A Message From Akash! ‘Vic, from the eyes of the globe’
Posted under: Hi everyone! My name is Akash Goel and this year I will be your VUSAC President. For those of you who don’t know what VUSAC is, it is the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council, and is the biggest student run governing body at Vic. Enough about VUSAC, already!
I’m pretty excited about orientation week. It’s going to be my first orientation week at Vic (apart from my own, way back in 2007) – to be honest, I’ve almost completely forgotten what it’s like. Before I go into what I remember about orientation week, I will delve a little into how I got here in the first place! I actually spent the best part of my life growing up in Singapore, after being born (to Indian parents) in Saskatchewan of all places. Yes, Saskatchewan. Sometimes, I don’t even believe it. Anyway – somehow, I ended up in Singapore at the age of 2 and went to an International School for pretty much my entire life. Everyone always asks me, ‘So Akash, how do you speak English so well?’ That question is really subjective, for plenty of reasons. Maybe they just don’t expect me to speak English at all, and so the fact that I even do speak it is surprising? In fact, English is one of the four main languages in Singapore, the other three being Tamil, Bahasa Malayu (Malay), and Mandarin (because ‘Chinese’ isn’t actually a language!). I actually applied all over for my undergraduate studies, simply because I had no idea where I wanted to go, and because in an international school, everyone pretty much applies everywhere. So with options in Canada, England, and the States, I ended up deciding to come to U of T. This pretty much brings me to my first experiences at Vic.
My dad came all the way from Singapore with me to drop me off in Toronto, on what has now become a rather routine 30 hour flight. People normally ask me how that works out, but to be quite honest, it’s just habit now. One of my most distinct memories of orientation week was registering at the Cat’s Eye (Our student pub), and receiving my frosh ID and frosh kit. Everything was actually coming to life. I also remember walking down Charles St, and being swarmed by a bunch of, what appeared to be, crazy people in orange shirts. Turns out, they’re frosh leaders, and perfectly helpful human beings. Oh, and now they wear yellow, because apparently, no one likes orange anymore (orange was my favourite colour growing up as a kid).
And then there was the wacky tacky boat cruise, the guy who ate fire (and made really bad jokes), and meeting real life Canadians, in true flesh and blood! You see, you’d think that going to an International School might have helped me figure out what Canada REALLY is. We used to joke about how Canadians say ‘eh’, and I guess somewhere along the line – I became one of them! And you know what? It all started at frosh week.
I can’t go into all the good times I’ve had in my last 3 years at Vic, because it would simply be too much to write. I can’t even go into how much of a good time orientation week was, because orientation week itself felt like a lifetime. What I can say is this – it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from, because at Vic, none of that matters. As a person who grew up in the streets of Singapore (Yes, it is true that you can’t chew gum there!), with no concept of what Canada was, coming to Vic was one of the easiest transitions I’ve ever had. One thing I’ve learned is that University can be everything you want it to be – there’s no shortage of opportunities, especially at Vic. You’ve chosen to be a part of one of the finest colleges at the University of Toronto, and I hope you won’t be disappointed. So I say, get out there, and make the most of it. Freshman year only happens once.