“The thing that I do at UBC that, to this day, still terrifies me is to be really open and vulnerable about living with disability.”
Search the Archive
Out on the Shelves was established on Davie Street in April 1983, at the heart of Vancouver’s burgeoning 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and is the city’s oldest queer library.
On a campus of over 54,000 students, UBC’s student-parents make up a relatively small group of people. But despite their small number, the experience of every parent is unique.
Bonus points for blasting Frank Sinatra throughout this entire process to give it an authentic GoodFellas vibe.
Most sick kids are afraid of dying and leaving weeping mothers and fathers behind. I sure was, or am.
There’s a lot that goes into that rice. A lot of love, a lot of effort and a lot of family.
I thought you were constant because you were my best friend.
For some reason, in all my favourite movies, all the moms are dead.
I used to dread family gatherings.
I’ve always (loudly) insisted that every single person in my family looks exactly like me. That we’re practically twins. This is a bit of an exaggeration.
Family: “A taxonomic rank in the classification of organisms between genus and order.”
We all have dreams, what were yours?
“It’s just such an emotional burden that it’s placed on you as someone with an invisible disability because you can’t outwardly show how you’re suffering.”
The hardest part was probably the nerves and loneliness that inevitably comes with long-term, solo travel.
”Every student advising body on campus, every faculty, every department has their own list of these mental resources that they pass out to students who come asking for this kind of stuff ... So far the solution has just been to create a list, or a PDF, or a website with bullet points.”