Xaviere S.
UVic Alumni Student Mental Health Blogger
Hi readers! My name is Xaviere (zAh-vee-air) and I am I recent UVic graduate. I started writing for the Mental Health Blog in my final year and I figured I would continue writing to help students navigate the winding path of university and life after graduation.
I’m currently back in Calgary where I grew up, but I consider Victoria my second home and I’ll take any opportunity to come back to this beautiful little island. I spend my free time running, cycling, swimming, and frolicking in the mountains. A few of my favourite things are 1:2 honey to tea ratios, well-built fences, a fresh roll of film photos, and a good snow fall.
This past year has impressed upon me the utter necessity of maintaining good mental health. It is just as important as our physical health and should be treated with the same regard. Life is complicated and messy—but that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our mental well-being to get through it. I hope this blog can serve as a source of comfort, inspiration, and relief for students and recent graduates.
Hope Matters: Lessons from the bookshelf
My dad is a big reader who likes to support local bookshops. This means he routinely comes home with a small stack of books in his bag; one picked specifically for me, my sister, and my mother. I secretly think bringing home books for his family is his love...
Spiritual Wellness: Getting in touch with our spiritual side
In preparation for UVic’s 7th annual Wellness Week, I was tasked with writing a blog post about spiritual wellness. This year’s Wellness Week theme is “Pathways to Wellness” and examines five areas of individual and community wellbeing: community, emotional,...
The Book Club: Offering shelter from the storm of 2020
One of the joys of no longer being a student is finally having the time and energy to read books for pleasure. Since most of my classes were political science or English, I had a seemingly never-ending list of required readings. Reading a book purely...
Liminality: Becoming comfortable with life transitions
I spend a lot of my time reading the news. I’ve learned to pick and choose the types of articles I read in order to avoid a constant inundation of updates on a certain global pandemic. One of my favourite news sources is The Atlantic because it presents...
Finding the Beauty in the Struggle
Being tasked to write a blog post about mental health when my own mental health is less-than-stellar feels semi-ironic. It seems disingenuous to post about simple tips and tricks for decreasing stress levels during midterm season if I don’t believe in what...
Running Away (From) My Worries
Finding the motivation to lace up my runners and drag myself out of the house to go run in the middle of winter with the Triathlon Club at UVic can be difficult. Especially in January, when the sun sets long before we even begin the warm-up. And yet, I keep...
A Scrambler’s Guide to Mount LSAT
Which one of the following titles best states the main point of the passage?(A) How To Nail the LSAT on the First Try(B) The Top 10 Best Mountains in Canada(C) How the LSAT Causes Premature Aging in Students(D) Miley Was Right—It’s All About the Climb(E) Scrambling in...