - NOV 21

AQUARIUS

Catch your favourite Scorpio working six part-time jobs the day after they graduate in order to pay off their student loan that haunts their nightmares. I hope the uniforms are cute, but there’s nothing to mock about a Fuego employee discount.

JAN 21 - FEB 19 Aquarians are the type of people to have their supervisor walk all over them and they would say thank you. They are so eager for any opportunity they can get, and they believe being bullied helps them be really good at what they do. Truly the weirdest sign.

SAGITTARIUS VIRGO AUG 23 - SEPT 22 Virgos have known and will always know what their plan consists of. They probably aren’t even reading this article because they’ve known what they’re going to do after graduation even before applying to university. Some of us should take note.

NOV 22 - DEC 21

Pisces

Can you spell gap year? Having been thoroughly disappointed by your tensof-thousands-of-dollars spent on formal education, Sagis will still be itching to learn about the world after graduation. But this time they’re doing it right, by travelling to countries they know nothing about and really only learning the basics like what the currency is called and how much ten shots of tequila costs there.

Feb 19 - Mar 18 Working a lot, followed by going for drinks all the time after work, followed by working even on the weekends, followed by also drinking a lot on the weekends, followed by inviting all your co-workers for a night out, followed by thinking that they all hate you because you got promoted. What a beautiful mess.

Being Being Queer Queer at at Trinity Trinity By Nick F.

When I arrived at Trinity in the Fall of 2016, I’d been “out of the closet” for a year and half. Despite having told my friends and immediate family, most of my extended family was still unaware that my sexuality was anything other than straight (in fact, I was barred from telling them by my parents).

come as a gay man, I would have detested the place. I say this not because I think the college has regressed in its tolerance and acceptance of the Queer community, in fact I believe the opposite to be true. However, there has been a marked change in how our community expresses support for Queer members of college.

Upon arriving at Trinity, I went through what felt like a second coming out. No longer did I have to watch what I said and how I acted out of fear of accidentally “outing” myself to those who were still unaware of my sexual orientation. As such, throughout my first-year I became gradually more comfortable with my sexuality. I fraternized with prominent upper years, and witnessed them express their individuality with ease. The Queer Community of my first-year at Trinity was vibrant, both literally and figuratively. This open and welcoming environment not only allowed me to discover myself, but it also sparked an immediate, and deeply personal, connection to Trinity — the first place I’d felt truly free to be myself.

While it may seem benign, the number of gay jokes made in our community has exponentially risen since my first-year. Back then, one would be surprised to hear jokes being made at the Lit or the Episkopon about queer people unless those telling the jokes were members of the LGBTQ+ community. Then in my second year the frequency of “gay jokes” — and number of people using the word “fag” in casual conversation — began to increase. Things have gotten progressively worse in my third and fourth-year, with “gay jokes” becoming mainstream and dicks being etched onto literally any surface that can be found. And to those of you rolling your eyes while reading this and thinking I’m being alarmist, let me ask you this — how many times have you said or heard the chant “Nick Ferreira is Gay!”

Looking back, I wonder if I’d have fallen in love with Trinity to the extent I did had it not been for this factor. It’s a question that I’ll never learn the answer to, and I’m ok with that. One thing I do know is that had I been made to feel unwel-

This is where I pause to recognize my own culpability in this cultural shift. I wrote, condoned, and said more gay jokes throughout my time at

48 Trinity than I can remember. And I stood silently by as non-queer people at Trinity began to incorporate gay jokes into their satirical tool-belt. I believed their punchlines to be harmless, and amounted it to the expressing of support for the Queer community via satirical means. I imagine this is also how those who made these jokes would justify them, and I can’t say that it’s an invalid excuse. At Trinity, satire is so embedded into our collective consciousness that we have become accustomed to justifying any joke as a satirical critique. More importantly, I know that myself and several members of the queer community embrace satire as a means to cope with past trauma that so many of us grapple with. This is why queer people joke about being queer. But in doing so, allies of our community now believe they have a moral license to make these jokes as well. So having come to love Trinity when these jokes were scarce, whenever they were made I’d naturally dismiss their potentially harmful impact as it did not conform to my perception of the College. The same may not necessarily be true for newer members of our community, especially first-years. In the years to come we must not forget that the consent of the queers who have already been embraced by our community ought not be assumed of future LGBTQ+ Trinitrons. They will inherently have a different experience and level of comfort with their queerness, and it should not be assumed. Institutions like the Lit and Episkopon must be cognizant of this fact. Chants of “Nick Ferreira is Gay,” must not be allowed to morph into

similar chants without those people’s consent. Depending on your own opinion, you may believe this culture shift to be harmless or extremely offensive and dangerous. I must admit that I’m inclined to take the former point of view, however I cannot help but recognize the uniqueness of my vantage point. The simple fact of the matter is that I’m a straight acting gay, which basically means that my personality is not overtly feminine. As such, I believe that my acceptance into “Social Trin” has been more readily accepted than if I had been more feminine. If we are queer we are allowed to partake in governance, but unless we conform with certain social norms at Trinity our involvement has a ceiling. For those questioning the validity of that statement, just think about the fact that over the last four years, I was the only openly gay Head. Ultimately, we must ensure that our culture of support expressed through satire does not turn into a perceived intolerance. If so, we risk alienating a new generation of Queer Trintrons who, upon arriving at Trinity, are just beginning to become comfortable with themselves.

Trinity Through the Years:

The Final Judgment Cynical

Perspectives from to Fourth-Year

embarked upon my time at Trinity, a sensitive, fresh-faced, naive and wildly sophomoric 17-yearold, and as I leave at the jaded age of 21, imbued with senseless constructions, hardened by social warring and crippling inadequacy issues, I miraculously emerge more scathed than ever. Fresh off the plane from Vancouver, I spent my entire first-year so utterly caught up in the politics of my life, swept up in friends who came and went, frat boys who would come and go even faster (no pun intended), terrified to enter Strachan shielded by Ray-Ban’s even in the coldest of winter, and a haughty arrogance that aimed to mask my true intentions. Three years later, I am about to graduate, as long as COVID-19 doesn’t fulfill its environmental prophecy first, and realize just how little the Trin, and the Emily, I once knew, resembles the one I see before me today. “The friend group you have in first-year will change drastically by your fourth,” my dad would remind me as I regaled my latest drama, to which I would hastily defend my circumstance. I would have the perfect life that I wanted for myself and nothing would get in my way. My days were spent procrastinating, my nights dawdling in the Adams Room until the wee hours of the morning, clinging to the next social engagement. Back when every weekend brought the promise of the next party, Rounds, Head’s Pub, Kickoff, the thrill of the next conquest and new friends amidst drunken hookups, guys and girls amuck. Instagram’s were posted yearning for that one person to like it; nights running naked around St. Hilda’s. I would hear mutters, judgments, and perceptions of various groups,

First-Year By Emily L.

“You’re crazy,” “They’re insane,” “They’re all so fake,” and my immobilizing need for external validation would keep me up at night, staring into the fly-ridden, moldy abyss of 2nd Main (sorry, Burgess). We become friends with the people we think are meant to based on standing, circumstance, and proximity without actually taking time to seek out who we want to. It is a toppling hierarchy that even temporarily cost me my friendship with my high-school best friend. It was a year filled with potential never to be met, parties never to be had again, and moments lost. From social hostility to devolving residence arrangements and hookups never to be spoken of, we basked in the epitome of feeling cool. Cultured. Smart. On top. It was fucking amazing. Letting everyone know who we were. But that’s the sentiment of the decidedly uncool, right? Second-year began, and I found myself whisked onto 4th Whit with three of my closest friends, and two who were soon to be. It was a floor only to soon earn a blossoming reputation for chaos, indecency, and betrayal. Bonds were tested, severed even, relationships even more so. We overcompensated for the waning social calendar with rowdy Massey parties, a certain Champagne Socialists, and unnecessary debauchery heightened by our own tangled social affairs. At one point, everyone hated someone; no one immune. Living in such close, sorority-like proximity, and 5/6 of the members of the group hooking up with younger men of college, mayhem ensued. I dated a guy I knew was wrong for me but I wanted to be right so bad. By the end of the year, and the sickening threat of who would get on to next year’s residence (and god forbid, how many windows we would each get), there were fissures so deep they couldn’t be repaired, and

unfortunately, never were. I reconciled with my best friend of the past, bonding over manipulative situations we had gotten into during the tumult of moving to a new city across the country. I wrote a screenplay about when power dynamics in relationships are okay, echoing my own experience but also everything I had ever aspired to. I reminisce on 4th Whit steeped in an anxious stupor, no idea of the life I was about to encounter only a floor below. By third-year, 3rd Whit, I had the room of my dreams, but not without casualties. And in hindsight, who the fuck cares? I revisited my dad’s haunting words, it appeared things had changed, and it was only then becoming clear. People move on, priorities change. Circles tighten, and you have to take stock of what matters most to you amidst the contrived superficiality (we have Strachan for that). Authenticity can’t be forced; to be genuine is to fully accept yourself for who you are and be okay with others not showing up as the same. I had to make peace with the evolution, as it was just as much a reflection of me as it was of them. Thirdyear began as second-year had ended, staying on brand in my pursuit of younger men. I was thriving, basking in the attention, loving my life, until suddenly I wasn’t. I wasn’t scared to walk into Strachan anymore, I was in fact energized, propelled by turning heads and muttering voices. Then in a matter of two months, a number of situations blindsided me and I was thrust into a depressive state from which I am only now emerging, only to be met with a whole new onslaught of problems: the real world. Tinder. Trust issues. The brutal ending of friendships. The slow fade of others. A static reality. Fourth-year came, and my third year in Whit, this year in 2nd. It took me three years to feel like I was finally being myself at Trin. That finally came

without the external and impressionable influence of those around me. As a fledgling first-year, it’s almost impossible to avoid. As much I missed the pandemonium, my lifestyle hadn’t been sustainable. My fourth-year at Trinity has taught me the importance of self-sufficiency, of not relying on anyone but yourself, because a lot of us are living in a dream world without realizing the very real realities of post-grad and our relationships to the self. No one is going to have the comfort of their large groups, dining halls, and classes laid out for them. Wherever life, work, or school is taking you, you are most likely embarking on that journey alone. It is critical not to get so caught up that you lose sight of yourself, your ambitions, and your future. It is also imperative to apply time and patience to situations that seem so magnified at Trinity from friendships to careers to relationships. When we are all living together burdened by proximity and gossip, it can seem impossible to lead a stable life outside these four walls. You constantly need to be mindful about maintaining perspective. These past four years, through friendships and heartbreak, seasonal depression and moments of rapture, my absolute highs and lows, were both everything I expected and also didn’t. As I write this 12th and final article and four years draws to a close, I implore you to explore your own journey without judgment. To cherish the moments and the friendships while you still can. I am not in the place I thought I’d be, but this experience has undoubtedly made me who I am today. My messy, imperfect life and the opportunities I’ve had because of it were made possible because of what Trinity has allowed me and the people I’ve met. Trinity may have changed drastically during my time here, but so have I. Expect nothing, but feel everything. Let it happen, and judge yourself a whole lot less for it.

“ M y f o u r t h - y e a r a t T r i n i t y h a s ta u g h t m e t h e i m p o r ta n c e o f s e l f - s u f f i c i e n c y, o f n o t r e ly i n g o n a n y o n e b u t y o u r s e l f, b e c a u s e a lot of us are living in a dream world without r ea l i z i n g t h e v e ry r ea l r ea l i t i e s o f p o s t g r a d a n d o u r r e l at i o n s h i ps t o t h e s e l f. ”