Senior Writer at Eye Weekly. I write a column called “My Life, My Fault” about… my life.
School attended: Victoria College, University of Toronto
Major/Minor: Political Science, minors in English and Religion. I have a B.A. (Hons) and nothing else.
If we walked into your dorm room, what would be hanging on the walls and decorating your window sills?
I don’t remember hanging anything on the walls, really? Maybe like “New York Night Sky” or something. Window sill, probably untouched textbooks and an aloe plant and maybe, like, a pipe? I was a stoner then.
Roommates are not easy, what are rules to live by?
Good communication. Sounds boring or impossible, but shitty communication, especially about individual expectations (like, how many nights in a row can the boyfriend sleep over? What does “clean bathroom” mean to you? What level of noise is reasonable?), is the one and only thing. Don’t be the dick roommate. Don’t be the one who is mad at the dick roommate. Talk before, talk during.
What bar did you most frequent as a student?
Sneaky Dee’s, the Horseshoe, Cinecycle, the Victory, the Bedford Academy.
Has your drink of choice changed since then?
Yes. I used to drink whatever beer sounded cool, or failing that, 50, since I come from a Labatt town (London, Ontario). Now I drink marginally better beer or whiskey or more often club soda with lemon.
What did you love most about your time at school?
The freedom to read all day and be totally obsessed with myself and my ideas and my friends and not having to get dressed if you don’t want and sleeping in and usually not having to report to anyone other than me, really. There are absolutely zero similarities between all of that and the life of a writer, let me tell you. That’s a joke. Anyway, school is amazing. I would do-over university in a second.
What’s the biggest personal discovery you made?
That I was smarter than I thought I was, and not at all disciplined or organized enough to handle it. Getting 90s in high school and 60s in first year of university stung in a way that still hasn’t healed.
What’s your best advice for first year students?
I wish I’d known about the cool stuff: the Semiotics department, Innis film nights, years abroad, the scholarships, grants, the good libraries, whatever. I was very disengaged and scared and mostly concerned about downloading New Wave music in my dorm room and waking up in time for breakfast at Burwash. DO NOT DO THAT. Especially if you’re the one paying for it. Read everything they give you, all the emails and course readers and syllabuses and newsletters and all the bullshit even if it seems like something you’re not into. Try things. It’s four years of trying, that’s the idea.