Come for the place, stay for the people

If you ask a new-to-UVic student what their favourite things are about UVic there’s a good chance that one of them will be campus. On a similar note, when I tell people that I go here they usually tell me how beautiful they’ve heard campus is. Of course, when you get to campus and see it in in person it truly is a beautiful place.

During with my first-year writing with MyUVic Life I found another answer tended to pop up when upper-level students were asked the same question: the people. Being new to UVic this seemed like reasonable answer given how many amazing people I’d met in just a few weeks.

In March of my first year, campus life as my peers and I knew it was changed in a way we never could have expected. COVID-19 response pushed classes online and sent many of us home away from campus and the people who were by our sides day after day.

When I returned in the fall to fulfill some student leadership commitments and try to establish a solid start to second year for myself, I was welcomed by an unusually empty campus. Suddenly I was confronted with the reality that the people I had made so many connections with wouldn’t be a part of my day-to-day life like they once were.

My leadership obligations over the past year, thankfully, were connection driven, despite being mostly virtual. I was able to help welcome new students to UVic and meet more fellow student leaders and volunteers than ever before. With all of the uncertainty and isolation over the past year, we developed a bond that has cemented my answer about what my favourite thing about UVic is.

If you asked me today what my favourite thing about UVic I is will tell you it’s the people, and the many ways you get to know them, learn with them, and learn with them. While you might initially come for the place, the people at UVic are what will want to make you stay.

Let me know what your favourite thing about UVic is!

Photo by me. UVic campus, December 2020.