University Memories

When I finished high school, I spent one year at university in Vancouver.

It was an unhappy year for me. Looking back, I don't know if I simply wasn't ready for university... Should I have worked for a year first? I thought I'd like to study journalism, but there was no program for that at UBC...

Perhaps it was the rainy weather that I wasn't used to? Or the grey clouds overhead that I found depressing?

In any event, I ended up only staying there for the one school year.

Now, sorting through papers, I've come across this yearbook from the year I was there.

I've only come across one person in the book whom I knew... a girl named Jody. Here she is wearing the white silk grad dress my mother made me... (Do I still have it?!)

I used to accompany Jody to her aunt's house for supper from time to time. I remembering her aunt serving spaghetti and meatballs, something I rarely ate. I wonder where Jody is now. Her cousins were horse jockeys who rode race horses.

Then there's this picture of someone I don’t remember who autographed his picture. It looks like a scene from a musical... Was he a music major?

Googling his name online, I discover that someone by that name - from Prince George, BC - became a well-known Canadian director in musical theatre... Is that him in his university days?

One unique thing about the university experience is that, living on campus, we meet people from so many different fields, who are so different from ourselves - all pursuing different career goals.

It's a pity I didn't appreciate this more at the time...