My road to Ryerson. That should be an easy thing. A simple street, right? Of course not. A simple street is my street in North Vancouver, where I live now in a rancher with my mom. A simple street is where I’ve been for the last year in my time off from school, and where I planned my adventures, where I came home after working some ridiculous shifts, where I shoot my hoops and run my sprints. But a simple street is not my road to Ryerson.

My road to Ryerson is more of the long windy switchbacks of the Coquihalla Highway, which takes you from Vancouver into the Okanagan, a place in BC where I’m heading to camp this weekend. It’s a highway that’s known to all British Columbians, and it takes a while to go up because you end up going back and forth. I applied to Ryerson last year, after my two years at UBC, and I didn’t get in. So, I took the year off, I worked, I took a few classes here and there, I learned more about what I want to do, and I traveled. But more importantly, I established what I want, and what I want is Ryerson.

There are three important areas of my year off that made it what it was: work, school and play. It seems like the three most simple and common things in everyone’s life, but here is what they meant for me: dedication, improvement and exploration. Through these three things, I was able to discover what I think is most important: passion.

WORK.

For me, this meant carhopping. Yes, that’s a word, and no, I didn’t make it up. That is what I did this year to make my money, at White Spot. White Spot is something unique to me and my west coast nature, and we have a very cool component to our restaurant, where you can eat in your car at the drive in. You pull into our parking lot, take a look at our menus and you put your hazard lights on for service. That’s where the carhop comes in (or out of the restaurant, if we’re getting technical). We’re exactly the same as servers, but you don’t have to get out of your car. When your food is up, we bringing it out on one of our lovely trays, hook it right into your windows and Bon Appetit! This plays into my discovery of passion because I loved the team I worked with, I enjoyed the challenge and the pace of the work, and I met some awesome people through serving them.

SCHOOL.

This year I didn’t attend full time classes, but I did take some part time courses at BCIT, a technical institute not far from me. I loved the two classes I took, and they made me even more aware that I wanted to be pursuing sport media, which works out well considering what I’ll be studying this year! I rediscovered my passion for learning by not being in school, because I was so thirsty for new knowledge and information.

PLAY.

Obviously, this was my favourite part of my year. For me, playing consisted of a month and a half in Australia, commentating on my old basketball team’s home games, going to an NBA game and witnessing the magic that is Stephen Curry in person, and working on my own game. Australia allowed me to learn more about my independence, and to meet new friends from around the world. It forced me outside of my comfort zone, and expanded that zone into a new one. It brought me to all kinds of people, places and experiences, and I loved every second of it – even the seconds that I didn’t love. There were times I was lonely, times I was homesick, but there were no times I wasn’t happy I had taken the trip. That is what this move to Toronto is going to bring me. Working on my game is going to be a story for another day, because it’s an exciting one that I want to dedicate more time to.

This is the beginning of my road to Ryerson, and this is just a bit about who I am. I hope you will come to know more about me, and that along the way you will see the people, places and things in my life that make it what it is.

To check out the rest of my story, click here. 

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