Tattoos are something people seem to love or hate. Some see them as a beautiful way to express themselves and provide a unique canvas for art to be displayed. Others do not see the appeal of them at all. Whatever side you’re on, the work and talent involved in tattooing should be greatly appreciated.
Lockdown tattoo love
Consider getting a black hole tattoo to temporarily escape the black hole of the pandemic. (Photo
by Geoffrey Howard)
The art of tattooing was taken away from artists for a while when COVID-19 first came around. In Nova Scotia, lockdowns measures meant tattoo parlours were closed for months on end early last year.
Zoe Melanson, a first-year nursing student at St. Francis Xavier University, has gotten tattoos before and during the pandemic.
“They do not hurt, in my opinion, and I think that tattoos are ways of showing important or fun things for yourself or others,” Melanson says.
Courtney Phinney, a first-year medical sciences major at Dalhousie University, echoes this sentiment. She decided to get a tattoo when the pandemic began and sees them as a great idea for someone to do if they are interested.
“The pain during the tattoo process is worth it because you get to look at a picture on your body every day,” Phinney says. “It hopefully means a lot to you and this will make your soul happy.”
If not now, then when?
A recent BuzzFeedarticle illustrates the importance of getting a tattoo in these pandemic days:
“Tattoos are a reminder, when nearly everything else is out of your control, that your body is your own to do with what you will,” says writer Shannon Keating.
In a time where we do not know what is happening one day to the next, it seems important to ground ourselves and do things we have complete control over. From picking the design to the artist, getting a tattoo can be a method of choice in what seems to be an unstable and powerless world.
“COVID-19 era tattoos may be linked to some sort of resilience and drive for existing during a pandemic.”
A Refinery29 article from August 2020 covers the recent spike in tattoo appointments. In the article, psychologist Vinita Mehta expresses she is not surprised by the spike: “I think we would expect some kind of spike in tattooing just because so many people are going through something stressful right now.” Additionally, Mehta says, “From a therapeutic, psychotherapy perspective, you can see tattooing as a form of processing an event of personal significance.”
Considering the times, getting tattoos may function as a sort of release, distraction, self-expression or form of processing. COVID-19 era tattoos may be linked to some sort of resilience and drive for existing during a pandemic.
Tattoos are an avenue for a world of fun. The amount of emotion and creativity in the process of making and getting a tattoo is amazing. The feelings of accomplishment and pure happiness after it is over make it all worth it.
Choosing a major is an important and challenging aspect of university life. It isn’t easy to choose a field that will determine not only what you’ll study during your university years, but also what your future job might be.
“Students might find the job connected to their major to be completely different from what they thought it’d be.”
Students might find the job connected to their major to be completely different from what they thought it’d be based on what they learned in university. Additionally, students may find it difficult to find a job in the field they have studied in today’s competitive job market. In the same survey by BestColleges, 26 per cent of all respondents said they’d go back to college to pursue a subject they were more passionate about.
Degree versus job
A 2020 survey by BestColleges found about 30 per cent of American millennial college graduates would go back to university and change their major for better jobs. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)
Students shouldn’t have to pay high tuition fees and spend years doing a certain major, just to end up working in a completely different field than what they studied for. Similarly, students entering college shouldn’t have to choose a program with higher tuition just for the promise of finding a job after graduation.
A 2020 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found 41 per cent of recent American college graduates work in jobs that don’t even require a degree. Those college students spent years studying and incurred debt from student loans, but did not end up benefiting from having a degree. The study also mentions the unemployment rate for college grads aged 22 to 27 is slightly higher than the overall unemployment rate for all workers in America aged 16 to 65.
BestColleges argues it is important for colleges to do a better job at making universities teach students the reality of the job market in their respective fields. While the benefits of earning a degree can range from personal development to professional networking, the time students spend in university should be used primarily for building skills needed for the real world. If students know right off the bat what jobs matching their degree are like and exactly what is expected in those jobs, then they will be better able to choose their majors. By clarifying these things from the first year, students who decide to switch majors will save on both student loans and their own personal time.
Fan backlash: Influencers Dixie and Charli D’Amelio faced heat in December 2020 for taking a
trip to the Bahamas in the midst of the pandemic. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media influencers who continue to travel the globe have received great criticism — not only for breaking pandemic guidelines but for putting the lives of others at risk.
In his article, Kolinjivadi also explains being vaccinated does not mean the virus will not be spread anymore. A vaccinated individual can carry the virus and transmit it to individuals who have not been vaccinated. So, even if influencers and travel bloggers are vaccinated before travelling to prevent getting sick, they are still putting others at risk. The people encountering influencers can get sick and then transmit the virus to their communities.
Governments sometimes pay influencers and bloggers to travel to their countries to encourage tourism. However, during the pandemic there are millions of people struggling after losing their jobs. There should be more funds to help people who lost their jobs instead of promoting travel despite all the health risks. It’s just not fair for influencers and bloggers to get paid to travel on vacation during the pandemic, disrupting efforts made by essential workers to curb the virus and distribute vaccines safely. The rest of the world should not be put in danger while influencers risk public health.
Editor’s note: Since the circuit-breaker restrictions were lifted three weeks early, some Tigers teams have made plans to resume play.
With university teams throughout Nova Scotia not playing any games all season, there was finally relief in early February 2021: university teams got a taste of exhibition games.
In early February, the Dalhousie University Tigers, the Saint Mary’s University (SMU) Huskies and the Acadia University Axemen and Axewomen organized an exhibition schedule slated to last roughly five weeks. But on Feb. 26, Nova Scotia Public Health declared a circuit-breaker to counter recent COVID-19 case spikes in the Halifax area. As part of the measures, games were cancelled for four weeks and effectively killed the schedule.
Emily Holt, a third-year guard with the Dalhousie Tigers women’s basketball team, said she was excited to be playing games again, even for just a brief time.
“It was nice to play with all of our teammates, in one game on one team, because we had been practicing constantly against each other in scrimmages and drills. It was nice to have something all together again,” Holt said.
The feeling of relief touched many players such as forward Brett Crossley of Dal’s men’s hockey team.
“It’s a bit of a relief, honestly. Because as competitive people, and hockey in itself is a competitive sport, all you want to do is have a chance to compete. I think everyone was pretty excited,” said Crossley.
The opportunity to play
Players have been hit with the mental toll of having only practices without any games to prepare for.
Dal’s men’s hockey team stands for the national anthem before a February 2021 game against Acadia. Shortly afterward Nova Scotia suspended all play. (Photo by AUS TV)
“Eventually we developed a routine, but you can use competition as a bit of a measuring stick to justify all the work that you’ve put in. It’s nice to be able to see the results of all the work that you’ve done. Not having that was a bit of a struggle mentally,” Crossley said. “To have [games] back was big for us. It gave us a reason to push a little harder, even when we felt like the tank was empty. And that’s essentially from the mental side of things, that’s the boost that it gave us. It just gave us something to look forward to.”
Some players on the teams, including Talia Vydykhan on the women’s volleyball team, played their first games as Tigers in the two-week span. Intense practices, including plenty of intra-squad scrimmaging, helped her adjust to the university level well before playing her first match against another team.
“We trained and prepared this year as if we were expecting to play matches,” Vydykhan said, who learned about the exhibition schedule about a week before the team’s first game, much to her excitement. “Since we prepared so much, it felt very natural and good being out there. Not that it was easy, but I felt relaxed because of the preparation. It was almost like a practice.”
Expectations were low before the hockey team hit the ice. Dal had gone more than a year between games and was coming off an underwhelming record of eight wins and 22 losses in the 2019-2020 season. Crossley said the team rose to the occasion.
“I’d say we performed above expectations,” he said. “You can only expect so much when you go a full year without any games. But for that being our first outing in [that long], the team bought into our systems and worked at it. I think there was a little added motivation in there as well.”
Last-minute cancellations
When tighter COVID-19 restrictions hit, games came to a grinding halt. The games were providing teams with a much-needed boost in morale. Holt said the change in restrictions was demoralizing.
“The games have been going so well, but we have a few injuries right now. So it’ll be good to have some rest and we’re still going to keep training,” Holt said. “Ultimately, we knew this year would be different from normal years and we’re looking forward to next season. We’re going to try and keep our mental focus on next season and working towards something more concrete than this COVID season.”
After experiencing game action, Crossley said it was hard to take in the news of the restrictions. Dal was set to take on their cross-town rivals at SMU the day Nova Scotia announced circuit-breaker measures, adding salt to the wound.
“That was a tough pill to swallow, being that we were an hour or two away from the game. That one hurt a little extra. You’re so close to getting back to what you wanted to do,” said Crossley. “But obviously, there are more important things than playing the game. You got to take that into account and appreciate the fact that health and safety come first.”
Vydykhan said the shutdown took her by surprise. But no matter how short the season, with few other goals to pursue, the game represented a goal the team had been working toward all season.
“We had literally just gotten the green light to finally play, which we had worked so hard on,” she said. Like the hockey team, the volleyball team had a game scheduled the day restrictions were announced. “Having one game [against Acadia on Feb. 21] is better than none. I was excited to actually experience something close to a real game. It was hard to find motivation at practice and in the weight room this year when you know there was no outcome like in a game or something to work toward. We definitely were upset about the cancellations, but were very happy we got that one game.”
Shelby Hallam frequents rock-climbing gyms in Halifax on a nearly daily basis. (Photo
provided by Shelby Hallam)
Sometimes finding your passion takes years. Sometimes it shows up spontaneously, or requires a leap of faith. For Shelby Hallam, a walk one summer day answered that question for her.
While waterfall chasing around Nova Scotia with her boyfriend last summer, Hallam encountered a towering rocky wall along their path. Eager to get a view of that waterfall, her boyfriend climbed the rocks and encouraged Hallam to do the same. What she found at the top of her climb was more than a waterfall.
“When I got back to the city, I was like, ‘Where can I climb every single day?” she said. “The feeling was amazing and climbing’s amazing. I got hooked right away.”
Soon after, Hallam began frequenting rock climbing gyms in Halifax on a near-daily basis. She invested in her own climbing equipment like harnesses and took up different types of climbing like top-roping. The best part though? Joining the Halifax climbing community.
“The staff at [the gyms] were so friendly and welcoming. I knew through [those interactions] that I was meant to be in this community,” Hallam said. “They and other climbers are the most inviting people. And just like me, they’re stoked on climbing rocks.”
Solid support
Jackie Turner is a co-owner of East Peak Indoor Climbing in Halifax. East Peak opened in late February 2020 for 16 days before the initial COVID-19 shutdown closed the business for three months. In a time where small businesses like East Peak ended up going under, she gave local climbers credit for helping to keep the climbing gym open.
“People have pulled through in huge ways,” said Turner, who was organizing activities for East Peak’s first birthday when interviewed by the Dalhousie Gazette. “They kept memberships running during closures and asked what they could do to help. In your first year of business, to already have customers that dedicated and loyal was amazing.”
Paul Denzler worked in climbing in Montreal and Ottawa before coming to Halifax in 2014. The general manager at Seven Bays Bouldering said there’s something he finds special about this community with the smaller population.
“It’s cool to be part of this small club of climbers in Halifax as compared to Montreal or something like that. The interest in climbing places like outdoors here is cool, since we have access to so much more other than just the gym,” he said.
The local rock-climbing hype over the past decade led Seven Bays Bouldering to open in
2014. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)
The climbing community, Turner said, was a big reason for why she decided to open the type of business in the location that she did. Before, she had worked at climbing gyms in Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, which contributed to the love for the sport she shares with climbers today.
“Nova Scotia has this dedicated and long-standing climbing community. There’s established outdoor climbing here too. So when our business joined the community, they were ready to welcome us with open arms,” Turner said. “Being in Halifax, good news travels fast around here. We’ve been really lucky that people have been coming in and having a good time, then telling others about it. Most of our customers have come from other people’s referrals.”
As Turner and Denzler mentioned, Nova Scotia’s outdoor climbing scene is just as popular as indoor climbing within a gym. When rising COVID-19 cases closed gyms for another month in late November 2020, climbers like Hallam got their climbing fixes on some real cliffs.
“The shutdown didn’t stop me,” she said, laughing. “I found some cool rocks outside and I never climbed outdoors before so I didn’t try anything too crazy. But once you start climbing, you can’t stop.”
Exponential growth
Both rock climbers and businesses have raved about Halifax’s rock climbing community. Heather Reynolds is the Dalplex rock court’s climbing coordinator, working in climbing with organizations like Climb Nova Scotia since the 1990s. She said while the local climbing community has always thrived with good places to climb outdoors, popularity has jumped within the last five years.
“Today, there are more climbing venues available around here, as it becomes more and more popular of a sport,” Reynolds said. “In the United States, the sport grew exponentially a few years before here. In the U.S., there are varsity climbing teams, but we’re not there yet. The sport itself has just been growing and it hit here in a big way.”
Despite struggles small climbing gyms faced in the pandemic, she suggested, the shutdowns highlighted the importance of physical activity.
“The break has taught us that perhaps there’s a benefit of taking time to be active,” Reynolds said. “When things first shut down, more people were out hiking and taking advantage of parks and public spaces. The pandemic has taught us about the value of recreation and sport, not just for the physical benefits, but for the connections and fun with people.”
Denzler said the sport itself is good at keeping climbers engaged through the pandemic as an interesting activity that’s easy to try out.
“The interest in doing something new and challenging, plus safe in the pandemic, attracts a lot of people to come and check climbing out,” he said. “By the nature of the sport, people get hooked quite easily too, so as long as we provide safe facilities to climb in, climbers will come.”
“The best part about climbing is that anyone can climb,” Turner said, highlighting East Peak’s and the sport’s popularity with customers of all ages. “We have customers all the way from two to 70 years old. We see lots of students too, many come to meet new people or try a new activity.”
For Hallam, meeting new people has become a community of supporters that have had her back. When her climbing gear was stolen just over a month ago, she posted on Facebook asking for friends to look out for her missing equipment bag.
Several people messaged her in response, offering gear she could borrow in the meantime. Among them was East Peak, who offered to cover equipment rentals until Hallam found her gear. As it turns out, the bag was in a ditch near her home. She suggested the thief wasn’t pleased that it was full of only climbing gear.
“They make me feel welcome. It’s not a group sport, but it kind of is,” she said. “You have all these people cheering you on. I wasn’t really into sports until I found climbing. The whole community is like a family.”
Karlee Burgess and Lauren Lenentine prepare to sweep a stone thrown by teammate Emily Zacharias. Team Zacharias picked up three wins in its first Scotties competition. (Photo submitted by Karlee Burgess)
New among the competitors at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts this year were Dalhousie University student Karlee Burgess and Lauren Lenentine, a former Dal student now studying at the University of Manitoba.
After a lengthy hiatus from competition due to COVID-19, curling was back in February 2021 with the Scotties, the national women’s curling championships. The Scotties took place from Feb. 19 to 28 in a Calgary-based bubble.
Together with Scotties teammates Emily and Mackenzie Zacharias, Burgess and Lenentine won the World Junior Women’s Curling Championships in Russia last year. Burgess has represented Canada four times at the World Juniors and won three times. Lenentine, won twice in three tournaments, and together with Burgess won in 2018 and 2020. Between titles in 2019, they helped Dal win an Atlantic University Sport (AUS) championship.
This year’s Scotties was the team’s first major senior tournament together, representing Manitoba as one of the three wild card outfits. As one of the youngest teams in the field, Team Zacharias (with Mackenzie as the team’s skip) went in as underdogs.
“I know we kind of look like the underdogs because we are a lot younger. We are one of the youngest teams on the field, but I think we do belong here, and we got here based on our CTRS [Canadian Team Ranking System] ranking,” said Burgess on their underdog label, speaking to the Dalhousie Gazette during the tournament.Team Zacharias ranks 11th in Canada.
Bouncing back from the break
A more pressing concern for the team going into the tournament was the lack of preparation and competition over the last few months. After playing in more than 100 matches last season, the Scotties was their first major tournament this year.
“As a team, we haven’t played together since October, and Mackenzie and Emily hadn’t thrown [much] since October,” said Lenentine of the months leading up to the tournament.
Their task was not made easier on the opening night of the Scotties. Team Zacharias was drawn with reigning champions and eventual winners Team Canada, also from Manitoba. Team Zacharias would fall to Canada 7-3 on national television. Although a disappointing result, it was a respectable one and an undeniably extraordinary experience for the young team.
“They’re such a good team. It was so cool, to say our first game at the Scotties was against Team Canada. And, it was on TSN. You couldn’t have written it any better,” Lenentine said of the game.
Team Zacharias would go on to lose their next game to Alberta 7-5. Next, they put up a statement win against Yukon with a decisive 15-3 score.
This performance was followed by back-to-back close losses, falling to the Northwest Territories 6-5 and fellow wild card Team Peterson 5-4.
“The lack of playing kind of took a toll on us,” said Burgess of the team’s rough start to the tournament, the win against Yukon notwithstanding.
Only the beginning for Team Zacharias
Team Zacharias shook off some of their bad luck moving into the home stretch of pool play, winning two of its last three games. The team’s second win of the tournament came against Team Brothers of Nova Scotia. Trailing 4-2 after five ends, Team Zacharias was able to outscore Nova Scotia, Burgess and Lenentine’s former association, 4-1 in the second half of the match to secure the 6-5 win.
After falling 8-6 to eventual runner-up Ontario, Team Zacharias downed Northern Ontario 9-4. A tight game for the first eight ends, Team Zacharias was hanging onto a 5-4 lead. But four points in the ninth end to put the game away, bringing both teams’ Scotties to a close.
This win brought Team Zacharias’s record in its first Scotties to three wins and five losses, good enough for sixth place in group A. However, the team did not crack the top four that move onto the tournament’s championship round. Burgess said even with the premature exit from the Scotties, the team cranked out winning efforts all week.
“It’s been a battle of a week. There were so many close games that could have gone the other way. One shot here or there we may have liked to take back, but overall it’s been a good week,” Burgess said. “We came in here with high expectations and we are a little bit upset with the results, but I’m super excited to be here. It’s an amazing opportunity and the experience we take from this year will help us down the road.”
Expectations aside, this year’s Scotties has been an excellent opportunity to return to curling that everyone in the bubble was thankful for.
“It’s been a lot of fun being able to curl because this year has been very different with COVID and the lack of playing,” said Burgess. “This week at the Scotties, it’s been fun.”
For most Canadian university students, the job search begins in the early months of the new year. With applications and interviews completed, many students have employment by March.
Thousands of them graduate each year with hopes of starting careers in the sports industry. For sports management students across Canada, 2020’s post-graduate job hunt was no different than it had been in previous years. That is until the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of Canada to go into lockdown.
Many industries were affected and likewise, the sports industry was put on pause. Thousands of students scrambled for jobs after learning many of their positions had been abolished.
In a normal year, the sports industry job market is hypercompetitive. Now, with the additional strains to the job market provided by the pandemic, Canadian sport management students looking for entry-level positions are almost guaranteed disappointment.
Rebounding to help fellow students
In Antigonish, N.S., students at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) are still wrestling with the burdens of the limited and crippled job market in the sport industry. Students felt there was a growing need for a way to expand and develop their skills, and to help them stand out amongst the competition when vying for employment positions. This fear of the post-pandemic job market led to the founding of the StFX Sport Management and Marketing Society (SMMS).
Duncan Lovell, co-founder of the SMMS, was looking forward to working in the marketing department of a sport industry company when COVID-19 hit. His employment position was cancelled and he felt dejected.
“You get all your hopes up. I was going to have a great job and was going to work with some great people and knowing that that was so close and that has now been cut off, it hurt,” he said.
The situation, while challenging to overcome, led Lovell to help establish the SMMS to sharpen the skills of students and help separate themselves from other applicants.
“This project has been a great way to get myself into the industry and to find jobs in that industry as well,” Lovell said.
Since its inception, the SMMS has organized a series of online events, engaging both members and students at StFX.
“We have learned through COVID how to present a sport to people from [a] distance,” Lovell said. “You really gain the attention of people even though they cannot be there in person. It can only go up from here.”
Students band together
Similar feelings are shared with students across Canada. Namely, graduates of Ontario universities struggled with strains on the sports industry. This tension has led to the emerging appreciation of sports business associations and similar organizations, and the events they have been able to arrange for students at their universities.
Sports business associations (or SBAs) are university clubs run by students. SBAs provide students with the chance to network with sport industry professionals and gain experience through planning and marketing intercollegiate events.
Established in 2016, Brock University’s Sport & Business Association has been especially active in organizing events such as virtual networking forums, educational workshops, and other virtual events designed to prepare members and attendees for careers in the sport industry.
Jadon Bernatsky and Kaz Alguire, the president and vice-president of the Brock SBA, used the circumstances of the pandemic to focus on becoming more well-rounded.
“My online and digital skills have strengthened. I took a LinkedIn class on Photoshop to develop my graphic design abilities,” Alguire said. It’s one of the positive outcomes he’s experienced in spending more time online.
Recognizing the current issues facing students in SBAs across the country, the Brock SBA and representatives from McMaster University’s Sports Business Association founded the University Sport Business Alliance (USBA). Now, students in 13 SBAs across Canada can connect and collaborate easier.
Late last year, students at Brock and Ryerson University had the chance to connect through a collaborative club event that helped raise money for charity.
“This event was exactly the reason why the USBA was created in the first place,” said Bernatsky.
The USBA’s upcoming plans include engaging with more students and motivating them to develop SBAs in western Canadian universities where none exist right now. All of this will provide students with experiences that will better enable them to enter the sports industry when things return to normal.
The future of the sports industry after the pandemic is widely unknown, but at least one thing is clear: thriving communities like SBAs are on the rise tools for students to build their skill sets after university.
Provincial COVID-19 restrictions make traditional dating difficult these days. To help Dalhousie University students keep the romance alive, here is a list of safe ways to have fun with your partner.
For couples who enjoy spending time together outside, the Emera Oval is now booking ice skating times. (Photo by @ryan.keeping on Instagram)
Hold hands and hit the ice
For those who love getting outside, the Emera Oval on Cogswell Street in Halifax offers socially distanced ice-skating sessions. You are welcome to hold hands on the ice, but only in groups of two.
Due to the pandemic, the Oval has implemented safety procedures. This includes the continuous use of non-medical masks by all participants on the ice.
To skate at the Oval, you must book a time-slot online through the Halifax Online Recreation Services website. Skate times can be booked up to 48 hours in advance. This is meant to limit the number of people on the ice, making it a safer experience for everyone.
If you don’t own your own skates, don’t worry! You can rent skates and helmets for free with government-issued photo ID, but supplies are limited.
Once the ice melts, visitors at the Oval can enjoy outdoor activities such as biking, in-line skating and roller-skating.
Get artsy
If pottery painting interests you, there’s two different studios in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Clay Café Dartmouth is on Portland Street in Dartmouth, N.S., and Clay Café pottery studio is on Quinpool Road in Halifax.
The experience allows singles, couples and groups to select pottery pieces to paint. After painting, the piece is left at the studio to be glazed and baked in a kiln. When ready, the shop calls, and you can pick up your pottery.
The cost of paint and studio time is included in the price of the clay piece. Larger pieces cost more than smaller ones, making this an affordable date night option.
While both studios are still offering in-studio sessions, the Dartmouth location allows you to purchase your pottery piece and rent paint supplies to enjoy this activity at home. If you’re part of an artsy couple looking to get creative, this is a safe alternative to group painting events.
Cook up some romance
The dinner date is a classic, but COVID-19 restrictions might make students feel uneasy about hitting the town for a meal. If you’re sick of takeout, but still want to treat your partner to a culinary date, try a meal kit.
Meal kits come in different sizes and brand names, including Hello Fresh, Chef’s Plate and Goodfood. These companies offer a selection of meal options, and send ingredients and cooking instructions to your home.
Rather than face the buzzing nightlife of Spring Garden Road next weekend, simply unbox a meal kit and enjoy the shared experience of whipping up something tasty.
At-home spa day
The spa is a luxurious way to unwind with a romantic partner, but wearing a mask on the massage table might take away from the ambience. A fun alternative is gathering luxury items from local shops and having a spa day at home.
Wrap up in comfy robes and swap safety masks for moisturizing Korean beauty (a.k.a. K-beauty) masks from Moon Moon Cosmetics on Lower Water Street.
For bath products, Lodestone Soap Co. on Agricola Street in Halifax sells vegan and organic soaps from Nova Scotia.
Not everybody has a somebody. Don’t forget to take time out for self-love. All of the above ideas can be great opportunities to treat yourself to some fun, good food, creativity and pampering.
When I walk outside, the earth and sky thrum good morning. I know even without you, I am never alone in a world so rife with life.
I take a deep breath of the clean air. And for the first time feel like I can look back without wanting to go back, and think about all I’ve learned since leaving you for the last time.
For a long time, I had been lost in trying to reconcile myself with the world I suddenly found myself in. How can something that has all-encompassing first love, radiant sunflowers, acoustic guitar and 10-foot Pacific Ocean waves have you suddenly, one day, stiff with silence?
Art by Pablo Stanley on Blush
We were driving down this road and I remember the trees were covered in orange even though it was July. The river water was still wet on my skin, and I tried to tell you then how I wanted you. I tried to tell you that every day I woke up fighting to keep wanting you. I glanced over to the driver’s seat, mouth open to speak, only to find it was like looking through lake water, down to the murky bottom. You couldn’t hear or see me through the dirt.
Now I’m both detached and destructively yoked to a world I can’t make sense of, a world where your presence is no longer guaranteed in my life. I think everyone in love feels as though it will last forever. My most grounded moments were with you, moments that still feel unreal in my memory.
Life with you was a liquid dreamscape: sipping honey wine in the dead heat of August, walking through the grocery store throwing snacks in my basket, touching my hair and arms and nose, running through waterfalls and city streets. I have to constantly remind myself — moments of joy are not all I am destined for, even when my entire life has seemingly been defined by these subtle moments.
Dalhousie poets is a rotating column in the Gazette’s Art & Lifestyle section featuring poetry by students on various subjects. Interested in submitting your verse? Email arts@dalgazette.com.
Students from countries with oppressive governments or unstable situations have been faced with additional stress, anxiety, and worry about family and friends back home. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)
There’s no doubt everyone wanted to leave the chaos, unpleasantries and bad news behind in 2020. However, it does not seem like 2021 got the memo.
Even with vaccinations rolling out throughout the world, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect students’ lives. International students may have the extra burden of sitting through classes, completing projects and writing exams under less-than-ideal political situations in their home countries.
The Philippines
The Philippines has faced a human rights crisis since last July when their president, Rodrigo Duterte, signed the Anti-terrorism Act of 2020. While the act outlines that protests and dissent are not terrorist activities unless they cause harm or death to people, opponents worry the act violates freedom of speech. In June 2020, before the act was officially signed, more than 1,000 Filipino students and activists protested at the University of the Philippines Diliman against the act’s possible infringement on human rights.
Neo Ragsac, a second-year marine biology student at Dalhousie University who’s currently living in Toronto, says he’s worried about his friends and family in the Philippines. They have strong opinions about the act.
“Once in a while when I watch the news relating to protests regarding the [act] and the red-tagging of various institutions, it leaves a thump in the brain.”
Red-tagging is the Filipino government’s practice of targeting, and blacklisting people and organizations not supportive of the current government. There is currently a petition on Change.org with almost a million signatures to throw out the Anti-terrorism Act.
Turkey
Similarly in Turkey, students and activists have been protesting in support of the freedom of the academy and the LGBTQ+ community. In January 2021, the government appointed Melih Bulu as rector of a major university. Bulu, who shut down the university’s LGBTQ+ club, has ties to the ruling party of Turkey. Students have been protesting Bulu’s appointment as rector, which is a position usually elected by the university.
Turkey has an extensive history of political turmoil. In the words of Melis Erkan, a second-year medical sciences student at Dal who’s studying remotely from Turkey, “repetition of history in this country has tired people down.”
The continued oppression has affected millions of people in horrendous ways and left others with trauma.
“Turkey’s been being ruled by this one party ever since my generation was born, and we have been in an economic crisis as long as I can remember,” Erkan explains. The Justice and Development Party of Turkey has held power almost every year since 2003.
With the added pressure and dangers of COVID-19, tensions have been on the rise. The new wave of protests while hopeful, are also extremely draining to keep track of.
Erkan says, “I feel like my whole college experience, especially this year, has been not letting my grades fall, talking to a million different advisors to sort my life out as soon as possible, and leaving [the ability of] not worrying about the future for when I’m economically stable.”
Honduras
The Honduras government has been under fire about its response to the pandemic.
“While it is true that this country is already facing multiple political issues, rooting from systematic corruption and oppression, it cannot be said that the Honduran people did not have the tools ready for a pandemic of this level,” says Dal student Allan Rueda in an email to the Dalhousie Gazette. Rueda is in his first year of engineering and studying from Honduras. “The issue is not in the workers or in the financial side. It is in the root of it all: the government,” he says.
Many citizens are unhappy with the help, or the lack thereof, the government has offered in addition to their failure to upkeep public healthcare facilities.
“It is a common belief that you have a higher chance of getting the COVID-19 virus if you even get near [a public hospital],” Rueda says. Many Hondurans cannot afford private institutions or healthcare. Rueda believes the death toll has been high due to “the incompetence of the public healthcare system and its lack of proper fund distribution.”
“Witnessing all the unfairness, I have felt anger and rage built up,” he says.
Ecuador
Unfortunately, like many other countries, Ecuador has also been suffering from the pandemic while also trying to navigate its way through various political events.
“When the first wave hit, people’s bodies were quite literally piling up unattended in the streets of Guayaquil,” says Adrian Vásconez, a second-year math student at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. He adds while “cases are still soaring in most of the country, sadly, many of us have gotten used to news of death, violence and corruption.”
Violence against the LGBTQ+ community and women has also been an important topic of discussion in Ecuador with many people taking the issue to social media.
“Ecuador’s society is profoundly influenced by Catholicism,” Vásconez says. “Many fundamentalist groups have taken it against feminist and human rights advocacy groups, blaming them for government’s corruption or even the pandemic. As a gay feminist man, it is sometimes quite triggering to wander in political news comments.”
There have been also reports of extreme violence in the prison system. During a February 2021 riot, 79 inmates were killed in four prisons, and many videos of the violent murders were posted online. While the riots were a result of rival gang conflict, some believe the government is also at fault for the lack of proper rehabilitation resources at prisons.
“These events further increase our anxiety over the future,” says Vásconez. “How can we focus on university assignments when it feels like our country is falling apart?”
India
On a slightly more positive note, Trisha Dhar Malik, a second-year University of King’s College journalism student from India, says she is “so proud with what’s happening in Delhi and with all the farmers in [her] home country finally demanding the kind of justice they’ve always deserved.” Farmers in India have been protesting against new agricultural laws they claim will lower farmers’ income and make them vulnerable to corporate exploitation.
Though happy to report how people are taking a stand, Malik adds “it hurts to be so far away [from Dal] in a time like this, and I constantly find myself spiraling about how I’m not doing enough.”
“As students all around the world, our job is now, as ever, to study, no matter how taxing it may seem at a time like this,” Malik says. “To talk about this, make sure this news doesn’t die out or go unheard, donate in ways that we can with time or money or by simply trying to find ways to raise awareness and just keeping talking about this important issue.”
While students might not constantly be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, many have not given up on trying to create change.
