Who else wants to escape reality and travel? 

By: William Luna

Having travelled my entire life, I always thought I hated it. Most of my past experiences involved a hand around my wrist forcibly pulling me along, so the prospect of leaving everything behind in a careless search for adventure elsewhere was hardly appealing to me. Which is why, when I was offered the opportunity to travel to Vancouver for the COCA conference, I was absolutely flabbergasted with myself when I accepted.

I deluded myself with the idea that the event would be cancelled. When that didn’t happen, I grew paranoid and thought that our plane would crash or explode in the air. When that didn’t happen either, I figured that the place we’d be sleeping at would be a hole in the ground and the conference space would require us to take a bus to and from it every day. In contrast, the hotel was extremely nice and the conference took place inside it. I had no reason not to enjoy myself, so I made the best of the situation.

The conference was informative enough to fill a notebook with fresh ideas, and my wallet became so stuffed with business cards from across the country that taking it out became a challenge. The most enjoyment I got from this experience was from the city of Vancouver itself. To say that I was blown away by it would be an understatement; from the small restaurants peppering the center of the city to the beautiful mountains looming above the docks and the fiery nightclubs that made the ground shake with noise at night, it was the most picturesque and beautiful city I had ever visited. It was how I imagined Manhattan to be, but with more colour.

It very much helped that I was accompanied by a team of wonderful people. Ahmed was my roommate for the entire week—he took half a decade in the shower but sang wonderfully while doing so. Erin, my fellow Clubs Coordinator, was great and the entire group would have gotten lost many times over if not for her careful organization. Mauricio and Alfred bickered in a most entertaining manner; Ritz was so enthusiastic about experiencing everything in Vancouver that she often dragged us with her to try new things as a group; and Shavayah proved to be a wonderful conversationalist when I was not competing with her at UNO. They were all vital to my enjoyment of the experience, and without them I don’t believe that my experience would be anywhere near as positive as it was.

I expected myself to feel sad about leaving Vancouver and returning to the ordinary humdrum of life at HMC. But that didn’t happen; instead, my love for home grew even more powerful than before. As I hugged the entirety of my newfound family goodbye at the airport and headed for the car that would take me home, I couldn't help but feel a profound excitement for what was awaiting me in my old routine. I realized that I loved travelling, being social, and even loved trying new things—why did I ever think that travelling wasn’t for me?

It’s an odd point in my relationship with travelling. It wasn’t the act of exploring new places and meeting new people that I disliked, but rather the sense of abandoning home in the search of something else. But from this experience, I learned that you could travel without leaving your life behind. As I type this, I’m sitting in a semi-comfortable chair in the SSU office, thinking about how I’ll have more opportunities to hang out with my colleagues outside of work. Rather than abandoning home, travelling strengthened my love for it. And I think that’s pretty neat.

We believe that the best #SheridanLife is one where students have access to opportunities, experiences and tools that help them grow and serve their fellow students.

That’s why the Sheridan Student Union is committed to offering our student leaders career development opportunities and experiences that help them grow and serve the needs of our students. To read more about how your student leaders are working together to advocate for the best #SheridanLife, visit thessu.ca/sheridanlife