Innis Inspirations

During university, I never felt I was doing “enough” to be “successful”. There were always people better, smarter, or more capable than me. Any successes were attributed to luck or my team as a whole, any failures were faults of my own.

That kind of mindset was also unfortunately common amongst my peers. I find there’s a culture of glorified self-deprecation, where we buy into our own lowered feeling of self-worth. Where we judge ourselves not based on what we did, but what we didn’t achieve that others achieved. Where we feel like we don’t deserve the nice things coming our way, because to us, it doesn’t feel like we did enough to earn them. We look around in awe at other amazing students doing things, but would never look at ourselves in that eye.

That’s why it’s good to surround yourself with friends that acknowledge your strengths, and make you learn to accept compliments. Be honest and kind to one another. You are deserving of kindness. Some days are harder than others to put in the effort, but that’s when the support is even more crucial.

In the end though, the change has to happen within yourself. You have to be your own self-hype man. One of the most important takeaways from university, for me at least, is that you are worth more than you think you are. You are amazing in your own way, and don’t tell yourself otherwise.

To my friends - we are all at that strange transitional period in our lives where anything could be the potential start to a new journey. Many of us are looking forward to the next step, whether it’s taking a job, applying for more school, or starting your own company. Or maybe you have no idea where life will be leading you. I sure didn’t, this time last year I just got rejected for all the grad programs I applied to.

There’ll be stumbles and falls, but just keep going and you’ll find your path eventually. Mine just happens to be a one-way trip to Australia, so please don’t call/text my Canadian number because you will likely reach a stranger. Thanks for being my friend, joining my choirs, coming to my concerts, or not doing any of the above but still being awesome. Keep in touch, I expect to be invited to weddings in the near future, please remember me in three years when I come back as a broke graduate looking for a “real” job. Peace out y’all.

When I was in eighth grade I decided that I wanted to study abroad. My mom and my aunt, who always encouraged me to be whoever I wanted to be, told me to chase my dreams. For the rest of middle school and high school, I worked so hard to achieve this dream. I read all the books and the magazines. I knew everything about the best universities in the world; their programs, requirements, tuition, and scholarships. When I got accepted at UofT, I could not believe it. I remember hugging my mom and seeing how proud she was. It was in that moment that I realized that coming to UofT also meant leaving home.

Leaving home was the hardest part for me. It is the hardest part of being an international student. Like me, there are a lot of international students that leave their homes to achieve their dreams. I remember the first couple of days here were harsh. I cried many times because I missed my family, my friends, my dogs. I felt that my support system was no longer here with me. I felt alone.

Classes were intimidating, especially when English is not your first language. Toronto was also intimidating. It was very different from Cajamarca, the small town in the Andes I grew up in. Toronto had no cows, no mountains, no blue skies. Instead, it has raccoons, very tall buildings and a very cold winter.

As time passed, I started building a new community that helped me feel less alone and made me feel at home. I am grateful for every single friend I have made. Getting involved also helped. I got to meet other student leaders that were passionate about giving back to their communities. As a student leader, my goal at Innis is to make international students feel that they have a support system. I want them to feel like someone understands their experience and has their back.